Run #161

Yaaaay! I've been looking forward to the 5 mile barefoot milestone, and I did it! It was an easy, good run, at a nice pace--slow enough to keep me relaxed, fast enough to show me that my barefoot pace is continuing to improve. In fact, when I was shod and building up my distance, my 5-mile run to Starbucks was at a pace of 11:33 a mile. So it looks like my barefoot long run pace has caught up with my shod long run pace. That feels great!

The weather has improved SO much in the last couple of weeks. It doesn't feel quite like fall, but it certainly doesn't feel like the middle of summer. I love the change! I made it through my first summer of running, and now I know that I can run year-round, outside.

5.02 miles, 57:32 (11:27/mile)

Run #160

Didn't feel very energetic this morning, and it was super-humid (over 90%) but my legs, feet, knees, and ankles felt good! And my time was great, so this really was a good run. I must have been a little sloppy on form; my soles are just a smidge sore, slightly scuffed up in a couple of spots.

3.03 miles, 32:36 (10:45/mile)

By the way, I've been drinking zipfizz, an electrolyte/energy drink, and I love the stuff. I wrote a review on it today and am doing a giveaway! This is not sponsored by anyone; I just wanted to write about how much I like it, and to share it with a few lucky winners. Click here to read my review and enter the giveaway.

Run #159

I broke through the 11 minute/mile barrier! on 3+ miles! Yay. :) Barefoot/minimalist running tends to make a runner's pace suffer at first. I think I'm catching up to my old self though (and my knees feel better than my old self's knees did!)

Today's run was mostly in my huaraches but it got light and I took off the shoes for the last mile or so.

3.32 miles, 36:18 (10:55/mile)

Run #158

Great run! I felt really good after yesterday's long run, but then I spent most of the day on my feet in the kitchen, and that made my legs and feet sore! Hopefully today's brisk (for me) 2-mile run was just what I needed to loosen up.

2 miles, 22:02 (11:01/mile)

Run #157

Woooo hoooo! GREAT run. I left late enough that it was light out, and I was able to be barefoot the whole way. The weather was nice today--70 degrees!! It was very humid, but just that nice temperature made the humidity so much more bearable. The sun didn't even feel too hot.

It's interesting--I really enjoy being barefoot. It's just plain fun. My feet feel cool, and I like really feeling the street instead of my shoes. And I really enjoy minimalist shoes. It's freeing not to have to keep such a close eye on the road. I'm so glad I like both so I can be happy running either way.

My legs and feet felt great!! Arches/knees felt fantastic. Ankles/calves/Achilles slightly achy but not much--really I just felt so good, the best I've felt in awhile. For awhile there, I was frustrated, feeling like everything was falling apart. Now it feels like it's coming back together again. Maybe that's just part of progressing.... It's not always a smooth path.

I took it easy but was faster than I felt like I was. Overall, the type of run that reminds me why I loooove running! (And ending at my favorite Starbucks doesn't hurt!)

4.34 miles, 51:30 (11:51/mile)

Run #156

Really good run! It was slow, energy was kind of low, but my body felt really good.

I decided to try a hilly route for the first time since I started having IT band issues again...not even a TWINGE in my knee/quads/IT band. Hooray, past that hurdle! My calves & Achilles are feeling so much better. My arch gave me a little problem at the end, but got past it quickly. Working on really massaging it with a golf ball, and I think I'll be past that soon. Not sure what happened with my legs and feet rebelling against me recently, but I think things are getting back to normal.

4.3 miles Saturday...hopefully it'll be a great run!

I do have to say, while I'm glad it'll be getting cooler soon (still pretty warm and humid now), I was bummed that I got home at 6:45 and it was still fairly dark outside. I'll be doing a LOT of dark running over the next several months. Which means a lot of minimalist shoes (today, my huaraches). Thankfully, I'm really enjoying running in minimalist shoes, not having to worry too much about stepping on rocks, etc.

I may end up being more of a minimalist than a barefoot runner. And that would be fine!

3.01 miles, 38:43 (12:51/mile)
Homemade huaraches

Run #155

First 2/3 was a GREAT run. I was relaxed; it just went well! I started to feel some aches in my right arch at the end, but running on grass helped with that. Overall a good run, plenty of energy the whole way through!

I really liked this pace...comfortable. If it hadn't been for the arch annoyance, I would have felt able to go quite a bit further. (But I got in the mileage I wanted, so that's good!)

I've been still having calf and Achilles aches. I asked about it at the Barefoot Runners Society forums. Got advice to pull back my running frequency to 3 days a week instead of 4. I'm considering that, but not sure yet. I got some good feedback from one of the members, who said it's like going to the gym 4 days a week and working the same muscle groups each time. Because you don't have much recovery time, you'll stay sore. People can get to the point where they can run every day, but that takes a lot of training. He said some aches and soreness are okay as long as it's not actual pain. I thought that was a good way to look at it.

So the question is, if I can be more comfortable by cutting out one running day, is that worth it? (I really do like running 4 days a week.) Here's the plan: I'm going to do more dynamic stretching (heel raises on the stairs) of my Achilles/calves--that seems to help. And I'm going to consistently ice them after runs. This weekend I'll reevaluate to figure out if I should cut out the Sunday run or not.

3.04 miles, 37:20 (12:16/mile)