400mi mark and couple of fastish longish runs

I ran a solid 7+mi run today at an average of 9:30mpm pace. This was quite fast training run for me but I was feeling pretty strong despite a longish 15mi run yesterday. Today's run also included couple of really fast routines. One was on flat nice grass very short stretch at about 6:30mpm pace. Other was the cat hill going up at 7-8mpm pace. Both efforts took me past 190bpm which hasnt really happened outside races for me. I am sure the 85 degree humid weather didnt hurt(!). After not doing ANY speed work or real hill work for quite a while, I am easing into it by sneaking very short stretches of speed/hill works in regular training runs as long as they do not interfere with long runs. Depending on how these routines proceed, I will have to plan for formal speed/hill sessions soon. If all goes well, I need few weeks of speed training ahead of the fifth avenue one miler about a month from now. I have exactly one race before that which I may skip if it actually helps my preparation for the miler. I want to break 7min in the one miler but we will see how training pans out.

The 15mi long run yesterday was interesting as well. I ran with the flyer group and ran most of it in vibram. As usual, vibrams continue to attract a lot of attention, especially with an article in Runners world this month. I needed 15mi to keep my weekly mileage above shod PR of 39mi which I did. 40mi is still smaller than 41mi I did couple of weeks back but the fact that I survived the 40mi with legs fresh enough to do a 9:30mpm seven miler today is the big difference. Even the 15mi run was relatively fast at 10mpm including the last couple of miles at strong sub-10mpm. In contrast, the 41mi week was followed by early signs of ankle sprain and an very easy 32mi week and the 19mi long run ended with slow couple of miles of 11-12mpm.

I also extended the depth of my barefoot running on bridal path into northern as well as southern end by basically completing the whole stretch. The portion of bridal path outside the reservoir loop is not as nice and has a stretches of sharp industrial gravel which really sucks. Despite developing reasonably strong soles and good form I just have to stop and walk on this gravel. I dont know how I can ever run on this gravel without pain or worse.. damage to sole. I am not convinced that training on this gravel is actually beneficial and I wouldnt run on it just for the sake if it unless it actually helps me. After all is to MINIMIZE the pain while maximizing the benefit not otherway round. That would be just plain nuts:-)

BF in NY for 404mi

Here is the video

My barefoot running is in a video about nyc summer streets!

I am famous! I just saw meself on the streetfilms video about the summer streets. I ran barefeet up and down the park avenue last weekend. I like the video even if I was wasnt in it:-)

BF in NY in 382mi

8mi central park run in pouring rain

Yesterday evening 8mi run was in pouring rain. Usually I prefer to run on soft dirt paths when its raining but yesterday I decided to do the big loop in central park to test my legs on wet road surface. I would think that the races would be wet every couple of miles due to water stops so I need to train for running on wet roads. I was a bit concerned that the soles will become soft and more susceptible to pincture or pain but the rain also washes off all the debris from the road so it was okay. I didnt even get any blisters from running on coarse roads in central park. I think the soles just become flexible lether without loosing strength. I do think wet soles are stickier and more likely to pick dirt or tiny stones if I run through a wet patch into dry dirt. I had been avoiding wet surfaces in races but now I am thinking I should just run through them and see if it actually make any difference.

Today I added 4 miles by running to and back from a central park race I was volunteering. I was a course marshall trying to keep bikers from crossing the race lane. My legs are hurting from standing barefeet (vibram) for 4 hours. I have to do about 17mi rest of the weekend to make the 42mi target. I am still undecided about whether to do one run or two.

BF in NY for 382mi 

My barefoot run in dim evening light (!)

It got a little late for the run yesterday and it started to get a bit dark by the end of the run. I was doing loops around reservior and parts of bridal path; which are not very well lit. I didnt realize it but its a bit different running when it gets too dark to make out terrain details. I had to run blind..quite literally and heighten the sensations in soles while stepping on and feel for any danger. It was a learning experience but was definitely doable. In fact, tip toeing resulted me running a bit faster than usual. But in general there is always some light in manhattan I guess. Why do I get a feeling that as we move into fall, I will be exploring more and more of the running barefoot in darkness?

Oh, a great research article about running and longevity at 

http://med.stanford.edu/news_releases/2008/august/running.html

BF in NY for 364mi

This week was a recovery week at 32mi with 11mi and 10mi runs on weekend. Both runs were nice and easy. Yesterday's 11mi was on Park Avenue as the avenue was closed to traffic this weekend. I started the run at 72nd street end at 7am sharp when the streets closed and ran all the way to Brooklyn Bridge and ran back. It was a lot of fun and people cheering me which was great. A guy with fancy camera took a shot of me and said it will be on streetfilms.org. I haven't seen anything yet on the website but it was pretty cool. I don't remember being interviewed ever before, however briefly, in front of a camera. Ironically, right after the interview, a middle aged woman crossing street in front of me shouted at me "Stupid!". That was kind of harsh thing to say, even to a stupid person:) For some reason, it reminded me of Forest Gump when his mom says something about ignoring others when people called Forest stupid... Oh and perhaps there is some kind of symbolism in Forest breaking out of the shackles (read "shoes") and running faster than ever!

