Last week of Winter

Distance 52.2km [total: minimalist 285.6km: Barefoot 3482.2km] Week34

Monday, 20-Aug. 11km

Sore calves today. The speed work yesterday on the road and beach must have stretched my calves. Today, even though I was on an easy run day there was no way I could have run fast my calves would have cramped up.
A reasonably warm winter day with a strong northerly breeze. It did get chilly towards the end of the run but I managed to beat the sunset! I soaked my calves in the cold seawater for 5 minutes after the run, that felt cold. Hopefully my next run will be a bit better.

Wednesday, 22-Aug. 11km

Put in another 11km just on the verge of a cold wet changed heading in. During the day, while I was at work the weather was beautiful, a few clouds and 20C, that is when I should have been going for a run. As the time approached 4pm dark clouds were covering the sky, looking at the weather radar a rain bad was moving in, it was around 20km off the shore. I raced home in a bit to beat it. I got changed and headed to the beach as the rain started, as I parked, the wind and rain buffeted the car. I sat there for 10 minutes, relaxing before calling it a day and admitting defeat. Then the rain stopped and the wind dropped. The squall had passed. I went for my run on the wet slightly slippery concrete, there was still warmth in the ground. The calves were feeling much better tonight and I was back to running at my regular speed. I ran along the high tide line for the last couple of kilometres on the way back.

Saturday, 25-Aug. 22km

A cool windy day form my run, it started bright so I put sunscreen on my face but it clouded over about halfway through my run. The first third of the run was into a decent headwind which slowed me down, a few beers I had yesterday also didn't help, I'm not much of a drinker these days and my tolerance is well down. At Semaphore it was off the beach and onto the bitumen path. I chased down a runner in front who must have felt insulted to be passed by a barefoot runner so accelerated to pass me and stay in front. I turned his relaxed run into a race :-)
Now running back I had a tailwind and made up some time that I'd lost in the other direction. I felt much stronger in the last few kilometres of my run today, even when I was, once more running into a chilly headwind. I keep scouring the weather forecasts to see when we can expect some more days in the low 20's, we have only had 1 so far then its back to the low to mid teens. The winter seems to go on forever, its been very long this year.

Sunday, 26-Aug. 8.2km

Ah, a calm day, no blasting wind or rain, some weak sun shining through interlaced clouds. It was a great run today, the legs felt light and bouncy, I could have run faster but it was meant to be a relaxed run. I did a bit of trigger point roller massage before the run and I'm wondering if that helped with the relaxed feeling in the calves the running. I put in a good effort over the last section recording 5m 53.4s, not the fastest I've done that part but not too bad. I did a gym session after the run, lots of shoulder work, not heavy but lots of repetitions.

Neil

Stormy Week

Distance 45.2km [total: minimalist 285.6km: Barefoot 3430km] Week33

Monday, 13-Aug. 11km

Well, the apparent sore hip area was not what I at first thought. It wasn't a leg problem but the indicator of a back problem, the good old sciatic nerve! I must have put some pressure on the discs when doing either shoulder presses or leg presses at the gym. I actually came up with the idea that is was my back while asleep dreaming. My subconscious must have been sifting all the information and drawn this conclusion which it them passed on to my conscious mind so I could do something about it. Now I know what it is I know how to treat it. I went for a run of 11km and took it nice and easy the entire way around, my heart rate only getting above 130 bpm towards the end of the run, all the rest of the time it was around 127bpm. I almost didn't feel like going for a run an hour before I set out. The idea of an easy run was a great solution rather than just not running, I felt much better at the end. There wasn't much sun about so it got dark quickly while I was running back along the beach.
The forecast for the week is for cold, blustery and wet weather for the end of the week. Wednesday or Thursday will be my only weekday opportunities to run, Friday I'm out for a free posh meal care of my employer.

