"Gods must be crazy...with their oversized colorful feet"

I had an interesting encounter today. Generally, I blockout surrounding crowd while running by tuning into my iPod. (The plan is to minimize confrontation with other people till I convince myself that I should be running barefoot. This will last till I break any one PR I had set in shoes.) 

But someone stopped me on my track on east river side during the morning run. He was obviously very concerned about puncture risk and potentially doing major damage to my feet. He said that I look funny and asked if I noticed that everybody else wears these things called "sneakers". I clearly thought he was joking till he said that I must be new to this country and I must not "know" about running shoes!!! Now, he being serious WAS really funny since rest of me was full of technical running gadgets (GPS, HRM, ipod, technical running dress). I explained to him that I have run couple of marathons and this is a scientific training for my next one and I also run in shoes. I dont think I convinced him but he seem pleased somehow and wished me luck.

I thought other people have to be open minded about barefoot running but now I realize that I have to be open minded about me looking like a poor/dumb foreigner or plain crazy. (Did I mention about the time when I ran past the mental institution on Randall's island during morning commute time and pretty much every car would slow down to check out if I am running away from the facility. Makes laugh everytime I think about it.)

BF in NY for 297mi

PS. The title refers to the 1980's movie about African bushman who finds a coke bottle and does not "know" what it is.

My Barefoot running and iPhone story

After NOT running the 6milers yesterday, I ran a very strong 8mi early in the morning. The run was essentially 4 loops around the reservoir in central park with its soft path just barely wet to make it pleasant.  The loops were almost intervals as I ran the north end of the loop on grass pretty fast at and around 8mpm while rest was in recovery. It was really funny getting passed by these runners with smirk on their face only to be pass by me later from outside magically ahead of them. It happened multiple times as my average pace was close to most runners running around the reservoir. Its so much (wicked) fun...

Also I mentioned to my Thursday morning running mates that I might be running barefoot this weekend's long run instead of the "funny" shoes and I was pleasantly surprised with the encouraging response from them. I feel much more comfortable showing up for the training run and running barefoot now. 

btw comment: This is not really related to barefoot running but while running (barefoot) past the apple store this weekend (see saturday post), it got me thinking about iPhone. Damn, this apple marketing magic is magnetic. I found a loophole to get out of my contract as t-mobile is raising text-messaging rate by 5 cents each next month. Since, like a sucker, I have been paying per tons of text messages I have been getting, I am "adversely affected" by this rate change. Aha, now I can now get out without paying early termination fee. Frankly, I think the early termination fee is illegal to start with if you REALLY take them to court but obviously its not worth the effort. But that makes it easy for me to get out with a simple excuse. The NYU law school negotiation course finally is paying off after all:-) No seriously, it was a formal chess game of him trying to get me to say that I am getting out for some other reason (humm what could it be?) and me pushing that he is forcing me to get a bundle plan(even though it actually save me money). Finally, my legal right to be dumb enough not to elect bundle plan won... Now I have till end of this month till I get my hands on an iphone. And oh yes, for other phone savy people out there, before you try a stunt like mine, pl make sure you "unlock the phone" for free from the carrier as I did earlier today. This is just way to easy!

BF in NY for 292mi

I decided to not do the 6mi run today even though I feeling pretty recovered from the long run yesterday (ache in left leg was a false alarm). Just got swamped with laundry and other chores. I also treated my foot to nice warm epsom salt soak and took a picture. Almost as good as new:-) The weekly mileage is at 34mi which is dot on with Flyers program so I am still on schedule. I will try to do a morning run tomorrow to get early start to a week which is likely to end with the much-anticipated NYRR long run next weekend (16mi? 18mi?). Also this keeps me still in the "experimental" phase for few more days.

BF in NY for 284mi

Follow up on long run yesterday

I am feeling just a tiny bit of pain on left foot on the outer side portion just below ankle.... Just inside the depression if pressed. I don't feel a thing when sitting and pressing on it but while walking just before stepping off the foot when the foot arches at the ball, it hurts a bit. I am guessing inflamation of some tiny muscule joining the bone must be irritated or inflamed. It feels like one of those things which aches for the first mile and then you don't feel a thing (never quite understood why that happens). I am going to pastpone the 6mi recovery run to evening just to be safe.

