I love running on tread mill belts...

         

I love running on tread mill belt material... but maybe not how you think...

My friend Boyd mentioned that the maintenance guys at his gym change the tread mill belts regularly.  I made him a pair of huaraches from scrap conveyor belt and we agreed the tread mill belt should be even lighter but give plenty of protection.

So... he talked a maintenance guy into saving a used belt for me rather than throwing it away... hummm sounds like a cottage industry of it's own... how many things can I make with this stuff!!!

I grabbed some old conveyor belt huaraches with which I developed a new lacing pattern and traced the pattern and hole locations onto the tread mill belt.  I cut them out, burned holes with a soldering iron and laced them up!  

I went for a very short run and can easily feel that they are very light and stable.  The 2 mm material is more flexible than my conveyor belt soles but it is not at all floppy... it seems ideal!  Running on a sidewalk is like silk, but you can easily feel pebbles that you would avoid if you were barefoot.  Running on chip seal was very comfortable.  I did not get any debris between my foot and sandal but I assume that will be pretty similar to any other huarache sandal.  These might be easy to clear due to the additional flexibility.

I have not run much since I fell a few times last winter.  It was scary because I did not figure out exactly what happened... I did not trip or slip on anything.  I had some pretty sore knees and elbows and have been scared to run.  It sure feels good to run again though, so I will take it slow and work back.  Last summer I was running around 20 miles peer week and did 2 half marathons... going suddenly to 0 miles per week was hard on my body!  I will be 65 in February, so I guess it is OK to go a little slow... as always, I am barely running...

Here is the roll.  Trace them from your favorite sandal or trace your feet.

I traced my favorite huarache pattern and hole placements for my "new" no-knots lacing pattern.  When the laces start to wear I cover them over with shoe goo to protect them.  I do not cover them right away so that they flatten down a bit.

Cut them a little outside the line first, then cut again to the line.  This gives a smooth, professional look!

Mark the holes locations or transfer them with a punch.

 

 

In a well ventilated area, use a soldering iron to burn the holes.

 

 

 Grab your favorite lacing material.  I am using para-cord here.  Cut to length and melt the ends.  Make some pointy ends to push easily through the holes.

 

 

 

 





The pattern above is sort of like a flip-flop but the 2 strands go around your second toe.  There is no knot on the bottom!

    
 My running tie
  My slip on tie

Happy huaraching!

Hattori Love/Hate continues...

Hattori Love/Hate continues...

Boy!  Do I love these Hattories!... Boy!  Do I hate some things about these Hattories!

After running in "free" huaraches, cheap flipuaraches and water socks it was quite a stretch to buy running shoes!  I decided to take the plunge with a great deal and good return policy at my local Road Runner Sports (Westminster, CO, 104th and I36).

After my first 4.5 miles in the new shoes I had to get out of them and finish with 1.5 barefoot.  That was a perfect combination!...

In the middle of my next run of 7.5 miles, I got to do about 2 miles bare on a side walk, then put the shoes back on to finish.  At about 6 miles they were causing pain on the ball of my big toe because of the edge of the rubber wear pads on the inner edge... great rubber, bad application!  I stopped, pulled the shoes off, found a 2 pound rock and beat the shoes until they gave up... I thought...  It did help a lot and I got back to the car OK.  The toe box issue was still not so good.

Before my next run I knew I had to do something about the restricted toe box and wear pad edges or take them back!  You see, Saucony went to a great deal of trouble to put "side walls" on the toe box that really bothered my feet!  Why do that???

So... when I saw the side rubber coming disconnected from the left shoe upper fabric, I felt comfortable pulling it away a bit more to ensure that I could remove some sidewall without unattaching the upper.  It lookeded like it was good for a try...

So... I cut it off!  Yep... brand new shoes... cut off the beautiful siderails...

Now for the other shoe... oops... the side rails on the right shoe were still firmly attached and I had to work hard to get them off!  (Good - tough bond!  Bad - Why different than other shoe?  First shoe siderail came unbonded on the first run...)

I had to do some undercutting and then pulled the side rail rubber off with a pliers.  not so pretty, but I did not damage the upper, so I called it a success.