Saturday, 18-Aug. 22km

After a week of cold stormy winter weather that stopped my running in the latter part of the week, Saturday morning comes, the wind drops and the sun shines, wonderful.
I got to the beach at 9.30am and ran north to Semaphore. The sun shone and while it felt good I started to worry about getting too much sun if I was running for 2 hours. It felt warm as I ran so I ended up taking my long sleeved top off, it got put on again once I changed direction on the run back, there was a cool breeze and with the sweat on my t-shirt I could feel the warmth being sucked out of me. No a bad run all in all considering I had a late night and several glasses of wine. I did consider extending my run by a couple of km but I felt a bit tired at the end and thought I'd been out for long enough.
I was contacted in the week by a reporter from the local Adelaide paper who was interested in doing a story on barefoot running. I'm due to meet up with a photographer tomorrow. I'm not sure how they are going to construct the story, I did send an email with some information on as I don't think they will be sending anyone out to do a real question and answer session. I just hope it is not the usual cut and paste compilation of dangers of barefoot running.

Sunday, 19-Aug. 8.2km + 4km

After a dull start the sun began to break out at 10am. This warmed the concrete up for my feet. The early run was a run in two halves. The first half I didn't feel smooth, I could hear my foot slapping the ground louder than they should have been, a callus on my left foot was a bit tender. As I run clockwise around the lake I'm running on a slight incline with the left leg higher up than the right, this is what put pressure on the callus. I think yesterdays long run had also take a bit of spring out of my legs. I began to get my rhythm back by the halfway point, and I put in a good sprint at the end with a time of 5m53s.
In the afternoon I had a photo shoot appointment with a photographer from the local Adelaide paper for a story they were doing on barefoot running. It was a nice sunny afternoon so I wore my shorts and IBRD T-shirt. The shoot consisted of me doing some sprints along the concrete, so slow motion type runs and some stationary where I sat on the ground with my feet crossed in front of me. Unlike Naomi Campbell, I didn't get paid!
After the photos, as the weather was nice I went for a second run along the beach, a 4km Fartlek session, 2 minutes fast, 2 minutes slow. That was a short but tough session. The speed will come in useful during the summer races.

Neil

Getting closer to Spring

Distance 52.2km [total: minimalist 285.6km: Barefoot 3384.8km] Week32

Monday, 6-Aug. 11km

Good run this evening in the last of the evening sun. Once again the temperature drops quickly once the sun sits on the horizon. I say good run although my upper hamstrings were a bit sore, I believe that was due to combination of lunges at the gym on Sunday and the fast sprint up Sportsman's Drive with the others from the barefoot runners group. I felt I was slapping my feet down a bit, I wasn't as quiet as usual. I ran the last 2km along the beach again, dodging in and out of the water of the incoming tide.

Thursday, 9th-Aug. 11km

With the sunset at 5.40pm I am almost able to complete my run with the sun above the horizon. Tonight, as I raced along the beach trying to beat the last rays cast off from the sinking sun I was around 150m from the end of my run at the jetty. It spurred me on to record another good time on the distance between the jetties of 9:32m, about 5 seconds off my best but I'm getting some consistency now. Maybe the longer aerobic runs are helping with my speed. My hip area was still a bit sore but not enough to hinder my run.

Saturday, 11-Aug. 22km

Saturday morning, a cold start, but I don't seem to be noticing it as much these days in my feet. The first year I was acutely aware of how cold it felt under foot and I wasn't sure if I was cut out to run barefoot but now, I must have acclimatised. I took it nice and easy today and ran a short distance with another runner going in my direction from the jetty at Semaphore back to the surf life saving club at about 3km further on. It's always good chatting to other runner, it takes your mind off the road for a while. I did a time of 2h04m20s. I'm not feeling as tired over the last few km now. I might even take on the half marathon at the Christmas fun run if I can get my time under 2 hours.

Sunday, 12-Aug.  8.2km

I'm on my own on the lake run this week. The Team Barefoot have gone about their own running schedules until next month. The morning was bright and sunny but it started to cloud over while I ran. The sun warmed the concrete slightly so I had some good feeling from my feet. I didn't see as many runners out as I saw last week, maybe 10.30am is their favoured start time. My fast section was a bit slow this week at 6m04s but I knew it would be as my heart rate monitor only started beeping towards the end which meant I had some unused reserve. It's looking like I'll be at 3,500km by spring.