Btw comment (I always seem to have one): I saw this obscure movie called Cashback and there was a scene where the main character was having flashback about his crush in childhood on Zola Budd and how she ran barefoot etc. Coincidence? I don't ever remember seeing a movie scene about barefoot running but I suspect I am just more likely to remember such scene now than before when I did not run barefoot. Or maybe my tastes in movies are changing:-)

BF in NY for 284mi

My longest barefoot run yet... by far...at 16mi

Today was my first serious long run completely barefoot. I ran just over 16mi barefoot in Central Park. This is a big jump up from the longest barefoot run had done before at 8.3mi. Its a jump up from also the longest vibram run I have done at 12mi. The run was just fine. The barefoot part was definitely wasnt the limiting factor. I was just getting tired due to the heat and started getting blister pain on nipple and decided to quit. Neither is related to barefoot. I, in fact, was running almost minute faster at 9-10mpm in last few miles than first half at 10-12mpm. 

I ran a lot on rough surfaces including coarse pavement as well as gravel. It hurt every now and then a bit but I did not get any blisters or punctures at all. The sole of the feet is still pretty soft and thin but I guess its tougher than it looks. Or perhaps it really is all about the form and not surface though I am not buying it yet. Also I think I ran my FASTEST pace barefoot ever on my run down the harlem hill on grass but unfortunately, I had my GPS on stop mode for that mile by mistake and I did not actually record it. Too bad. It felt so good run fast on soft grass after tortuously slow 8mi before. Its a little hard controlling myself once I am on grass especially downhill. I am rationalizing it by thinking that varying pace every now and then is not such a bad idea.

The long run also puts me in nice position to finish the week with another 6miler tomorrow with weekly mileage of 40 overtaking the current PR of 39mi in 2007. How exciting? Next week is the formal NYRR long run in the park and I am thinking of doing it barefoot. Ironically, ALL my runs this week have been barefoot and not vibram so this will in fact could qualify as my "breaking the shod PR" event. But I am still going to wait (see my experiment in couple of posts before) till I break a shod race PR just to be sure.

I iced my legs and they feel fine. I don't remember how 16miler felt last two marathon trainings but I suspect I was limping around. I am NOT limping around today at all which is unusal to say the least. Also I did thorugh "pain test" by pressing on various portions of foot and there is no sharp pain so I dont think I have any injury building up either. I am now looking forward to a more consistent 16-18mi long run next week though I may carry my vibrams in hand to be safe. 

Oh btw, I went running past Apple store at the south east corner of Central Park to check out the iPhone crowd. The line was shorter than I expected..may be 30 people. I think I also ran past ABS morning live TV show so you could have seen me running barefoot on National TV today! I think I will keep my distance next time. I wouldnt want to be grabbed by the "TV people" and have sponteneous interview about barefooting.

BF in NY for 284mi

Cool Pictures of a recent Elite Barefoot runner Zola Budd

I saw these picture at http://www.sydneysportsmed.com.au/docs/caleb_article01.pdf. Very nice pictures. It looks like she is almost flying.

The article is also a pretty scientific and objective analysis of barefoot running vs running in shoes and worth a read. Now why doesn't it surprise me that it was published in an Australian Journal?

BF in NY for 249.6mi

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

Another long run incomplete

The long runs are supposed to increase every week but I am clearly going in the wrong direction. My 16mi run today was over before I hit 10! Pathetic if you ask me.

In all fairness, fast race effort yesterday and the 90degree weather did not help. Nor did the 17mi of biking which came with travel to the park. Boy, its hard biking hills in westchester. My Garmin shows 1064Cal for running and 1236Cal for biking! It must be accounting for hills somehow.

But lesson learned for the second week in a row is that long runs are whole different type of beasts and I can't count on even making a half marathon, let alone a full. I am killing my plans to do the rockland park marathon as a training run in late August. I don't think I can do that distance yet. Too bad. Flyer program calls for a half marathon for next week but if I feel okay, I will try to do the 16mi next weekend. Hopefully, it will cool down as well by then.

One more note, unrelated to barefooting: I stuffed myself with all kinds of drinks after I finished the run and got home but still I weighed a pound lighter. I bet if I had weighed right after the run it would hsve been even bigger deficit. That sounds like serious depletion of water. I didn't really get a headache but it was definitely more tiring than usual.

