A good 7…

Jamie led me on the hardest barefoot run I've been on yet. You see, Jamie started running a year or so ago and has probably the most relaxed and easy run style of anyone I personally know. He wears shoes that are too old, too big and tied too loose, but he just runs. Kinda like a barefooter. Is it any wonder that he took his shoes off today and ran a halfa click barefoot?

  Thanks Mariea for the pic!

He had been asking all sorts of questions the past couple weeks and today he took his first not-so-tentative steps un-shod. I told him I have no advice for him, that he would have questions and answers from the feedback he gets from his feet. He probably would have ran the whole 7k bare by the look of his relaxed form (he did ask if the little playground pebbles we ran over at one point were supposed to feel like acupressure or if they were supposed to hurt. I said that depends… and left it at that). However; when he answered my questions about how it was feeling, he said he could feel quite a pull in his achilles area, so I advised him to put his shoes back on. He did and at the end of the run tonight he seemed eager to go a bit further the next time out.

We ran quite fast for my standards, but at about the 6k mark he just decided it was time to leave me in the dust, and without any additional perceived effort, he was gone like shot. so. relaxed. i. jealous.

Others in the group are asking about Vff’s and are considering getting some to toole around in during the day, to help strengthen their feet between runs.

If you are considering chucking your togs and have any questions, here are the 2 places I learned most of my skilz.

Yoda – aka Barefoot Josh

The Running Barefoot. – Barefoot Ken Bob is the original super ninja barefoot master! Read all the items in the ‘beginning’ section

My good buddy HappyDan posted a comment about my newly minted “Stomp of Approval” sticker. He figures I made it up. Maybe I did. In fact, maybe I made all this up and I am just sitting in my recliner, searching for internet acceptance to make up for my colossal failings as a IRL person. How on earth would you know?

You know… *wink*

HappyDan did tell me about his first run in a while tho. made me laugh.

“Hey, I went for a run last night for the first time in 3 months. After 2 minutes I thought I was going to die. I pushed     through and ran 3.2km in about 23 minutes. It wasn't fast but I did it. and somedays I still think running is stupid. “

Some days we ALL think that, HappyDan, Some days. Hah! I shared this comment with run club and they all got a chuckle.

We are going camping again this weekend, no where near any smooth surfaces, so it’ll be running in my 5’s again. Hopefully I can get myself to feel good in them this week (I don’t feel bad, I just miss barefootness). Hopefully the experience from last week will help me prepare better for the vff run.

• Barefoot mileage since June 29th : 110km
• VFF mileage since July 7th : 25.8km
• Shoe mileage since SOBF (start of barefoot): 5km (25:30 5k race PR on July 1st)

Low Calorie Food product makers , check me out!! Please sponsor me! I sent away some marketing proposals to nutrition and lifestyle eating less centers… lets get going people, won’t it be fun to see me lose the rest of my weight on the intertube?