Category: barefoot

Back and forth…

Gas brake honk. Honk honk punch. Gas gas gas. ~ Homer Simpson

This week featured some great runs and a lot of commuting to Boulder for running and film festival activities. I am reminded, again, that I do not miss my commute. Surprised? I doubt it.

This year’s festival showcased a lot of great adventures and environmental movies. As a member of the jury, I saw most of these over the course of the past 4 months during screening events to select which movies would ultimately be shown at the festival and would win awards. Some highlights included:

  • Swift. Silent. Deep.
  • No Impact Man
  • First Ascent: Point of No Return
  • Signatures
  • Reporter
  • Making the Crooked Straight

Thursday, I did do a quick run around the neighborhood. Broke out the Vibram FiveFingers for the short spin and I still really like these friggin’ things. Definitely a cool addition to the gear list. Though I don’t ever envision doing anything more than a few miles at a time in them, I do believe that they help reinforce solid mechanics, improve foot and lower-leg strength and stability and provide a nice way to break up training so that a routine run becomes “something different”. I’ll probably work in a little barefoot time in my indoor workouts over the winter (*cough* today *cough*) to help offset the monotony of treadmill and short track laps.

Yesterday, I bailed on the snow to go to the gym and do surges on the treadmill. Mellow XC course for 30 minutes (10-minute pace) then stepped it up for another 10-15 to get in some nice, smooth surges. Felt great, actually. Since we got another foot overnight, I am heading back today to do my long run. Eldora opens this week so I’ll be hitting the XC trails soon and may toss in a snowshoe race or two this winter just for kicks. We’ll see how things progress.

~stubert.

Run, rest, repeat…

…and proud we are of all of them. ~ Maude Lebowski

Killer week on the trails. Missed out on a run on Saturday due to some water turning from liquid to solid in the old house pipes but managed to get that all fixed up in time to get in a great run on Sunday. Rach and I did get to go see Tosca which was simulcast from The Met. These events are just awesome. Definitely go see one if you can.

Sunday, I just spun around the neighborhood trails for two and a half hours. Snow flurries kept me company throughout and it turned out to be a great run. Finished it off with about 15 minutes of “barefoot” running in the Vibram FiveFingers KSOs and I must say, I really like these puppies. They do really poorly in the snow but otherwise are quite kickass.

Took Monday off then hit the Casa Trails again on Tuesday for a quick warm up then a series of 45 second to 1 minute surges. Really felt great. Working on a lot of new tricks after spending time with Janet Runyan and Matt Nasta last week. They are hosting a workshop on the 24th in Boulder. Anyone seeking to get some great gait analysis and mechanics assessment should definitely check it out. Worked on relaxing from my head down with particular focus on my feet, neck and arm swing. Feels great.

Wednesday, I hit the Betasso trails for some tempo work. My warm up was mellow but resulted in a PR for the loop then I kicked it into high gear for 40+ minutes. Betasso is a challenging loop somehow. Just steep enough to put the ouch on a person without a lot of flat terrain on which to coast. I felt a little hammered after the run and headed down to Boulder for the last night of jury selection for this year’s Adventure Film Festival. Mark the calendar (November 12-14), it is going to be a good one.

Tonight’s run can only be described as “effortless”. Took the KSOs out again for the duration of the run and just did a fun little Popsicle loop out my back door. (Well, front door, we don’t really have a back door at my house.) Just felt amazing. One has to be a bit careful with foot placement while running on trails with the FiveFingers but everything just feels right. Posture, stride length… everything seems really put together. One tends to run a lot “lighter” with these anti-shoes and I definitely could feel the difference. Part of the run was on fairly hardpacked dirt which definitely took a little getting used to and I don’t think I will be replacing my regular shoes anytime soon but I do plan to make “barefooting” part of my regular regimen.

So all in all, I am feeling rather awesome when it comes to getting my run on. And just in time for winter! This weekend should be a blast as I am pacing an online friend at the 24-Hours of Boulder race. Only know him through his blog and a few emails/messages back and forth. Should be fun. If you have time, spin out to the Res on Saturday after 9:00 to cheer on all the ultra runners. I’ll be there after dark if that works better for you.

I’ll let you know how that goes.

~stubert.

Fast. Furious. – Weekly summary…

Yo tengo un pato pedorro. ~ Pete Sabin

What a week. Way WAY too busy with work. Made me grumpy as hell but eager to get my runs in. Spent most of the week indoors but laid down some fast laps and felt pretty solid about it all by week’s end.

  • Sunday 11/9: Horrendous half, 13 miles, 1:53. This was not the workout I had in mind as I just pretty much suffered through most of it. Felt friggin GREAT on the downhill then things got windy, cold and ugly fast. I find it virtually impossible to run slow enough up hills at altitude to keep my heartrate down. By the end, I couldn’t keep it under control on the downhills. Plus I got nipple chafe. How lame is that as the proverbial cherry on top of a miserable run?
  • Monday 11/10: Recovery swim, 30 minutes. Good to get in the pool to wash away yesterday’s tears.
  • Tuesday 11/11: Wash Park runstravaganza, 7+ miles, 00:57. Now THAT’s what I’m talking about. Was down in Denver for meetings so decided to head to Wash Park for some laps. Was feeling pretty solid so I decided to step it up and lay down some good times. I have come to the conclusion, however, that I am an ugly runner. Who’s that lump plodding down the road over there? Oh THAT? That’s stubert.
  • Wednesday 11/12: Indoor half, 13.3ish, 1:44. Ok, I felt the need to really put the hammer down and had a 12-miler scheduled so I figured why not turn that into a half marathon and see if I can get my target pace for the full dialed in? So that is what I did. Painful? A bit… but I felt okay afterwards and am now feeling pretty confident about adjusting my raceday target to something below 3:30 since I won’t be at altitude. I’ll keep you posted on that.
  • Friday 11/14: LT 9-miler with some barefoot then swim, 9 miles, 1:09. Hit the track again because work kept me busy until after dark. Spun the first three miles at a steady 8-minute pace then turned on the heat for 5. Tried to keep a 7-minute pace for these but was redlined after 2.5 and had to back off for a little bit then crank it back up. Ended up finishing the first 8 in 1:00, which for me, is awesome. Then I did 1/4 mile slowish jog then 3/4 mile barefoot. All in all, a great training session. I then swam for a bit to cool down.
  • Saturday 11/15: Day two on the planks at the Basin, 1:30. Pete, Edy and I headed up early and made turns until it got crowded — which didn’t take long. The snow was decent and a morning of turns is better than a morning spent sitting in front of the computer.

Total mileage for the week: 42.5
Total time for the week: 8:15ish (including swims and skiing and whatnot)

All in all, a bad start with a solid finish. Starting to feel fast and definitely more able to manage the heartrate at higher speeds. Good stuff.

~stubert.