New Personal Best!

Super Bowl 4-Miler 2011 / Goleta, CA

Finishing time: 37:06 / 9:17 min. per mile / 16th in 20-29 age group out of 30 

              

I love minimalist running! I had such a great time on Sunday at the Super Bowl run. My sister came with my husband and I to race, and she ran with me. Husband took off and finished in 29:29, so we were definitely not slated to be running companions. Sister has long legs and is strong, so she helped me keep my pace up. I decided that 4 miles wasn’t long enough to have to worry about burning out, so I just went for it, about as fast as I could maintain, even up hills (of which there were many!)

The race wasn’t until 9:00am and was about 45 min. away from our house, so we woke up at 7 and had breakfast of a cup of homemade yogurt with chia seeds and honey, and a piece of homemade cashew bread with lots of butter and honey. I figured I’d have time to digest it all, and since I’m on a very low carb diet that emphasizes using good fats for energy (yes, saturated fats are good fats), I didn’t bother worrying if it would sit heavy on my stomach. We headed out the door and arrived in time to pick up our packets with 20 min. before race start. I would have liked to have gotten there a little earlier, but we didn’t run in to any problems. It was a small neighborhood race (only 253 total participants) so the atmosphere was very relaxed and enthusiastic, rather than anxious. I was able to get my ChiRunning body looseners in just barely before the guy said “Go!” into the megaphone.

We took off faster than I usually do, but since the only official races I ran last year were half marathons, what I usually do is pretty slow. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm, but not hot; a pleasure to be outside. I had a lot of energy and thankfully the breakfast sat perfectly on my tummy throughout the race. I didn’t need to drink any water and felt strong. The only thing that would have helped was if my calves had been in a little better shape. I should have started training more than two weeks before this race, after having not run for so long. So I could feel my calves at times, like going down hills, and I tried to use all the ChiRunning techniques I could while running up hills (arms swinging up to chin to give momentum, leaning from the ankles). I think I started passing people in the second half of the race because I knew how to navigate hills better, thanks to ChiRunning. I could use gravity to my advantage and when I swung my arms I could feel it giving my legs a break.

There were a lot of kids at the race who were FAST! In the last mile of the run, a small 9 year old boy named Jake buzzed past me. His parents were yelling “Go Jake!” and I ground my teeth, knowing I was just about sprinting and was definitely not going to breat him.  My heart rate was skyrocketing and I could tell I was at my limit, and the only thing I cared about was not letting the guy who I had passed earlier wearing the same green and grey Vibram FiveFinger KSOs to pass me back. That guy never did pass me, but Jake beat me by 10 seconds at the end. C’est la vie. I wouldn’t want to trample a 9 year old anyway. Just wouldn’t be sporting…that’s my excuse.

After the race we went to a friend’s house to hang out and eat brunch before the Superbowl party. I got to ride on the Harley Davidson that said friend assembled himself. I rode still wearing my running shorts, and I could just hear my mom’s voice in my head screaming “You’re going to kill yourself!” At least I put on my husband’s running shoes. Wouldn’t have wanted the Vibram rubber to melt off.

                                      

Barefoot Q & A Session

A college advertising student researching the trend of barefoot running found me on Facebook and sent me a few survey questions to fill out.  Here are my responses.  Hopefully they’ll help anyone interested in making the jump to kick off those thick-soled shoes!

P.S. If you’re already a barefoot/minimalist runner, I think it would be fun if you answered the questions below, too, and posted them.  I’d love to hear all your stories.
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How often do you run a week?

I am training for a half marathon on October 3, 2010, and am following a 16-week ChiRunning training program, which schedules runs three times a week.

What kind of shoes did you use before you started barefoot running?

Well, right now I don’t go completely barefoot on all my runs.  The majority of my mileage is done in Vibram FiveFinger minimalist shoes, the KSO model.  The sole is 2mm thick and allows me to run on more rugged terrain, but still keep the “barefoot” technique. Before my transition to Vibrams, I usually wore the lightest Asics I could find. That said, I do run a mile or so at a time on smooth paths with no shoes at all.

How often did you run a week before you started barefoot running?

I went from a period of no running for about two months (recuperating from a knee injury) to learning the barefoot technique.

What got you interested in barefoot running?

I noticed that my dad sometimes takes his shoes off while running to improve his form.  I had also been hearing about the barefoot technique here and there, but not until I read Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run did I go out and buy the Vibram FiveFinger shoes.

What are the benefits of barefoot running? Did it solve any problems/pains that you had previously with running?

One could write a book about the benefits of barefoot running, but I’ll give a simple list of my own experiences:
1. My legs are much stronger now, especially my calves.
2. There are moments in which running is pure joy, where I laugh at how effortlessly I can bound over the trail.  That never happened with shoes on.
3. I don’t feel knee stiffness/pain.  If anything starts to hurt while running, I can more easily correct my form and the pain goes away. There is soreness in my muscles the next day if I run further than I ever have (like yesterday was 10 miles), but I can tell it is the good kind of sore, not pain as with an injury.
4. I don’t get as physically tired during a run.  That might be because I’m in better cardiovascular shape now than I used to be, but I also think the barefoot form is more efficient for the body, and so less fatiguing overall.
5. I like the attention that either my bare feet or FiveFinger shoes bring when I’m out running.  I have very positive and friendly conversations with complete strangers.  It teases people’s curiosity enough to break down the barriers of communication that usually exist in this hussle-bussle world.