On barefooting front, I am having problems with my ankle joint. It feels okay while running but it feels a bit swollen when I sit for a while. There is also a mild pain. I am considering tapping up the ankles while running. Funny thing is that the two ankle wraps I have at home go around ankle as well over the sole so I cant really use them. I am watching various tapped up ankles in olympic games to figure the best way to do this. I am also wondering if the 19miler straight from 12mi long run phase was a major mistake. Thankfully there is no race anytime soon so I can focus on just mileage for next few weeks. On brighter note, the 11mi run on the Park Avenue was like walk in the park. The portion of the road regularly are very smooth, with perhaps a bit oil on it. Running was very pleasant on this smooth surface. Also portion of the Avenue with solid bike lane was even better with a continuous white lines. The first avenue (in marathon course) has a bike lane as well as thats kindda nice. I just now need to test the roads in wet conditions for a longish run as the marathon course will be full of water stops with people throwing water on road (and sticky Gaterade or worse...Gu packets!) Ouch.

BF in NY for 357mi

Taking eazy this week

This week has been very slow after the solid 41miler with the 19mi long run. I ran one 7miler and just a 4mi so far.  This week will probably end with less than 30mi. Perhaps not the worst thing after 7 weeks of almost continuous ramp up from 29mi to 41mi. Also after giving up the idea to run marathon as a training run on 22nd, I now might just do it. The marathon is on a bike path around a lake but has a dirt/grass path (ummm yummm) next to it and is 9 small loops so easy to adjust if necessary. And from the looks of it, its beautiful. I even took the day off (its on a Friday). I will post with an update on this as actual making it to the race is a logistic nightmare without car unless I camp at the start line:-)

On barefoot running front, I still am having hard time believing that the very rough central park loops on the 19mi was a non-issue and no signs of blisters what so ever. I did, however, made small injury on the side of the foot but I have seen much worse after pretty much every long run I had done before. Tomorrow, the Mayor Bloomberg is planning to close the Park Ave from downtown Brooklyn bride to Central park to cars and I am planning on doing a run. This should be a real test of how the NYC marathon might feel like if I venture barefooting in the race.

Finally, with Olympics just beginning, I think its worth mentioning that I will be making all the sports to observe the foot movements and if/how footware affect the movements. Some of the major sports including swimming and gymnastics are barefoot.  I will make a note of any interesting observations.  

BF in NY for 336mi

Recovery morning 6.8mi run today

I took the Sunday off after the awesome 19miler on Saturday and went for a run in early morning today. (yes I got a just 5minutes before FOUR alarm clocks I had set went off. Quite a progress on the early morning wake up routine in last couple of months. About 230mi out of 332mi barefoot have been in the morning). I mixed some coffee and suger in large glass of water to wake me up and get my blood sugar up a bit. But its hard to run straight out of bed.  The legs felt like dead logs. Also the old early ache on left leg outer side had returned (the one which I thought was a false alarm).  Also the sprained ankle seemed to echo faint pain. Of course, I am much more tuned into my foot aches than I used to so these are really minute pains which dont even cause limping. I am guessing the 19miler might have felt good but was big jump up so early in the training. The flyers program called for 16mi last weekend and 20miler this coming weekend. I will probably count the 19miler as my 20mi substitute and run "light" 14-16mi this weekend.

Anyway, the first mile was at a 13:44mpm pace which is quite a "running" pace. But eventually I found my rythem and it was fun finishing strong. The middle loop around reservior included a 400mi at about 8:15mpm which felt surprisingly fast. The new fun aspect of reservior run I discovered today was that the little smooth stone ridge on the lake side is just wide enough to maintain a running balance while barefoot. This is probably pretty difficult with shoes. The only problem is to find a place for arm so that it doesnt hit the fence. Over next few weeks I will play with this to find if there is any optimal way to place hand and sustain run around the reservoir. How cool will it be to run on the smooth rock when the path gets muddy or crowded with people. It also makes me wonder not where else can I run now which I cant/wont run with shoes on. During long run I toyed with running on the square raised border along the central park. It was hard balancing on it I gave after I brushed my heeps on the edge on a turn. It sounded like recepie for ankle sprain. Perhaps later sometime...

BF in NY for 332mi

Warburton scientific article on barefoot running

http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0103/mw.pdf

I voughly remember reading this article about a year back when I was just getting warmed up about the idea of barefootish running. 

It is a very good read with tons of references for digging deeper into the subject. I will reiterate the conclusion:

1. Barefoot running stregthen muscles in foot reducing chances of ankle sprain while shoes increase severity of the sprain by adding to torque.