BF in NY for 244mi

Me barefoot in Death Valley few years back

I cant believe I found this picture of me barefoot in sand dunes of Death Valley. How cool (or hot may be?)

Nice fast 4mi RACE

I ran my 4th fastest 4miler race today out of 9 4mi races I have run last three years. I also barely broke 50percentile barrier as a barefooter. It was my third fastest race from pace perspective this year and closing in on the other two (8:07 5miler and 7:50 4miler) and should be able to PR in couple of months if I do not get injured. 

For a brief while, I considered shooting for PR (7:50) but realized that with 90degrees and a long run to follow tomorrow, today was not probably the best race to shoot for PR. This was also evident in the heart rate as it averaged at 180bpm which is higher than I would have liked but could not really avoid with the heat. This race was a negative split as usual too with mile splits at 8:34,  8:11,  8:38, 7:43. Ironically, my split is now at the mercy of grass stretches along race route. I think thats why second mile was faster than 3rd mile.

Also interestingly enough, someone stopped me on the way back asking WHY I run barefoot and I pointed him to dogs walking past us and said that if they can go barefoot, why cant I. It seem to satisfy his concerns at least superficially. He also said that I am "talk of the town" which I thought was funny. I would think it would take lot more than barefoot running to become talk of town in New York City.

Anyway, the race was the easy part. The hard part is still to come. I am still iffy about the 16mi long run tomorrow. I should probably trim is down to 13mi (I need 15mi to make my mileage target for the week).

BF in NY for 235mi

History of my race performance over last few years

Here is a really cool website (http://run.wsxnyc.org/which automatically pulls my race results to show the pace, percentile and distance I have run with all NYRR races so far. Note that the pace has slowed down a bit but has stabalized lately which makes sense.

I have run about 17.5mi so far this week; just half a mile short of schedule but I am terrified of this weekend. I have a 4mi race AND a 16mi trail run lined up. I was hurting after 12mi on trail run in heat last week so I am not sure if I will actually be able to finish 16mi. Moreover, I will have a hard time controlling my pace in the race on the day before as its just a 4miler. My PR just north of 30min i.e. 7:29mpm pace. I would probably run this race at 8:30mpm.

On barefoot front, yesterday, while inspecting the sole I noticed a tiny splinter in the foot which was not hurting at all. I took it out but I was curious why it did not hurt and should I be concerned about pushing splinters deep inside without knowing? I guess as the skin growns and is brushed out, these splinters on the surface would automatically fall off. I am still curious if I am better of taking them off risking deeping penetration or ignoring it altogether.

BF in NY for 229mi

200mi Barefoot and 2000mi total since May'05

Here is a nice video about right form for running by a 4:30min mile runner. Interestingly there is portion of the video which shows barefoot running on the grass. But in any case, even with shoes, its nice to see the runner land smoothly on the balls of the foot avoiding impact. The foot raises high before hitting ground almost giving and impression that will be the heel strike but the foot falls perfectly on the ball. The weight then shifts to heels as body moves on top and then back on ball as the foot goes behind the body. 

When running barefoot, this is the ONLY form you can run if you want to run more than few hundred yard because leaning fwd too much or striking ground with heels due to long strides cause IMMEDIATE shot of pain through the leg and it doesnt take long for the body to refuse to do it again. For the heck of it, I tried my old form of running striking heels while running barefeet and I just could not hold the form at all more than few strides. Isnt it nice when the body forces you to run in perfect form than you making a conscious effort.

Quick update on my training. I did my second long run at 12mi+ slightly shorter than the 14mi planned but I biked 5mi as well and ran through heat so the run felt kindda harder than last weekend's long run. Next weekend I have 16miler coming up as well as a 4mi race so that will be interesting. I am now skeptical if I am ready for 16mi as I was having funny foot aches after 10mi today. I attribute them to the uneven trail run with large tree roots. I actually did the long run in vibrams for the most part but still it was hurting so I will think twice before running on trails totally barefoot. It wasnt really that bad as there were no sharp shooting pains but it was still uncomfortable. That means I just need to get used to it thats all.

Two major achievements: I cross 2000mi total running since I started running in May and also I cross 200mi in barefoot experiment.

