Go slow to go fast.

I learned something new today, that's for sure.  And it was a really fun run.  There's something really cool to be said about trail running.  I'm probably not equipped to say it at this point, but I know there is something really cool to say about it...help me out if you know what it is.

Nan and I did our first real training run together I think since she was in college.  We planned to do a 12 mile trail run into Eldorado canyon, but then it snowed 6 inches over night and was 15 degrees in the morning and still snowing.  So we did it anyway, because hey, we already had the babysitter.  And what else were we going to do...run 12 miles in the snow on the road?  Besides, I had been looking for a good excuse to test out my FiveFingers in the snow.

 It turned out that we went just over 13 miles, because we ran an extra segment up a long hill when we didn't know where we were going.  Nan went a little farther than me because in the last few miles, especially up the 13th mile which was a 400 foot climb, I was putting along MUCH slower than her.  So she circled back for me a couple times.  But here were my stats:

13.1 miles - running time 2:13:38 - 10:12/mile.  Elevation gain and descent: 1461 ft.  Avg HR: 147

Its hard to go very fast in 6 inches of snow, especially up steep rocky trails where you have no clue what you're going to step on next.  It really forces you to take quick steps so you don't come down too hard on an invisible rock.  It was really fun though.  There were a couple steep downhills with drifts up to a foot deep where we had to take it really easy because there were a lot of big huge rocks completely invisible.  Most of the trail though was pretty smooth dirt pack with only 4-6 inches of snow.

As I started the run, within the first mile I commented to Nan that I was almost certain my feet were not going to last for 12 miles in the snow without me getting frostbite or something and that I would probably only want to do a 3 mile loop.  The first mile or so they seemed to be getting colder and colder.  Then it slowly started reversing and by mile 2 I couldn't feel any cold, and surprisingly they weren't numb either.  As we stopped to go through a gate, I looked down and the snow was just melting off my feet and my feet felt warm.  It was a cool experience.  I had read that it would happen, but I certainly didn't believe it until I experienced it.  For almost the entire rest of the run my feet were perfectly comfortable and warm.  In fact at mile 10 when we were on the road, it felt refreshing to go through puddles and have cold water run over my feet.  It was pretty strange, but I was not complaining!  I was kind of in awe.  When I stopped to drink some water and stretch, it was pretty weird to think about having just run 11 miles over snowy mountain trails with nearly bare feet without discomfort.  It just didn't seem to add up...but aparently that's how it goes with barefoot running.  It tends to not coincide with the commonly held beliefs of our day and age, and yet it works wonders.  So what did I learn?  I learned that it can be completely comfortable to run in the snow with bare feet exposed.  And that makes me happy, because I live in Colorado and I like running barefoot.  Next snow run for me is going to be without the FiveFingers...when I'm on more familiar/smoother terrain.

Here are a couple pictures of Nan and I after the run posted on her blog 

It was about 30 degrees outside so I bundled up. Beanie, under armour tights and shirt, another long sleeve shirt and running pants, 2 pairs of gloves.  It was sunny but cold out.  It was a beautiful and very enjoyable run, most of it on snow packed trails, with a couple miles on the roads to and from the trails.

Ran for exactly 1 hour.  9:09/mile.  

Just took it easy, enjoying a fun barefoot run in the snow.  In general everyone at the dog park I was running through either looked at me incredulously or made some comment that I didn't hear because my ipod was turned way up as I was really enjoying running, and singing along to my favorite songs.  I just smiled and waved.  I was running at sing-able pace, and just really enjoying being out.  I noticed that not ONE of their dogs were wearing shoes, and they all seemed to be having a great time running around too.  Apparently you only need shoes to keep your feet warm if you're just standing or walking around.

After taking 2 full days of rest from running my feet and legs were feeling pretty well recovered today.  I ran for 50-55 minutes, about 6 miles, at about 8:40 pace around the track at the gym.  I just felt like taking it really easy and enjoying a slow run.  It was on the other end of the extreme spectrum from my last two runs which were in the snow, and it felt good to give my feet and mind a break.  Its a lot different running in the elements without shoes, you're forced to think a lot more about what you're doing.  Today I was listening to the end of the book Born to Run and just enjoying it for the second time.  I heard some good stuff the second time around that I must have missed when the kids must have been screaming in the back of the car the first time I listened to it.