2. Shoes might be increasing chances of plantar fasciitis but shifting stresses of shock.

3. Shoes could add few percent to oxygen consumption by adding heavy pendulum effect.

4. More research needed to understand why barefoot running is not common in elite runners.

Cheers

BF in NY for 325mi

My long run BF PR @19mi and all-time weekly mileage PR @41mi

Today was the official NYRR long run in central park. I ran 19.2mi ALL BAREFOOT! I am very pleased with the run today. The pace was not too bad either. Excluding about 23min of walking/standing breaks (the GPS stops if I am going slower than 15mpm), actual running pace was sub-10mpm at 9:52 which is much better than most long runs I have done in past. Also the weekly mileage now stands at 41.4mi which beats my mileage PR of 39mi at a peak last year. And its "bare"ly end of first month into the training!

I guess, the new lesson learnt today is that running barefoot REQUIRES full alertness otherwise the form deteriorates and within seconds the feet start hurting. Couple of times I got lazy and that caused abrasion on sole reminding me about being alert. Looking at the positive side of this limitation is that staying in good form and pace made it easy for me to run more than my target 16mi. Even after getting home, I wasnt hurting too bad and could easily balance on one leg while scrubbing the other bent in shower. It sounds weird but i dont think I could do that after my previous long runs in shoes. Balancing is the first thing we loose after long runs. It will become clear in couple of days as I see intensity of DOMS developing. I am pretty sure I am not injured anywhere but limiting DOMS would be so nice.

Other interesting part of my run was that I continued to run very fast on grass portions whenever I could; typically at 8mpm pace. I am now convinced that running fast uses different set of muscles and actually makes the rest of the run easy as long as I get the heart rate to drop back quickly before lactic acid builds up. It was a lot of fun being passed by people only to pass them again in later while running in grass and then again get passed. 

Few cool stats:

Fastest Half marathon distance: 2:05hrs @9:30mpm

Fastest 10K distance: 56:55min @9:09mpm

Fastest mile split 8:26mpm

Fastes half mi split: 7:30mpm

Avg HR: 165bpm (exactly 80% of max...LT is around 175bpm/85%)

Max HR: 188bpm (92% of max!)

Ironically, the only real regret I have is that the run finished before the rain storm. Now its raining outside but obviously I cant go run:-( If it wasnt for the organized run, I probably could have pushed the run till it started raining. I still havent explored if I can run long enough in rain given higher chance or blister/puncture due to softening of skin. But that will have to wait for another day:-)

BF in NY for 325mi

"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

First Barefoot run in real rain and also on rough bridal path

As I had mentioned earlier, I had been dying to do for a run in the rain. And then I saw this quick rainy storm heading for Manhattan on weather.com radar. Despite a bit of soreness due to fast race yesterday, I decided to go for the run. Moreover, I decided to run on bridal path (meant as a horse path) which is substantially rougher than the reservoir loop. Funny how one never almost notice this difference in shoes but for barefooter this can make a big difference.

Anyway, the portion of the bridal path with dry water channel and portion regularly used by cops cars was full of these large stones which was kinda painful. Rest wasn't so bad. In fact, I discovered the longest stretch of pristine grass field I have seen in the park just at the north end of bridal path which was just heavenly to run on. After two loops on bridal path, it started raining and I just could not run on it so I moved to reservoir path for my third loop. 

The rain just kept getting harder and the reservoir path turned into a giant channel of water. I tried to avoid it for few minutes but then gave up quickly. It was so much fun running straight through it. It was also fun watching runners with shoes jumping around avoiding water. It was slightly painful but I dont think I got blisters at all. I would do it in a heartbeat again. The rain turned a slow 4miler recovery run into fun 7mile run at 10:30 pace. Mileage for this week now stands at 33mi which is not bad at all. Also having done 4mi on the tough bridal path, I think I am prepared to do part of the 8mi long run next week (with the flyers marathon team) on bridal path. 

BF for 143mi

Forth 5miler in four weeks

I ran my third barefoot race. Since last two went pretty well, I ran it less conservatively and managed to shred 20sec per mile. The splits were 8:57, 8:43, 8:30, 9:03, 7:52

 The weather was hot and humid and it was hard running on abrasive central park loop in heat. Also the "showers" set up by nyrr every mile were great but made it easy for foot get blisters. I was lucky that the race was just 5miles otherwise I could have had blister problem.

As usual, it was a negative split race. Also I got more questions about my vibrams after the race than barefooting. I also realized that now I have learnt which parts of central park loop have grass or dirt walkpath next to it which I can run for a while. Also there were no aches after the race...at all. This is in stark contrast with pretty much every race I have run before with shoes. I continue to believe that this is primarily because I am running the races very conservatively when barefoot. The primary focus for me is to build barefoot mileage per week at this point up to say 40mi/week including long runs. So speed takes a backseat. 