BF in NY for 211mi (incl 68mi in Vibrams)

Day before the second long run

Legs feel alright ahead of the long run. I am thinking of biking to the van Cortlandt park which is about 10mi+ urban ride one way. I also have an option to run 3miles to and from subway stations adding atleast 6mi to the run. 3mi run is similar to 10mi of biking so either way works. I can always take my bike on train as well especially on way back if necessary.

I was just inspecting my soles and realized that my right leg sole is pristine while left leg has old blister/minor callous on ball of the foot. Perhaps I need to check symmetry of my gait. Or maybe these are symptons of compensation moves since my recent ankle sprain was on left leg. Its funny, however, that I can do this kind of diagnosis because I run barefoot. There is no way I could detect form factor defects to such details by looking at sole of shoes after just few weeks of running In them. Ha!

BF in NY for 191mi

In cruise control mode!

I have run 14mi so far this week with 22mi to go. Second week of training and the mileage already feels heavy though the legs are fine. But I cut my skin above ankle due to biking somehow. I hope it does not interfer with the long run coming up this weekend.

I intend to run 14mi+ this Sunday with maybe last 6mi or more barefoot. Its been rainy most days so if I decide to do trail long run it could get a bit muddy. Alternatively there is the 6mi race this weekend. I ran 8mi today but near end the big toe of one of the foot (I forget which one) started hurting. It almost felt like it was swollen due to ant bite but it was nothing really. But lesson learnt is that I can't take longer distance runs for granted.

One more thing about yesterday's run. I varied the surface quite a bit over the run which was a lot of fun. So there was about 2mi of sidewalk, about 1mi of asphalt road in the park, 1mi of grass, 1mi of fine gravel surface of reservoir loop, 1mi of rough bridal path, half a mile of soft sand and small stretches of heavy industrial gravel. I could easily get used to this. The high point was the run down the Harlem hill grass I discovered last time.

BF in NY for 191mi

First "official" long group run for the marathon in vibrams

Today I did my first "official" long run with Flyers.  Besides being longest barefoot run (half vibram but more on that later), this was also my first group run outside NYRR organized long runs. Of course, 12mi is not 20mi but the run went very quickly with other runners. Flyer group is pretty diverse and its fun to chat with a few in the run. Also the runners from my Thursday morning group were also in my pace group which was nice.

The run itself was little over 12mi at about 10:10mim/mi pace. First 7miles were about 11min/mi while last 5mi were closer to 9:30mi. Ironically 3+ out of those 5 were barefoot (as opposed to vibram). Also this speeding was not really intentional though the surface was much easier (inner reservior loop) as opposed to very uneven bridal path for first 7mi. Legs felt pretty strong despite the long run with fast finish and I could have easily continued for few more miles. Thats encouraging given that long runs will only get longer. Also this run makes this week total at 34mi, just above last week's 33mi. Thats nice. All thats left now is to pushing pure barefoot mileage in 10+mi range. Perhaps after 3 more weeks on building the mileage???

BF in NY for 177mi

Another 7.75mi added

Mile count for the week is at 22mi ahead of first LONG run of 8-12mi. No injuries etc so first week of training is starting pretty good. Today's run was fastish at sub10min/mi pace. Also I discovered a grassy route down the Harlem hill. It was so nice that I peaked at 7min/mi pace at the bottom. Also it started raining during the run lightly increasing abrasion but its nothing that won't get fixed in a day.

First week of marathon training schedule

The first week of july is here and its time to start the 4 months marathon training program. Technically time to experimenting is over and I should stop barefoot training but obviously that's not happening. In fact, I am going into training in best preconditioning including last four months with approx 20mi/week and last two weeks at about 30mi. More over I am already qualified for 2009 marathon with 10 races even before I start training this year which is kind of cool.

On barefooting front, I ran two longish runs this week 6.5 and 7.5mi and should finish week with 30mi as expected in the flyers training program. I am still doing Thursday run early in the morning in vibram partly because I want to overly conservative while I am ramping up milage past 30mi. I don't really think conditioning of the sole is an issue any more for small run and I am now experienting with rough off-pavement running paths. I suspect even 4mi training on such surface should improve conditioning than longer runs on pavement. Of course, soon I will have to hear up for long runs barefoot which I haven't done yet and am a bit nervous about. Hopefully shorter runs on trails is good training for long runs.

Finally I may try some barefoot hiking this week. No idea how barefoot running translates into barefoot hiking but I think I can handle part of it.

BF for 157mi