6 miles - 46:17 - 7:43/mile avg - On the treadmill for 5 and then 1 around the track.

warmed up for only a mile (too short I found out) - then did 3 x 800 meter repeats at 6:30/mile pace with 200 meters at 8 min.pace in between.  After the last one my heart rate was in the high 170's.  I scaled back to 8:34 pace for 3/4 mile to try to get my heart rate down but it wouldn't go lower than 169.  I didn't warm up long enough apparently.  So I figured if my heart rate was going to be that high anyway I might as well run fast.  So I did another repeat at 6:30, except I stopped after 400 meters because it hurt my heart and I was kind of done with that.  Then I kind of suffered through the last mile at 8 min pace.

After 5 miles I got off and sat down, I was drenched in sweat.  After 4-5 minutes of sitting there my heart rate was down close to 100, so I went to the track and did another easy mile at 8:12.  That felt good, I didn't want to end my run on a painful slug-it-out note, because those notes aren't all that enjoyable necessarily...and I like to enjoy running.

Nan and I are in Steamboat Springs for the weekend.  It has been a really nice, relaxing morning.  We got up at 8 and ate something light and went to the fitness center.  I did 9 easy miles in 1:15.  That felt great.  Nan did 12.  We stretched and rolled our legs for a while, then went outside and relaxed in the natural hot springs that happen to be connected to the fitness center.  Ahhhh.  That felt good.  Breakfast at noon.  

It was -9 degrees this morning but really beautiful.  We're going snowboarding now for the rest of the afternoon, its a lot warmer now, its really sunny. 

Nan and I are super hard core when it comes to snowboarding.  It's nearly 1 in the afternoon and we just got done eating lunch/breakfast after sleeping in until 8, working out at the steamboat springs fitness center, and relaxing in hot springs all morning.  Oh yeah...and I guess we should sneak some snowboarding in this afternoon since we already have the free pass anyway right?

 Today's treadmill run was surprisingly enjoyable again.  I just warmed up really slow (9 something pace) for the first couple miles.  Then increased the speed for the 3rd mile to 8:40.  Mile 4 I increased the incline to 2.  Mile 5 increased incline to 4 - HR up to about 160 at this point.  Mile 6 decreased it to 2.  Then I just finished the last 1.5 at about 8 min pace with no incline.  It felt great.  Total time was just about 1:03 to 1:04. 

** I just noticed after posting this that today I ran my 100th mile in my FiveFingers...that was fast...they don't show any real wear yet, but my feet are certainly a lot stronger than they were 100 miles ago...I wonder how the ff's will be holding up at 1000 miles.

Today marks the end of my 6th week of running since I bailed on the running shoe scene, changed my form, and started running only barefoot or in Vibram FiveFingers.  My legs and feet have worked through many different pains and sorenesses in lots of different areas over the last 6 weeks.  I feel like I have come a long way and my body is feeling really great.  I think it is due to the combination of rest days frequently, massage therapy and personally stretching and massaging with a roller and with my hands, getting out there consistently, and especially focusing on and continuously working on my form during each run.

I currently have some minor stiffness in my right foot around my broken pinky toe, but I have noticed significant and almost immediate improvement there when I have done my own combination of rolfing/push therapy to my foot (which is simply trigger pointing sensitive spots and moving my foot and toes all around). 

It was an absolutely beautiful day to run barefoot.  About 35-40 degrees and sunny.

I did a loop around my neighborhood and then up a 1.5 mile hill climb.  I LOVED the barefoot hill climb and descent.  I wanted to do it again, but I felt like I should get home and get going on my work for the day.  I can foresee more hill runs in my immediate future.  This week I think I'm going to go barefoot for every run, my feet and legs felt fantastic today and I didn't feel like any tenderness anywhere was holding me back.   

8.1 miles - 1:10:38 -  Pace: 8:43/mile -  HR 149 avg - Ascent/Descent: 1064 FT 

Well that was LAME! I got nailed with a cold or something on wednesday that kind of wiped me out through yesterday.  Maybe it was a good thing because my legs and feet are feeling pretty good today with 3 full days of rest, and now my sickness is gone which is a relief, so today is looking promising...

I think I'm going to explore a new trail run for 2 or 3 hours when Nan gets back from her workout...I'm excited. 

Later -

That was fun.  It kind of beat the snot out of my feet and legs though.  I ended up doing the same trail I did a couple weeks ago in the snow with a slight variation adding another loop with and additional 500 feet of climbing.  This time it was a mixture of rocky trail, rough hardened ice/snow sections, a 1/2 mile of downhill in ice/snow I had to walk, and a lot of mud.  Good times.  It was very slow going for a lot of the time though because of the rough trail.  There were a lot of gorgeous and fun sections of the trail, then there were a bunch of really slow difficult sections where the ice or mud made it hard to go.  As I got higher and higher, it got better and better.  Until I got to the top and went down the north facing slope.  That was the worst section, trying to go straight down a steep hill for 500 yards of pure ice and snow coming down from the high point of the run.  In FiveFinger Sprints it's a lot easier to go uphill in snow than it is to go down...probably would be in any shoe though.  I had to walk/slide that whole section.  