But I am very optimistic about running fast miles after running a sub-8min mile today. In fact the speed at finish-line was incredible 6:30min/mile and it did not feel too hard. Interestingly enough I was just 40sec behind the exact same race last year in shoes in similar hot weather (which was technically a PR for 5mi distance though I have faster PRs at longer distances) . So I am looking forward to beating my previous year's race timings later in the season.

BF for 136mi

I spent some time going through websites which talk about how keyboard is dirtier than toilet. The stats suggest that public restrooms (incl gym showers) floors roughly have about 2million/Sq inch bacteria. As one can imagine, if a public place has a lot of people walking in with shoes and have damp, dark and warm-enough floor, the bacteria will multiply within minutes. Compared to this, the kitchen floor next to sink has about 500bacteria/sq inch as this part of floor does get wet every now and then but does not see too many of shoes. The outdoor road, especially one which is typically dry and sees sunlight regularly is likely to have 200bacteria/sq inch bacteria as bacteria just cannot multiply without water and in direct sunlight. This is especially true if the surroundings gets a clean slate start every year after brutal winter (for them!) like the one we have in New York city.

So doing simple math, for every barefoot step I take in gym shower room exposes me to  roughly same number of bacteria as 10,000 steps on outdoor roads. With 200 steps per minutes thats about 50min of running. So if a walk from lockers to shower and back is 30 steps, thats amounts to 25 hours of running outside. Since I never run more than 10hrs in any one week, I conclude that I just need to avoid one visit to Gym to make up for exposure to bacteria. (And all this doesnt even correct for me going through three rounds of scrubbing with antibaterical soap when I get home)

Mile count for the year is 300mi and about 700mi to go in 6months. That's about 27mi a week. My last week was 29mi and this week is 13mu ahead of about 12mi weekend runs. So I am right on target and likely to put extra miles "in the bank" with the marathon training coming up.
Hemant
BF for 135Mi

Rest day after a long barefoot running week

Last week was pretty productive with about 30mi of running including a 11miler fun run and a 5mi race. The sprained ankle did show some life during both these runs so its best to give it a rest for a day.

But truthfully, I could not keep myself inside today. The legs really feel strong despite all this beating last week. The ground was cooling off from a hot day due to a quick shower and I was curious how it would feel running on steamy clean sidewalks and running path. Something I would almost wont even think about with shoes on. I am dying to run in a real rain ever since I had the race last week on wet surface. It just adds so much more fun to the run. There is 30% chance of rain at 6am tomorrow morning so I will keep my fingers crossed.

Oh, I also read first half of the book barefoot hiker yesterday. Its a fun to read a hiker's perspective on the barefoot experiment. I especially liked the phony straps on feet which fool people's peripheral vision into believing that you are wearing flip-flops. I should try it sometime. Of course running in flip-flops would be frowned up on as well which is a different story.

Second barefoot race and 100mi total achieved

Today I ran my second race barefoot. It was a little slower than last week's race as planned following the 10 miler yesterday but I felt much stronger finishing. The mile splits were 9:36, 9:40, 9:20, 9:16, 8:06.

The race was organized by Achilles club and was full of very inspirational runners with assistive technology. In a way, not having shoes made me appreciate the difficulty running with less than ideal physical condition. I can imagine those adjusting to running in prosthetic limbs having to learn to run from scratch. Also the spectators were lot more enthusiastic than usual and accepting for my barefoot run. I did hear someone driving (!) shouting "what an idiot" to me. Ouch!

Btw I made it past 100mi mark this week. I remember when I was wondering if I could do 100mi in ALL of 2008. So far so good.

Also most notably the regular calf pain after the runs is gone which is a huge improvement. Looks like my calf muscles have adapted to not having heels raised. On blister front, the last one I got was during my only shoe run in months (need for speed relay race I ran in near 100 degrees). No blisters on sole during the two longish runs this weekend. Of course I haven't really tested running barefoot in very hot weather yet. (The vibrams do leave very painful blisters on back of the feet and I need to do something about them. )


Barefoot running count: 110mi (incl 26mi in vibram)

Back into training

After the race last weekend, this week has been very fruitful in training. Mile count for the week is about 21mi with a 5mi race tomorrow still to go.  After a recovery from the ankle sprain, this week I got a tiny splinter. Just like the sprain, the I am not sure if the splinter happened during the run as I didn't feel anything during the run at all. But due to the splinter and related opening, I thought it was prudent to stick to "vibram fivefinger" for few runs. So I did a 5mi training run and a 10.5mi today in vibram as well. Ironically I am now terrified to running in vibram because I get blisters in them due to the tight fit. Running barefoot seems to much free of head ache. 