August Barefoot run meeting

Distance 50km [total: minimalist 285.6km: Barefoot 3332.6km] Week31

Monday, 30-July. 11km

I wasn't sure if I felt like going for a run this evening after a busy day at work but once I was on my way home I began to get the feeling I wanted to run. It was a cool day but fairly bright, no rain today.
I parked my car at Grange and did the run to West Beach. The last 2km I ran along the beach to time myself. When I stopped my watch at the end I couldn't believe the time. I knocked over 15s of my time running from jetty to jetty and this included having to weave in and out of patches of broken shells. At a couple of points I stood on sharp shells but I felt like I was running a good time but when I saw 9:27.9m. Maybe I'm on my way to getting below 20minutes in the beach run in March next year

Wednesday, 1-Aug. 11km

Last of the sunny days as the rain heads in again overnight. It was a chilly morning, down to 2C, there was plenty of frost around. As I walked to the car (barefoot) on my way to work, I could feel the chill. I wonder how long I could run on this cold surface, my feet would be numb for sure. A cold night means a sunny day and it was beautiful. I got out of work at 4pm and got to the beach at 4.50pm. The sun was up and I could feel some warmth before it faded away. It seemed to cool down really fast. I ran mainly along the road and the last 2km on the beach once more but this time in a more relaxed pace, I took it easy as I didn't want to run hard on too many occasions. I need to get the kilometres up. I'll try and get to 60km per week by the end of August.

Saturday, 4-Aug. 22km

A chilly grey start to my Saturday run. I had my hands pulled into the sleeves of my top to keep warm. I was running into a breeze from the north which felt chilly, the temperature was just over 10C. At the 6km mark I thought I was heading into rain, visibility closed right down as low cloud blew around. I had 1km to get to the jetty and turn around and get that wind behind me. Within 5 minutes the cloud blew away and the sun came out and shone some warmth out on me as I reached the jetty and had a short walk off the beach and onto the bitumen walkway that I run along on the way back. I had a good run all the way back to the river which then leaves me another 3km to get back. Those last 3km were tough as the wind speed increased to a 28km/h headwind. I just lowered my head and dug in and kept placing one foot in front of the other. What a relief to get back and sit in the shelter of the car and drink down some water.

Sunday, 5-Aug. 6km

Meeting of the Adelaide Barefoot Runners group. We ran what would be my usual lake run but a shortened version, missing out the small loop on the upper part of the lake. The day had started off in a not too promising rain shower. I went down to the gym for a session early on then made my way to the car park by the lake to meet the others. We took it at a leisurely pace for most of the way around, I got them to run a bit harder along the concrete footpath where I always practice my faster paced running at the end. They did quite well coming in about 90 seconds after I arrived. We all went to the local coffee shop after where they had a roaring fire. The rain returned shortly after we got there.

No virus slows me down

Distance 53.7km [total: minimalist 285.6km: Barefoot 3282.6km] Week30

Monday, 23-July. 13.5km

A day off work due to my head cold. I was coughing and sneezing for a large part of the day so spent the afternoon in bed asleep. During the morning, as the weather was so nice I went out for a beach run, the virus was not affecting my lungs so I could still run and it also put a stop to the coughing and sneezing for a while.
The tide was at the low point and the beach was nice and flat, not too many broken shells to hinder my running. I ran from Grange to Semaphore and back, similar to my Saturday run but shorter. I ran back on the road grass and beach. Funny thing is that I felt smooth and easy on the out bound part of the run but on the way back I seemed to have lost that smoothness. I felt heavy and clumsy on my landing. It could have been due to the cold.

Thursday, 26-July. 10km

The return of the wet weather. I managed to squeeze a quick 10km in after work and before the bulk of the rain began to fall which happened shortly after I got back home. As I ran south I could see the black clouds and a semicircular rainbow arc indicating it was raining further on. I told myself that I would turn back if it looked like the rain was going to come down heavily. As it turned out a few spots fell as I got to my turnaround point and this continued until I outran it. The ground was warm under foot, well not warm exactly but not cold, I had plenty of feedback from the feet. I ran the last 2km along the beach and recorded a time of 9:54m for the 2km. It is slightly lighter in the evening now, sunset at 5.30pm and fully dark about 30 minutes later.