Do you run more/less often now?

I run about the same amount (three times) per week as when I was half marathon training with shoes on, but my mileage has increased to where a 5 mile run feels easy and even fun. It used to be that 2-3 miles would be tiring.

What are the downfalls? Did you have to break in the five fingered shoes? Did you get blisters?

I have not found any long-term downfalls. In fact, the positives just keep increasing the more I fine-tune my form.  That said, there was a definite period of adjustment.  I started out four months ago running only about .5 miles at a time in the Vibram FiveFingers.  Calf tightness was always my indicator that the run was done. I didn’t then put on my running shoes and go further, I just stopped and rested for a day or two. After a couple weeks I could go up to a mile, then two miles, and so on, making sure to stop if my calves ever felt really tight. Nothing else ever was overly sore or different than running with shoes on. The Vibram FiveFinger KSOs that I wear needed no “breaking in” period – I just had to break in my body :)

I used to get some blisters on the pads of my big toes, but now I use a product called “Band-Aid Blister Block” which looks like a tiny deodorant stick. Before putting the shoes on, I roll the stuff on the parts of my feet that would blister, and haven’t had any problems since.  One time the seam of the VFF shoes rubbed my arch, but it was because I hadn’t washed them after a long trail run and I think there was dirt in the seam.

Did something else in your life change when you started running barefoot? Did it inspire you to change something else? Did your other training habits change? Did you start eating differently?

Actually, I have been on a nearly five-year quest to maximize my healthy living style. It began with changing the way I ate (no preservatives in food, organic, low sugar) then to the products I buy (natural shampoos and other toiletries), and now natural-style running is my latest addition. I have posted a seven chapter story detailing how I transitioned into becoming a minimalist ChiRunner on this blog.  Look in the right column, about halfway down. Enjoy the journey!

WEEK 10 - Just a little bit more summer.

Week 10: Chi Running Pain Free Half Marathon Training Program: Long, Slow, Distance Run

Distance: 9 mi. / Average Pace: 10:26 min./mi.

So, I did it.  I ran 9 miles in my Vibram FiveFinger shoes.  And I’m tired.  Every week I add 1 mile to my total long-run distance, hopefully working my way up to 12 before the Camarillo Half Marathon on October 3. 

I went out to the beach today to run along the boardwalk.  It was a beautiful morning.  Sunny but not hot, breezy without being an obnoxious wind. The best part was having my dad come join me for this weekend’s run.  He’s an active runner himself, but we have very different average paces - he likes to trot along much faster than I. Our height difference (me 5’3” he 6’1”) is the cause, I think.  But I told him that I wanted to go slow, and he stuck with me ‘till mile 7.5, when he took off to finish the last 1.5 miles at a faster pace.  I, too, was able to increase my pace in the last .5 mile, mostly just to take my mind off how tired my legs were and get my lungs pumping more.

Having someone to talk to for those 7.5 miles really made a difference in how fast the run felt.  I don’t usually like to run with a partner because it takes my mind off listening to my body and keeping my own pace.  But Dad is obviously someone I trust to just let me do my thing.  Hey, I’m the one training for a race, right? :)  Plus, he has a lot of interesting stories and it’s nice to spend time with him doing something we both enjoy. 

Glad to report, also, that I’m blister and injury free up to this point in the training process.  My legs are really tired and a little stiff right now, even after a hot bath and stretching, but I know it will go away by tomorrow. I’m loving the minimalist running combined with Chi Running - I feel like a much stronger runner and have developed some nice muscles that I never new existed.  OH! And I got a new hat to replace the one I lost after my first half marathon.  It was super comfortable on the run today. Very exciting.

I’ll be posting two new videos of myself demonstrating the after-running Chi Running stretches that go with the before-running Body Loosener videos I posted a couple weeks ago.  So, more fun to come! Thanks for reading.

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Four highlights of the trip in regards to minimalist shoes

1.  Finally seeing someone in person (besides me) wearing FiveFingers.  I can’t believe I didn’t think to get a picture of her and I together! Oh, hindsight.  We were hiking up Mt. Diablo near Berkeley, and she was hiking down.  She asked if I had read Born to Run, (yes) and I asked if she had read Chi Running (intends to).  Her boyfriend said she convinced him to order a pair of FiveFingers, and that the year before she had hiked Mt. Diablo with hiking boots and it “totally kicked her ass”, but that day she was feeling fine in the vibrams.  We geeked out for a bit and then went our separate ways.

2. Wearing FiveFingers to walk all around San Francisco, on the Muni underground, at the California Academy of Sciences, out to dinner at a nice Italian seafood restaurant, up to the top of Twin Peaks for the view, etc.  We were on our feet a lot each day and my legs were never tired like I used to be touring around like that. Pleasant surprise.  I also thought I’d get more strange looks from San Franciscans, but it turns out they’ve all seen things much stranger than shoes with toes :)

3. Feeling the California coast redwood needles under my feet that formed a spongy mat over the forest floor was divine in FiveFingers. We hiked an 11 mile trail through Big Basin Redwoods State Park, and by the end, I was definitely tired, but my feet were still happy; no blisters or hot spots.  I much preferred that type of groundcover to the rocks that we encountered at Pinnacles National Monument.

4. Not having to bring socks. Just one pair of slipper socks for the cold evenings sufficed.

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