Totals: 11.61 Miles - 2:15:00 - 11:38/mile avg - HR: 140 bpm - Ascent/Descent: 2,251 ft 

I tried to run in the shoes I was wearing to the gym tonight to try to remember what all the shoe hype was about. After 2 laps around the track I had to kick them off and go in my socks...ahhhhh, that was better. My knee was already getting annoyed after 2 laps with those shoes, even though I was trying to run just like if I was barefoot. If I ever feel the need to run in shoes, they are going to have to be light, flat, flexible and have little to no padding I think.

I just did 3 miles super easy tonight at about 8:15 pace to loosen up my legs and feet.

They're feeling almost totally recovered from Saturday's beatdown, tomorrow I think I'll feel like going for a little longer again.

I also lifted light weights for 30 minutes tonight.

Now I'm just about done with a 30 minute spin on the bike in the gym that went by almost instantly since I was reading people's blog entries the whole time.

By the way...anyone in salt lake on new years should come finish 2009 running with Nan and I and do the new years eve sugarhouse 5K. I'm working up the guts to run it in my shorts only. I'm not worried about my feet getting cold, but my hands...I don't know if I'll wuss out and wear gloves or not...you'll have to come do it to find out.

Merry Christmas! 

What a great day.  I love Christmas at home.  The kids woke us up at about 6 am and I guess I didn't explain the rules all that great to Abe because by the time we were out of bed there was already wrapping paper all over the floor and he had opened 3 or 4 presents already.  It was pretty funny actually.  I guess it was reasonable logic for him: it was Christmas, they had his name on them, so he might as well go for it!  Next year hopefully I'll remember to explain the rules of waiting for everyone in order to prolong his agony and suspense.

 After eating candy, playing games, eating lunch, playing more games with the kids, and taking a nap, I went for a run.  I felt really well rested since I only had run 3 super easy miles since last Saturday.  But I felt really good that I took the time off, because my legs and feet really appreciated the rest.  

Today I must have been itching to move though, because I felt great and I kept getting faster the whole run.  It felt so smooth to run today, I was loving it.  Mile 4.5-5.5 was a 120 ft steady hill climb and I just hammered up it feeling awesome.  By the top of the hill my HR was at 173 and when I crested it and started going down I felt an awesome rush of endorphins or something.  It was awesome!  I don't even know how to describe the feeling, but it was really cool.  I thought it felt like winning a big race or something.  Not that I would know, because the biggest races I have actually won were podunk town 40 person triathlons with no competition.  Anyway, it was a fantastic feeling, and was one of those many things that make me love running.

I ended up going out for 3.1 miles and then back for 3.1 miles.

1st 5K - 23:46 - 7:40/mile - First 1.5 miles were pretty slow warming up and running over snow and ice, then I started running 6:30-7/pace as I was on the dry street.  It was a lot of down hill.  HR:  152 avg - Ascent: 161ft Descent 280ft

2nd 5K - 23:00 - 7:25/mile - HR: 162 avg - Ascent: 257ft - Descent: 135ft - most of the run back was fast and clear road, except the last 1/4 mile of snow/ice that was a nice cool down anyway.

What a great day!  I love days like this.  Playing with my family.  Working out.  Resting.  Relaxing.  Life is good. 

It was in the low teens this morning in Salt Lake.  

I met up with my good friend Danny, we both happened to be in Salt Lake for the week from out of town.  We had a really easy enjoyable run for close to 2 hours.  It was great.  It's crazy how fast the time flew by since we were catching up on stuff and chatting the whole time.  I felt like I could have kept going for a long time at that pace which is a good feeling.  

I'm currently training to be able to run 30 miles on my 30th B-day in February and I don't care at all about how fast or slow I do it.  My only goal there is to build up the endurance to comfortably do that without needing a lot of recovery and without injuring myself.  Here are the stats for today:

13.1 miles - 1:54:07 - 8:43/mile avg - HR: 136 avg - Really flat, easy run along the JRP trail, redwood road, and the legacy trail for a bit. Some sections of the legacy trail were slower going due to snow/ice/crud all over the trail, but most of the run we clear asphault.

we went to the bountiful rec center and i just did a few easy miles and lifted weights and did pullups and stretched.  it felt good.