Saturday, 28-July. 22km

What a nice morning, I was expecting a cold windy day with rain and got a sunny day with a light breeze and no rain (that came in during the afternoon). The tide was just on its way out but there was plenty of firm sand to run on. The running felt great all the way, even at the end I was just tired without feeling exhausted.
On the way back I ran with another runner and had a good chat about how good it was to have such wonderful places to run. The kilometres zoom by much faster when you are chatting away. It slowed me down a little and even though I picked up my speed in the last 5km it wasn't enough to make up the time I'd lost from running at a more relaxed pace earlier.

Sunday, 29-July. 8.2km

A calm Sunday morning by the lake, the sun is out and I can feel a bit of warmth on the grass, the concrete is much cooler. The rowers are out on the lake with their coaches shouting orders from the path around the edge of the lake. I've pretty much shaken off the cold I had last week, I'm hoping that is the last of my winter illnesses. It is usually in springtime that the danger lurks, that's when the viruses seem to peak. A good run with a little competition along the way. My fast stretch was a bit slower at 6:02m, I wasn't getting good feedback from the cold concrete. Next week into August and a group barefoot run around the lake next week with the others, that will make a nice change.

Neil

First Cough of Winter

Distance 52.2km [total: minimalist 285.6km: Barefoot 3228.9km] Week 29

Tuesday, 17-July. 11km. 

I didn't run on Monday due to residual soreness in the glutes from a gym workout on Sunday, in other words a sore ass. That, along with a feeling that I was coming down with a cold and the weather was uninspiring. Today though the sky was blue and it felt a little warmer, the cold didn't develop, its just a throaty irritation. I had to hurry tonight as Tuesday is our cinema night, the film was on slightly later at 7.10pm so that gave me a window of opportunity to get out. It was a good run, the soreness had faded and I had some strength in the legs. It was an out and back run on the road with the last 2km on the beach. It got cold as soon as the sun disappeared and I felt frozen running along the beach. I wasn't dressed for the conditions, just a t-shirt and shorts in 10C.

Thursday, 19-July. 11km

Each morning I wake up I my throat feels claggy as if the cold is just waiting to pounce on me and then by mid morning its gone but my voice is a bit gravelly. A damp start to the morning, by afternoon a bit of warmer sun evaporates the water on the roads and paths and I get a good run in. Once again I go from Grange to West Beach and back. The tide was high so no running along the beach. My feet must have acclimatised to the cold now as I don't mind it as much as I did the first year of barefoot running. A few runners say 'Hi" as I see them on my daily run. In the early days I felt really self conscious but now that I have developed the confidence of good running form it doesn't bother me. I took it easy tonight as I felt a bit tired from a Wednesday gym session where I did some hip exercises, I think this had a subtle effect on my running tonight.

Saturday, 21-July. 22km

I collected the morning paper at 7am and noticed it had been a warm night (well, not down to 5C). I wanted to get a long run in today, I missed out last week do to the cold windy weather.
Today when I got to the beach there was no wind, the sea was calm and the tide was out. My feet stayed warm for the entire run. There was low cloud or sea mist drifting in but I had the feeling the sun would burn it off and a bright sunny day would emerge later on. Running up the beach towards Semaphore I could see around 1km before the view disappeared into the mist. On the way back it became thicker and at one point there was a fantastic scene. I was running along almost perfectly flat sand, there were no people around, the mist was quite thick, I could see around 100m in front. The sand just disappeared into the mist, then with the sun shining from behind me it made an illuminated arc in the mist. It was like I was running into an arch of light, it was magical. The mist damped nearly all the sound, I could just hear my breathing and a slight sound of the water. I got back to the Grange jetty, only seeing it when I was 100m away. Once under it and on my way to Henley the mist just lifted and it was a clear sunny day, I looked behind and there it was still, a bank of mysterious mist. I had to push myself for the last few kilometres, the beach was very stony and weedy and when your tired it is hard to negotiate your way around the shells and stones. I did a time of 2h 4m 29s was faster than I ran it last time. I'll be under 2 hours in a month.