Today's run was interesting for couple of reasons. It was my first group run with the flyers which was fun. Secondly the run had a theme of arches in bridges in central park and I visited parts of central parks which I didn't even know existed. The flyers are fun group and were asking me a lot of questions about the vibram shoes. It was also a lot of fun running in vibrams on some of the very uneven trails in central park. 

Finally, I have another 5miler coming up tomorrow. And just like last week, tomorrow is supposed to be a rainy day. But I feel much better running the race tomorrow. I am a bit sore from the 10.5mi run today which was by far the longest (albeit with a lot of breaks) run barefoot to date. So I will be taking it easy tomorrow.

Day after race

The race felt really good but in retrospect, I probably ran too fast. The ankle sprain from two weeks is showing signs of a come back. I cannot afford to loose another week on this. Also interestingly enough the calfs are in a funny sort of pain. Its not DOMS but just lack of control on balance. I almost felt like a baby trying to balance on leg without support. Makes me wonder how much we take for granted the natural solid base shoes provides. Balancing is very complex and with those tiny muscules around ankle weakened, calfs were having hard time compensating. Very very wierd feeling. Fear of unknown injury will keep me from training today but I will start running in couple of days.

My First Barefoot Race

Today was a big day. I ran my first barefoot race. It was a five miler which I ran at about 9mi/mile pace. Here are the splits with the usual negative split: 9:25, 9:10, 9:34, 8:35, 8:17

I have never ran in rainy wet weather. I seriously considered running the race in vibram given that I had never run on wet surface before, let alone wet humid and hot weather. Theory is that wet surface makes the sole soft making it to much more suseptible to friction and blisters. But there was no problem at all. In fact now I am starting to think that running fast barefoot may be less likelily to cause blister than slow running.

The race itself was a lot of fun. Right before the finshline a cute girl made some complimentary remarks about running barefoot in the race while passing me. I picked up my pace to 7min/mile pace party due to that and, yes, partly due to her PASSING me. But she was pretty fast and I only saw her after finishline. She said something to the effect that there should be a separate category for barefoot running. Now wouldnt that be nice.

Also it was just devine running through rain water puddles and moist cool grass. There was even some guilty pleasure in stepping in the mud. But right around the corner near E95th st, I almost slipped on mud. That would have been a disaster. I must have looked pretty funny trying to balance myself running in dirty muddy surface. But, all in all, my soles were pristinely clean at finishline due to all the water which was pleasant. Everytime I train barefeet I get greyish soles. I put on my vibrams after the race for my bike ride back. I got questions about them which I thought was funny since I didnt run in them. I took the easy path out and mentioned that they are great to run on wet surface since they are designed for kayaking. I think its too early for me to get into serious dialogs about barefooting with other running while I am still experimenting.

Back in training and racing

After over a week of break due to twisted ankle, I made a come in a big way last weekend. I ran a relay with a flyer team up in Westchester. As such 50mi relay in mountainous region is pretty adventurous. The near 100 degree temperature definitely pushed it into borderline insanity. Fortunately my team kept its "cool" and we had a lot of fun. Frankly I had a pretty hard time even to avoid walking for 5mile leg and I was amazed at rest of the teammates running much longer distances in such conditions.

Unfortunately the race got canceled right after my leg just about 40miles into the run which kindda sucked but by 3pm it was getting pretty toasty running on streets and perhaps it was for the best.

Anyway, there was no way I could have run barefoot on concrete sidewalk in such heat so I ran in my frees. I even managed to get a small blister running in shoes on such a small run which I thought was funny. But I am now fully recovered from all injuries and squeezed in two 5mi barefeet runs in 80 degree heat this week.

Today is another big day. I am seriously considering running my 5mi fathers day race today barefoot. I did do a 5mi run yesterday on hot rough surface so I am a bit concerned about getting a blister today. So maybe I might carry my vibram 5fingers shoes in hands just in case. It is also a bit intimidating running barefeet among five thousand shodded runners stomping the ground. Not to mention facing variety of reactions from such a large group. I wonder if I am ready yet to defend barefoot adventure to those who think its taboo to get out of shoes in public. Sometimes its good to be in this crazy town full of nuts as pretty much anything goes in nyc. So there is good chance I can get away with barefoot running in the race. Certainly nonbody has bothered me so far on my training runs. But let's see how it goes.

Cheers
Barefoot mile count 76mi

NYTimes article on Barefoot in NYC parks

Another interesting article about going barefoot in New York City parks. The article talks about specific health hazards and also touches on why it might be worth the risk.