Today I did a 5K road race barefoot, there's a first time for everything right? Maybe...not. 

My wife Nan, myself, my sisters Emily and Ashley, Emily's husband Adam and my friend Steve Wilson went out to run. It was a fun way to end the year. Nan and I warmed up taking a 1.5 mile loop around the course and I was wearing a lot of clothes and gloves and my fiveFingers with socks. 

Then I stripped off all my clothes except for my really short shorts. It felt great actually, It was annoyingly hot with all the clothes on. It was in the 20's I think but it felt good. The weather was really calm and the course roads were really clear. 

We got to the start line after almost everyone and I was really surprised to notice that I was the only one around in bare feet. I mean come on, where was the competition? There were plenty of bikini sporting ladies and speedo wearing guys, but they all seemed to forget to take their shoes off for the coldest runner competition. 

Needless to say, and skipping to the end here, I won the award for the 'coldest runner'! A plaque! Hurray, it was so worth it. Mmmmm, ok , maybe not so much, the jury is still out actually, we'll see how the bottoms of my feet feel tomorrow. 

Anyway, the race was really enjoyable. I didn't wear a watch or heart rate monitor or anything which was kind of cool for a change. I just tried to not go out too fast. I ended up falling in about 50 feet behind Dane the 52 marathons in 52 weeks guy who wrote a book about that. I didn't know it was that guy until I chatted with him after. I couldn't quite catch him, but he said he had a slight advantage on me because he had done a 50 mile warmup run earlier that day. Advantage?!? I guess you could say that. Or that was his not so subtle way of saying he can totally kick my butt. But probably he was just using it as an excuse to share his running accomplishment, which is pretty amazing in my opinion, that he can run a 19 something 5K after a 50 mile run in the 8 min pace range. I thought that was pretty cool and kind of inspiring. He was dressed in short compression shorts and racing flats I think. I ran behind him the whole time and just tried to keep him in my sights and reel him in but I never could catch him. 

But I felt great. My legs felt fantastic, my heart felt great, and my feet felt great until the very end. And I didn't go out too fast. The whole time I could tell I was getting faster. Until the end which is uphill, and my left ball and toe were starting to get sore. I was definitely not used to running that fast barefoot. And because the ground was cold and I was racing I had a harder time keeping my feet from rubbing weird. I have never attempted to go that fast barefoot before, I'm pretty sure 20 degree weather wasn't the ideal weather to be testing out new barefoot speeds. 

As I finished the 5K I felt great, my time ended up at 19:39 which I was really pleased with. I thought I would be a minute or so slower than that being barefoot, I didn't know what to expect. And I know I could have gone faster if I had worn my FiveFingers. I couldn't really push the pace any more at the end because of the couple sore spots I was getting in my feet. 

Nan finished a couple minutes ahead, first for women in 17:48 I think. 

Now in the aftermath my feet are pretty tender. They felt fine until the end of the race but it was about an hour after that they started to feel really tender on the pads and big toes. We'll see how fast they can recover from that one I guess. They are getting a lot better now. I think I'll stick with the FiveFingers in that cold of race conditions in the future. The race felt great, but my feet had a pretty painful spell about an hour afterward. 

***next morning*** 

Ouch! Here's my plan from now on when I run barefoot: listen to my body. 

My feet aren't very happy with me right now, because I didn't listen to the small hints of pain signals my body was sending me. 

The pads around the balls are really sensitive and I have a blister on each of my big toes. When I ran 8 miles and then 10 miles barefoot over 2 days recently, my feet were slightly sensitive after day 2, but I didn't get blisters and they didn't hurt to walk on. This time after 3.1 miles they are SUPER sensitive. 

Remind me to listen to my body when I run from now on. To me, the pain and potential injury of not listening to my body is not worth getting a faster time. I'd rather stick with proving to myself what I can do without hurting myself. 

I'm pretty sure my feet will feel better pretty quickly, but I still don't think its in my best interest to run faster than my feet are ready for. 

It was a fun race though. And now I have more experience and understand my body and current fitness level better. 

***Later on at night*** 

My feet feel pretty good now and my blisters have died down so I'm good to go for a run with jun and scott tomorrow in the ff's

***Next day***

My Feet felt great, and I went for a 6 mile trail run in the snow with no problem and no sensitivity. I guess the sensitivity was just from a bunch of my skin that I wore off my pushing too hard and my feet recovered within a day. I'm feeling pretty pleased with that.