Sunday, 22-July. 8.2km

 My head is clogged up today with a cold virus. It's not on my chest so I can go out for a run. It's a beautiful sunny day after a cold night, at 6.30am it was 4.5C pretty chilly, once the sun came up the temperature climbed and by 10am when I was ready to start my run it was 12.7C. Calm conditions made for a nice easy run. My fast stretch was completed in 6:01m over 10s slower than my best. I did a gym session after the run, concentrating on chest and back.

 Neil

Cold week

Distance 47.2km [total: minimalist 285.6km: Barefoot 3176.7km] Week 28

Monday, 9-Jul. 7km

A cloudy but mild day made it pleasant underfoot, no numbness. I took it nice and easy tonight covering a short 7km from the jetty at Grange to the River Torrens and back. The gloomy weather brought the darkness on quickly. The temperature started to drop once the light faded from the sky.

Wednesday, 11-Jul. 11km

Once again rushing out of work to get to the beach before the darkness returns. I have about 30 minutes before sunset but once more it has been a grey day and its quite dark even when only half way around. I run the last 2.5km along the beach in near darkness. I was hoping to do a fast sprint along the sand but the lack of visibility and the uneven stony beach made that impossible so I just took it easy. On the return journey just as I was approaching the river outlet a girl was running in the opposite direction and surprise surprise she was barefoot. I don't think she was just running from the beach as she was dressed in running gear but it looked like she was giving it a go, well done! I think the wave is picking up height.

Thursday, 12-Jul. 10km

What a surprise, the forecast was for showers and cold weather but instead it was the best day of the week so far. The temperature even rose to past 18C in the afternoon. I had intended to go to the gym this evening but you have to grab these opportunities when they are presented. This time when I parked up on the Esplanade there was sunshine and an almost spring like warmth in the air. I ran at an aerobic pace of 132bpm, slowing down each time my heart rate went above 134. I still sweat like crazy, even in these cool winter conditions. What will it be like when we get back to the mid 30C's again. Almost a year ago I was getting ready to head over to the UK for a 'summer' holiday. The reality turned out to be that the weather was better in Australia than in England. I had to wear my Vibrams as the roads and paths were so yucky and I picked up an injury.

Saturday, 14-Jul. 11km

A cold windy day with black clouds racing across the sky dropping rain over different areas of the city. By the beach it was dry though. The temperature was just over 11C and the wind blowing at 32km/h. The tide was high when I got to the beach so I decided that I was not going to struggle along 22km of soft sand and blowing wind, there would be better days. I ran on my usual evening course along the path by the beach. The bricks were cold underfoot and the concrete felt colder again. Only another 6 weeks and we are into September, the start of Spring. I did notice the first of the small winter flowers on the grassy areas, the little yellow buttercup type flower. The daisies will be out next in a few weeks, these are the signs I keep watch for to let me know when the warmer weather will arrive.

Sunday, 15-Jul. 8.2km

A cool morning with strong northerly wind. The run around the lake offered a bit of shelter from the cold wind. The normally placid lake was whipped up with high enough waves to keep most of the boaties of the water today. My feet felt a bit sore yesterday after the run on the cold concrete, the 2km at the end where I ran in the waves made them feel a lot better. I did my faster effort along Sportsmans Drive but didn't push for maximum effort, I wanted more concentration on form. I still felt very fluid and easy and still recorded under 6 minutes. I can really stretch out and still land on the front of my foot. Despite what I've heard that you can't alter your foot landing patterns I know that is rubbish, I've proved it, changed from an awful heel striker to a fast forefoot lander. I would like to spread the message further, each time I see some runner with some horrendous running style. I passed one on Saturday, it looked like some hybrid of speed walking and running. He was heel striking and then pushing over his straight leg to the next landing, his face was contorted in what looked like pain rather than enjoyment, how sad.

Neil