The third run was about 8 miles and all on sidewalk, so I was able to go bare several times to give my feet a break.  I do really enjoy the shoes when they aer not causing problems!  I also noted some wrinkling of the soft inner padding... I may have to loose that!  I decided to give it a try to grind down the edges of the big toe pads to stop the pain they cause to the balls of my feet (In an earlier post I described doing a similar thing to the trailing edge of the ball pad).  I hit it with some course and fine sandpaper and appreciate just how tough that rubber is!  Cool Saucony!  Really great rubber... just extend it out over the 2nd metatarsal joint and taper the edges, PLEASE!

The fourth run was pretty good, but I still was not satisfied with the toe box... it still has raised edges!  I had little metatarsal stress pain with the less restricted side movement.  The pad sanding helped a lot and I did not have any issues with the soft liner.  I decided to make one more set of modifications...

I did some undercutting to cut edge relief grooves on the inner edges.  That allowed the last of the inner ridge to lie flat while protecting the attachment of the upper... hard telling if it will last...

I also decided to remove some of the arch support.  I do not need it or want it and I fear that it will cause me to slack on my barefoot form.  The trusty knife did a great job but revealed a small void in the arch area of both shoes.  I grabbed some silicon calk and filled that in and feathered the edges to anchor it.  Also hard telling how long that will last.

Well, I do not suppose RoadRunner will be too excited to take back these babies now!  I loved them enough to perform surgery to save them!!!

I took the Hattories back to the store to show off my handiwork.  I missed seeing my barefoot expert, but got to see other folks give me that..."you did what??" look while trying to remember "the customer is always right" - ya'know?

I got to take a look at the newly arrived New Balance Minimus Trail MT20...  tune in for my next post about that experience.
Barely running

Breathing your way to low blood pressure

Breathing your way to low blood pressure

I did an interesting experiment the last few weeks that you might like to hear about. I love synthesis, so everything I think about gets all jumbled together... lets see... running, tooting flutes, being healthy... should be something in that intersection...

When I got my heart pacer in November, the doc was concerned about my blood pressure. It has always been low (~130/74), so I never worried about it (low cholesterol too... go figure...). So, with my BP at mid 140's he said I should start working on it. I went to the web and read about blood pressure lowering exercise... Guess what... slow deep breathing is the best exercise! Just like the best way to breathe while running! Synthesis!!!... Then I got to thinking, what else do I do that requires slow steady, infrequent breathing... yep, playing flutes!... So we have a triple synthesis! I love it!

So, I set up an experiment -- The doc gave me a sheet to record BP & Pulse morning and evening, so I put that into a spreadsheet and added a "comments" column to track my "exercise". I recorded data with no exercise for a couple of days, except for the 15 ro so miles a week that I run and relaxing a few minutes in the chair before taking the measurement. Sure enough I was in the 146/84 range, with a few in the low 150s! (Pulse is great though, often in the mid 50s!) So, I started doing the deep breathing exercises while sitting in a chair relaxing just before the measurement. Wow! in a few days I was measuring 130/72!!! I could not believe it! If people paid me to teach them to breathe what it costs them for all the dangerous meds they buy, I would be rich several times over!

OK, so success! Now to add the flute playing. I expected that the results would stay level, but I would not have been surprised if they went even lower! Nope... they went back up into the mid 140s to low 150's! What??? How can that be??? I made sure to only play soft, medatiative, tunes, and not practicing hard fast Irish jigs! The only thing I can figure is that holding my arms bent close to my body is stressing my system... I can hardly play my ocarina because I have to hold my hands close to my mouth so long! My arms are so big that it takes quite a bit of force to fold them up that much!

So, for whatever reason, my early experiments with using flute playing to lower blood pressure have failed! Maybe that is why my blood pressure has gone up in the last 5 years! Nah... couldn't be, could it???

Back to barely breathing while barely running.

New Hattoris... jury is still out...

If you read any of my other posts you will see that I mostly use really cheap, minimal running shoes.  A while back the "fam" bought me some 5-finger KSOs which I blew through in 150 miles, so they have had multiple layers of duct tape, which is not working well anymore.  I also use conveyor belt huaraches, flip flop flipuaraches, water socks... on and on...