Barefoot in the Park? Watch Your Step
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
People have walked barefoot in the grass for thousands of years, and barefoot in New York City’s parks at least since the days of Olmsted and Vaux. Neil Simon wrote a play about it, and Robert Redford and Jane Fonda starred in the movie.
As sun blankets the city, many people hardly think twice before shedding their inhibitions — and their shoes. Neither New York’s health department nor the parks department has any rules against going barefoot on the city’s streets or in its parks, officials said.
But while many doctors say there is nothing wrong with walking barefoot in New York, some see small but definite risks. They range from the obvious, like contracting tetanus from stepping on a rusty nail, to the invisible, like developing athlete’s foot from walking in wet grass.
“When something doesn’t happen to you, you don’t consider yourself lucky,” said Dr. Judith Hellman, a Manhattan dermatologist and assistant professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “But when you go barefoot, you are exposing yourself beyond what you really need to.”
Don’t tell Thao Le, a business development coordinator who, if not for a drizzle, might have been among the regulars going shoeless in the emerald green of Bryant Park in Midtown the other day.
“You take off your shoes, it’s the best,” said Ms. Le, 40. “You’re in tune with Mother Nature.”
But, the experts say, it is the grass in many city parks, so innocent-looking, so tempting, so redolent of the free-spirited days of childhood, that may pose the most unexpected risks, because unlike a rusty nail, they are invisible to the naked eye.
Bacteria are everywhere, from the sidewalks to the subway, and normally, the skin forms a fairly good barrier to infection, doctors said. In general, people with cuts or cracks on their feet or people with compromised immune systems are more likely to pick up an infection from walking barefoot. But getting wet feet by walking barefoot in damp grass can damage the skin’s natural barrier, allowing infections to take hold, said Dr. Giuseppe Militello, an assistant professor of clinical dermatology at Columbia University.
People could be vulnerable to infection from three main types of organism from going barefoot in the grass, he said, including pseudomonas bacteria, the type of fungus that causes athlete’s foot, and the virus that causes plantar warts.
“These organisms are found in the common environment,” Dr. Militello said, “and you need to give them the right conditions to infect you.”
The right conditions can be found in many manicured city parks, he said, where the grass is moist and shaded, well-watered by automatic sprinkler systems, and well-trampled by thousands of feet, shod and unshod, human and animal, carrying countless infectious organisms.
“It resides in the grass and earth, you pick it up and it festers in your shoes,” Dr. Militello said. “I think the best thing to do is to wear sandals or flip-flops or to just not get your feet wet. And when you do get your feet wet, thoroughly dry them before putting your shoes back on.”
Dr. Jessica Sessions, a pediatrician at the William F. Ryan Community Health Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, said she hated to be a spoilsport, but nonetheless recommended that her patients wear shoes outdoors. “At least if it’s on your shoe, you take your shoes off at the door,” she said. “If it’s on your feet, you bring it all into the apartment.”
Adrian Benepe, the city’s parks commissioner, reacted warily at first when asked for his recommendation about going barefoot in the park. “My official view is there’s no rules against it,” he said. “However, in certain areas, like playgrounds, we do advise people to wear shoes, particularly children.”
The black rubber surface of some playgrounds can get burning hot, he said, and people could stub their toes or step on broken glass.
But Mr. Benepe admitted that he allowed his own children, now 17 and 21, to go barefoot outdoors, “and they managed to survive.”
He even confessed to having done it himself on many a beautiful summer day. Mr. Benepe said that doctors, knowing the worst that can happen, “are going to be cautious; that’s the nature of doctors.”
Jerome Barth, the operations director at Bryant Park, works hard to keep his grass looking pristine. It is an acre and a quarter of Kentucky bluegrass, the strips of turf unfurled on top of six inches of sand and replaced twice a year.
It is picked clean of litter three to four times daily; trod by about 1,200 pairs of feet on a typical warm sunny afternoon at 1:15, its busiest time; watered at night; and photographed daily from the 31st floor of a nearby building to detect imperfections that cannot be seen at ground level.
Yes, Mr. Barth has shed his shoes outdoors — “mostly on weekends when I have brought my little girls to the park,” he said — with no ill effects.
“It is pleasant,” he said in an e-mail message. “Do you recall that scene in ‘Pretty Woman’ where Richard Gere walks barefoot on the grass? The imagery suggests that he does so to reconnect to his premogul persona. Well, I think there is a bit of that in every ‘barefoot walk,’ one feels a touch closer to nature.”
Too close to nature, according to Dr. Militello.
He said he never touched bare toe to public parkland. “If I’m in the park, I put a blanket down, and I’m on that blanket and I don’t venture off,” he said. “The only place I go barefoot is on the beach.”
In the worst case, pseudomonas bacteria — which Dr. Militello says has a “very pungent, vinegary smell”— can be fatal if it gets into the lungs or bloodstream, as it sometimes does when it is contracted at hospitals. (Such a serious consequence, he said, is an unlikely outcome of a skin infection, whose symptoms would typically be limited to redness, pain and pus.)
A parasite like hookworm, carried in dog or cat feces, could also be picked up in a sandbox or dirt, though it is more common in the warmer Southeast, doctors said. Hookworm can cause a rash, or more seriously, anemia.
Dr. Mitchell Greenbaum, a podiatrist affiliated with St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, on Long Island, says he has seen more sprained ankles and stubbed toes than infections from bare feet.
Diabetics are more prone to foot injuries, he said, because they tend to have limited sensation in their feet and may unwittingly step on hot surfaces or sharp objects.
But Dr. Hellman, the dermatologist, said that outside of the obvious hazards, danger could lurk in even the most innocuous places, like a rose or a lawn.
Grass can be sharp enough to cut, she said, allowing bacteria or parasites to enter the skin. Rose bushes can transmit a fungal infection called sporotrichosis. The fungus could be injected into the body, she said, just by stepping on a thorn.
But for many people, the joy of feeling the cool grass underfoot may outweigh one of its consequences, bromhidrosis, known colloquially as stinky feet, which is caused by bacteria that thrive in moist places — and thus is a risk of putting wet feet back into shoes and free spirits under wraps again.

