6.5 km trail run in vffs after two weeks out with a chest cold. Felt great out there this morning (crisp autumn morning air + sunlight; nice to be upstate and out of the city). Calves are pretty sole now, though. Likely to take tomorrow off to rest.
Yeah, the Twin Cities are pretty well-run, kind of like a mini Scandinavia at times, with a healthy respect for greenery and recreation. No mountains or ocean though, and the winters are too long, but Dutchie's Winnipeg is worse so I won't complain too much. . . . I would still prefer a nice, compacted dirt trail over my usual sidewalks and asphalt paths, but that would involve a commute out to the suburbs or beyond.Lee - Looks like you have some pretty good places (and scenic) to run. Its interesting to actually see the photos of the places you enjoy running. Actually I enjoy the many photos that people post on this site of their favorite places to run or hike. When you compare all of these photos there is quite a variety of terrain that people can run barefoot across. Seeing some of these photos encourages me to want to try new terrain barefoot. Would really like to try barefoot hiking sometime.
When you mentioned the part of the trail where you came upon glass, trash and rail road rock (that had to hurt by the way as that stuff is always so sharp unlike smooth river rock) it reminds me of some routes I once tried to run while spending some time down in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. For some reason there is not a lot of sidewalks in Oklahoma City. Just within the last few years it seems as though the city has been working on installing more sidewalks. One day while taking one of these routes in Oklahoma I came upon an area where the sidewalks ended so I had to run on some road which was full of junk and that's where I stepped on some glass. The glass stuck in my foot and I ended up walking (hobbling) about 4 miles back to my hotel. That was probably the day I decided to start carrying a pair of tweezers while on my runs. Especially when on my exploratory runs. Sometimes the exploratory runs can be quite enjoyable! Guess my soles where not as conditioned back then as they are now either.
Belated good luck on the race this weekend!A couple tenths shy of 3 miles last night, a hair over 2 at a slow jog and the rest walking, as my final run before the race tomorrow. Guess I'm ready as I'll ever be. My biggest concern now is the temps. Just checked and it dropped another degree or two. Now its saying 36F. Quite a bit of a drop from my coldest run around 60... going to be standing around for quite a while too, corrals supposedly close at 7AM but race doesn't start until 7:30. Might have to wear socks around and look a like a goof.
Putting in some impressive weekday runs you two! I've never been able to run that much on a weekday, at least one I was working.
Glad you enjoyed my momentary lapse into the naturalistic fallacy. I think a good deal of the MovNat / Functional Fitness stuff is nonsense (think about it: how 'natural' is it to do more than one rep of anything?), but I'm all for preventing injury. A good friend of mine who used to own a power-lifting gym and is the co-owner/-inventor of Zubaz, confirmed that the back pull-down can tweak the rhomboids. Still, a lot of lifters, particularly bodybuilders like Ahnold, swear by them for developing the lats. Since hypertrophy isn't my goal, and injury-prevention is a high priority, especially now that the effects of aging are rearing their ugly heads, I decided the exercise was expendable. I still have lots of 'unnatural' exercises in my routine (pistol squats anyone?), but none of them are heavy lifts--they're mostly for strengthening my joints or increasing mobility.glad to see you're dropping the unnecessary lifts. i always cringe watching people do those behind the neck pull downs. i understand that's a useful place to carry a log or person but you don't pull them down. nor do you pull yourself up that way.
Last winter was my second winter trying to work out the barefoot low temp thing. I ran a few times as low as a dry 36-37°F, but never more than 5 miles at a time. My feet were always warmed up ahead of time. It was always comfortable, but the surfaces were not terribly rough either. I did, however, have a problem with frost nip from dancing on a cool smooth cement floor for about 3 hours. I was barefoot and the cement never felt that cold. Judging by the general air temperature and the traffic going in and out of the house, I would guess it was around 40-45°F on the floor. My toes and the balls of my feet were injured for about a month from that. Quite tender. I even went into the house now and then, so had that warming, but apparently it wasn't enough. If you haven't run at the lower temps, especially for that distance, I would say err on the side of caution and protect your soles.My biggest concern now is the temps. Just checked and it dropped another degree or two. Now its saying 36F. Quite a bit of a drop from my coldest run around 60...
Nice! The mileages and heart rate. Sucks about the dull and grey though. If your like me its amazing how much I fell better and energized when there is a deep blue sky, or some impressive puffy clouds, but dull and grey is just depressing. Last time I did a MAF test back near start of summer I think I was at 142 beats and around 2 minutes slower than you! It was a bit aggravating trying to do the MAF stuff, and well my HRM died so I just went back to my usual training. Probably need to work on it more though.17.4 miles on a dull, grey afternoon. 8 minute average pace, 132 AHR.
About 59 miles for the week - all barefoot.
Yeah, I did, and well I was still far from toasty. I'm just not used to this cold, even with heavy socks they were still numb at race start. More of that in my write up I'll make sometime in the next few days.Wear something before the race to keep your feet warm...this has caused me trouble before a race. If you can start out with toasty warm feet it makes a difference for sure. Much better to look like a goof than start with half way numb toes.
Well I've been through two winters actually, the first winter 40 was about the limit, second winter not much less but some good days I did go mid-30's. But in all those cases that was just low mileage fun runs, not fast competition, and I had plenty off acclimation. My acclimation this year has been a few runs in the 60's, then race at 36 degrees I did wear socks like I said to moka above, but to no avail (well I am sure it helped a little). I havent been able to run in shoes well, and with warm temps I havent all year, so no way I'd try wearing something to my first marathon I'm sure that would be a recipe for disaster not having training in shoes. But there is a bright side... since its just the very first cold snap I'm sure the ground has a lot of heat stored and isnt all the way down that low. The ground is going to be a lot warmer on the first 30 degree day in fall than it would be on a 30 degree day in say February. It was a bit of a struggle at first, but the feet held up fine... more on that later.Last winter was my second winter trying to work out the barefoot low temp thing. I ran a few times as low as a dry 36-37°F, but never more than 5 miles at a time. My feet were always warmed up ahead of time. It was always comfortable, but the surfaces were not terribly rough either. I did, however, have a problem with frost nip from dancing on a cool smooth cement floor for about 3 hours. I was barefoot and the cement never felt that cold. Judging by the general air temperature and the traffic going in and out of the house, I would guess it was around 40-45°F on the floor. My toes and the balls of my feet were injured for about a month from that. Quite tender. I even went into the house now and then, so had that warming, but apparently it wasn't enough. If you haven't run at the lower temps, especially for that distance, I would say err on the side of caution and protect your soles.
Way to go 5t3ph! Congrats!Ran the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco today...
So I'll write up a report on the marathon, but I can say in the mean time that my first marathon was awesome! Totally barefoot, and I beat my sub-4hr goal!