Last week on a 6 mile, I got pretty bad 2nd metatarsal blisters from my pretty bad water socks, so I decided I needed to try something new...  I just signed up to run a 1/2 marathon on April Fool's day... yes, I really am running!... so it had to be done quickly!  I went to Road Runner Sports near I36 and 104th is Westminster, CO.  They have a resident barefooter, Javier, so he and I talked the same language!  One of the other salesman was also a friend that I did not know worked there!  We started talking about shoes... he started talking about how to avoid toe blisters when you push off... uh... that's a no-no for barefooters... Javier and I looked at each other... the friend sort of drifted away and let us talk shop...

Javier says he always runs in Saucony Hattoris, so I gave them a hard look.  They have little or no heal rise and while they have pretty deep tread, the overall thickness was not too bad.  I succumbed and got a great price with a VIP membership!  Ain't money fiun... still a shock after my free huaraches and $6 water socks... oh well...

The Sunday blisters felt pretty good in the Hattoris after a 3/4 mile loop when I got home, so in anticipation of snow Tuesday night, so I slipped out of work a little early and hit a sand/gravel lake trail for another 6 miles.  I was concerned in the store about a arch support in the Hattoris but did not notice them when I ran a few strides in the store.  Same on the trail... I never felt them!  My barefootin' has developed some great arches in these old feet in spite of the warnings that going bare would ruin my feet!  What happened to "Use it or loose it"????

The blisters were still feeling great at 4 miles, but an old cross-metatarsal pain I used to get speed walking came back... funny, that was the last time I wore running shoes... So, I abandoned the gravel at 4.5 miles, did some foot stretching and noticed that the blisters felt fine bare... so... I took off on a sidewalk near the lake and did a good feeling mile.  I got close to the 6 mile plan - 5.64 if you want to know... pretty slow for me now too... ain't sayin'...

So, the jurry is out on the Hattoris!  They felt good, and a first run of 6 miles in them may have been a bit optimistic... ya think?  They are so light and flexible that I just thought it would not be a problem!  Actually I may know what it is... my feet are wide and are used to the wide open space of flipuaraches - ya'know?  I was a little concerned about that in the store and was going to try a 12 but the 11s I bought had lots of toe length and I did not want them sticking out too far beyond my toes!  What's a barefooter to do???

Road Runner has a good return policy and I may have to try that out!  I will see if they break in.  I need to do 3x6 per week for quick prep for the 1/2 marathon, so... wish me luck!

If you feel like joining in supporting me for the run fund raiser, it is a Polycom event to build a children's play yard in Africa via Right to Play.  Check it out!   Throw money...   Barely Running

http://righttoplay.akaraisin.com/Common/Event/Home.aspx?seid=4038&mid=8

Update 3/13/2012
Well... the jury is close...  I think I like them!  with the 1/2 marathon on April Fool's Day, I have to get some training miles in...  I need to feel comfortable in these shoes!  I got in 3, 6 mile runs last week and did about 1 mile each time barefoot.  The Hattoris felt good!  So far this week I have been sick and the days are drifting by... hopefully I will be able to hit the trail tomorrow!

My new Flipuaraches

Well... I had to call them something...

You may have heard of the flip-flop-man who runs up to 6500 miles a year... yep... in flip flops!  And, at 67 he is 5 years older than me!

I decided if he could do it, I could do it.  Of course, I probably weigh twice what he does, but why not try???  I ran a couple of miles in my flip flops and finished the 5k barefoot (which I often do anyway).  I hated it!  I constantly felt like they were going to fall off my feet and I kept catching the front edge and slightly tripping.  I gave up on that and just enjoyed my KSOs until they wore out.

I have made quite a few pairs of huaraches from the scrap conveyor belt material I mentioned before, and just could not get over the thought that the flip flops should work!  After trying several tying patterns similar to the Invisible shoes method to make them "slip offs" they looked more and more like flip flops with the heal tied up... so... duh... I went to the cheap store and bought a $2 pair of flip flops and a pair of 36" thick shoe laces.  I evenly threaded the laces under the sole up through the back two holes.  I put on the flip-flop, did one overhand knot behind the heal and then tied a shoe tie knot in front of the ankle.  I tried them out and they felt great with no feeling of having to hold them on.