Interesting article about barefooting in nyc

I am still injured so I decided to spend sometime doing internet research instead. I saw this interesting article about barefooting in NYC. The author stopped short of actually going barefoot but talks about experience of transition to minimalist shoes.

http://www.malepatternfitness.com/story/2008/5/8/92812/66193

This story ran a couple of weeks ago in New York magazine, but I just got around to reading it today. The big idea:

Shoes are bad. I don't just mean stiletto heels, or cowboy boots, or tottering espadrilles, or any of the other fairly obvious foot-torture devices into which we wincingly jam our feet. I mean all shoes. Shoes hurt your feet. They change how you walk. In fact, your feet -- your poor, tender, abused, ignored, maligned, misunderstood feet -- are getting trounced in a war that's been raging for roughly a thousand years: the battle of shoes versus feet.

Last year, researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, published a study titled "Shod Versus Unshod: The Emergence of Forefoot Pathology in Modern Humans?" in the podiatry journal The Foot. The study examined 180 modern humans from three different population groups (Sotho, Zulu, and European), comparing their feet to one another's, as well as to the feet of 2,000-year-old skeletons. The researchers concluded that, prior to the invention of shoes, people had healthier feet. Among the modern subjects, the Zulu population, which often goes barefoot, had the healthiest feet while the Europeans -- i.e., the habitual shoe-wearers -- had the unhealthiest. One of the lead researchers, Dr. Bernhard Zipfel, when commenting on his findings, lamented that the American Podiatric Medical Association does not "actively encourage outdoor barefoot walking for healthy individuals. This flies in the face of the increasing scientific evidence, including our study, that most of the commercially available footwear is not good for the feet." ...

"Natural gait is biomechanically impossible for any shoe-wearing person," wrote Dr. William A. Rossi in a 1999 article in Podiatry Management. "It took 4 million years to develop our unique human foot and our consequent distinctive form of gait, a remarkable feat of bioengineering. Yet, in only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot."

If we just accept the premise here -- and frankly, I can't think of any reason not to -- the big question is, what the hell can we do about it? The author, Adam Sternbergh, tried out some shoes that were designed to allow a completely natural gait. Here's his reaction to the Vivo Barefoot:

The Vivos are a totally different experience, since they're as close to going barefoot in the city as you can get. Barefoot walking should be easy to master, in theory, and Clark assured me that I won't need any special instruction. The first thing I noticed while wearing the Vivos is that each heel-strike on the pavement was painful. Soon, though, I naturally adjusted my stride to more of a mid-foot strike, so I was rolling flexibly through each step--but then I noticed my feet were getting really tired. My foot muscles weren't used to working this hard.

After wearing the Barefoots for a while, though, I found I really liked them, precisely because you can feel the ground -- you can tell if you're walking on cobblestones, asphalt, a manhole, or a subway grate. (Striding along that nubby yellow warning strip on the subway platform feels like a foot massage.) Of course, it's not often that you walk around New York, see something on the ground, and think, I wish I could feel that with my foot. But this kind of walking is a revelation. Not only does it change your step, but it changes your perceptions. As you stroll, your perception stops being so horizontal -- i.e., confined more or less to eye level -- and starts feeling vertical or, better yet, 360 degrees. You have a new sense of what's all around you, including underneath.

Later in the story, he points out that you can't wear shoes like this in the rain or snow. You'll get soaked or frozen. But I think there's another, simpler alternative: Keep wearing your worn-out sneaks.

Sternbergh mentions some research suggesting that runners' injury rates are much higher when they're wearing new shoes than when they're wearing older ones. I've mentioned this in a couple of the presentations I've given about how the media covers fitness-related issues. My big point was that magazines can't tell you about research like this because they get so much advertising revenue from Nike and Reebok. You, however, are a free agent; you don't have to do what magazines or shoe companies tell you to do.

