Different kind of Race...

A different kind of "race" is on. Its a race for my friend to find this blog.  My secret affair with barefoot running just went public. Its a little sooner than I had planned given than I am still in "experimental" phase and hence not sold on barefoot running yet but thats fine. On the upside, now i get to see how efficient really is this new "social network" once the cat is out of the bag, it shouldnt take too long for my friends to find this blog and the information to saturate. Sitting here I am guessing it will take about a week (next weekend) but hey I have been surprised once before.

I do have a choice to block the blog. Hmm. This reminds me of the 60minute episode about Michael Jackson's PR manager. He said that there was a point at which the PR manager asked MJ that we are at a turning point and you have to make a decision if you want to present 

yourself as a regular rich old man or a popstar with all its highs and lows. MJ looked straight in his eyes and with full understanding said popstar. If I had an ounce of intelligence I should learn the lesson and block the blog...

Btw, I dont think I mentioned this before but here are the original rules of my barefoot running experiement. I am still sticking with them

1. Totally open minded about barefoot running AS WELL AS shodded running as its easy to carried away either way.

2. Quite barefoot running if I loose a whole week of training BEFORE I beat my shodded PR at any one distance.

So when I said I am still in experimantal phase, I mean, I havent achieved #2 yet. I did loose a week of training once very early in the experiment but technically the injury occured while running in shoes (to be fair my ankles might have been tender from barefoot running but there is no way to be sure). #1 is almost a none-issue since now I think its not either-or and just a matter of scaling of cusioning. So now I train long runs in the vibram which are oxymoronically "barefoot shoes". If someone forces me to run marathon tomorrow I will go back to regular shoes. I do believe that over time I will move up the tolerence level and will be able to 

run barefoot longer distances.

Update on barefoot training. Despite a disappointing long run attempt yesterday, I finished the week strong at planned 38mi by running another 5miles in hot evening weather. I was surprised how good I felt running despite race+long run attempt same weekend. My weekly mileage PR is 39mi so I was just 1mi short of it. I should make it to 40mi soon as I feel pretty fresh going into next week. Perhaps I should attempt the 16miler next weekend on an easier surface in cooler surface just so that I know I can finish. That leaves me with 3x8 or 4x6 both are totally doable.

BF in NY for 249.6mi