I have a really old pair of cross-trainers that I wear to run sprints or play soccer with my kids. The rubber on the soles is worn down, and whatever padding it once had on the inside has been pounded into oblivion. And nothing ever hurts after I wear those, despite my lifelong history of foot, ankle, and knee pain.

I also have a pair of hiking boots that must be 15 years old now. I might wear them once a year. I went on a camping trip with my son's Boy Scout troop last weekend. We didn't do a hike, but there was a lot of walking and brush-clearing-type work. I was expecting to pay a price and be sore as hell by Sunday, but again, I had no foot, ankle, or knee pain.

So what's your experience? Have you tried any of the minimalist training shoes, like the Nike Free?

Injured!!!

First injury of the season is keeping me from running. Its just a little ankle sprain. I should be up and running after 3-4 days of break. I also tried a experimental inflammation treatment for the heck of it. I found it funny that DR sells Espom salt in milk cartoons.

I did have to do a 7mi run with shoes due to this injury just to be safe. I may use shoes for few more runs before going back to barefoot training.

Picture of my Sole

My sole after 66 miles and 1 month of training.

Transition to barefooting

I am changing the blog from nyrun to barefootinNY. I have started training I barefoot over last month or so and thought nyrun doesn't do justice to the blog anymore!

The marathon eve

Ah...14 hours to go. Still feeling less than 100% with a bit of headache due to the untimely cold last weekend. But with weather looking great, I am going for it. Perhaps I should pare down the goal to 4:15 from 4:00.

Plan of action:
Wake up at 5am
Leave home at 5:30am
On Bus at 5:50am
Reach staging at 7:00am
Waste time doing nothing: 7:00 am to 9:30am
Line up at 9:30am
First coral start at 10:10
My coral #7 so start time 10:19(@1:30 per coral)

false alarm... still cant sleep:)

Cant sleep!

Darn...cant sleep. This tapering is going to drive me crazy:) At least I have started writing for my blog again...even though both of my recent posts have been post midnight.

Just read another blog regarding chicago marathon by
http://averagemarathongal.blogspot.com/ Pretty depressing to see how weather can distroy months of training. Looks like weather in nyc is going to be okay. Accuweather has a 15-day forecast at 54/34 sunny. If actual weather is anywhere close to that, we are in for a treat. (interestingly there is snow predicted for the Monday....God knows how anyone can predict precipitation 15 days in advance when chances are the water hasnt even evaporated to make the clouds).

Anyway...Interesting piece of marathon trivia: Bush and Al Gore ran a marathon at the age of 44yrs. Bush at 3:46 (pretty respectable) and Gore at 4:54 (pretty average). Good that I don't hate Bush otherwise I would have had to shoot for 3:45:-).

Another interesting piece of trivia: running 4 hrs in nyc on a good weather day would almost perfectly get you placed at 10000...good target to beat.

Finally, saw the amazing story of http://womenontherun.blogspot.com. This is a group of amazing women up in Ogdensburg NY...almost 400miles from the city...commuting to the city to run 9 races and qualify for 2008 marathon. They are almost done! Few of them will be finishing their 9th this weekend during the Poland 5 miler. How can I complain getting to start-line being walking distance from the park!

Yaawnn....

Marathon training recap

I haven't blogged at all since May. This does not however mean I haven't been running. Quite the contrary, I have been training moderately for the NYC marathon. With 14 days to go, my tapering formally began this weekend. No more long runs, no more races. I have had enough of those for the year. 15 so far, excluding the mid night run...but hey, who is counting. The one which really counts is coming up in less than 2 weeks.

This is probably as good a time as any to look back on the training so far; as for all practical purposes, the training phase is over and it now only wait and watch. Perhaps its easiest to compare 07 training with 05 when I ran my first marathon at 10min mile pace (4:22). I definitely ran less miles and less frequently. I did however run a lot more races including 4 (5?) consecutive weekend half marathon (incl one at 18 miles). Ironically PR was the first half at 1:52 with speed sliding steadily since. At 1:52 PR, I can shoot for exactly 4hr (1:52 x 2 +0:15)marathon if weather permits. If weather is a mess, may be good objective would be to beat my previous time of 4:22.

In general, the training this year was very bipolar. The races were typically pretty fast at 8:30-10mpm pace while training runs were unusually slow.
Also, work was heavier while food and sleep habits were wprse than last year. But perhaps keeping it healthy and stress-free in last two is what really counts.

Other aspect of the training different was the race strategy. I am almost certain that I will be shooting for negative split. I ran all serious race efforts with significant negative splits. This is partly due to the fact that I ran the races as tempo training runs. But I am not sure if I could have gotten the PR without negative split strategy. This strategy is however going to be a problem in the marathon as this will be a all-out effort and with second half much harder than first, making negative split would require first half to be unusually slow. Original plan was to run first half below 175bpm but this would push first half to 2:05+ (I tried this in the nyc half) forcing expectations for second half at 1:55 which could be problem...serious problem.