The original flip-flops I tried were really cheap and the hard stiff foam deteriorated and compressed very quickly.  By the the 30th mile they actually hurt my feet more than running barefoot on gravel!  So, next I tried some expensive flips with some contouring.  They felt like wearing a pair of bad running shoes!  yuck!  Finally I found some very thin flips (I think at Payless Shoes?) that were about $10.  They are very flat, very thin (not 10mm thin!) and very light.  They also have a pretty good tread pattern on the bottom.

So far, I have put about 35 miles on them and the soles do not show much wear at all.  Maybe I will not be paying $100 for non-shoes again!  I love the fact that my toes are totally free to flex and feel the breeze!  They also make quite a conversation starter at work when I run in!  Here are a few pics.  Let me know if you try making a pair and how they work out for ya'... OK?

Conveyor belt huaraches

Invisible shoe type tying

my try at slip on huaraches

Flipuaraches top view

Flipuaraches sole view

Remember, I am just barely running...

1 Year Bare

1 Year Bare!

I turned 61 this year, but more importantly, today is my 1 year anniversary of birthday suit running... well, on my feet at least! I celebrated with a 5k this evening -- 3.2 miles, 50:38, just at 16 min/mile, 1 mile bare... barely running indeed!

Actually, most of the miles have been in huaraches or VFFs, but about 1/4 have been barefoot for the last 3 months - Cool! Mostly I have been on smooth concrete sidewalks and short chip seal sections. It feels good most of the time!

I have had no injuries. I got close once when I was not paying attention (can you believe it! just floatin' along bare...) and I hit a raised joint between 2 sections of sidewalk. Ones reflexes get very good, so my foot just sort of popped up from the impact and I landed a little harder on the other foot. I was very happy when I did not fall and got right back into stride with no pain! I figured I would pay for it later, but there were no affects I could notice. I was lucky that my toes were up and spread, so the impact was spread along the bony metatarsal ridge. Very cool. Lucky toes! Other than that I have had a couple of small blisters, but they were from the shoes/sandals.

My weight has gone down a little, but more importantly, my belts were on a middle hole and now are loose on the smallest hole... the doc is delighted!

OK, here are some stats...  Total miles -- 269.4

............................Beginning   Average    Recent 20 runs
Pace Length          48                49.8           51.6
Pace/Minute          62                78.6           77.0
min/mile                18.7              16.4          16.0
Marathon Pace     8:18              7:08          6:58
Weight lbs            265                                 255
Waste "                 48                                   43

Now that is Barely Running!

Barely Running did a 5k

Barely Running did a 5k

I did my first semi-official 5k today. I was a bit upset with my time, and I wonder about the accuracy of the distance measurement. I just measured a loop with my car odometer, then ran it and I was around 16.5 mpm. Today I was 17.25 mpm! I don't think so! I felt good and did not have much trouble with the hilly trail near my office.

It was a diabetes awareness run/walk with 145 participants who went out any time during the day. I went at 9 in my VFF KSOs and the sidewalk was already getting hot. I decided not to barefoot any of the distance, although it would have been a fun time to do it... prove the my office friends that I really do run bare... After a shower I noticed that I forgot to bring my regular shoes... duh... I do not like wearing shoes without socks and my Injinji's make my KSOs to tight... so I did the day in my regular socks! Really impressed my boss during my quarterly review...

I have seen 3 recent videos to encourage and chalange me!
-- This "Birthday Shoes" site has a great, short intro to Chi Running -- http://birthdayshoes.com/an-introduction-to-chirunning

-- This site shows the recent force plate results by Dr Daniel Lieberman, the Barefoot Professor. He is a strong proponent of the pursuit hunting theory of human evolution... I am a creationist, but I have no problem with adaptive selection working in a population. I think the original design was good and included change mechanisms that allow quick adaption with no need for millions of years. We have almost exactly the same foot and leg structures as the earliest human fossils they have found. The designer built adaptation into the system! This is a strong support for why barefoot is good! -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jrnj-7YKZE

-- This link has come around on the minimalist running site several times. The female runner, Jacky Juni, is so incredible in her running form! It shows a slow jog and a faster run at full speed and slo-mo. Watch the ball strike, watch the heal travel path, the knee and hip motion, watch the high cadence, watch the nearly level movement of the torso. -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CERyUWwWkOc&feature=related Think she can't run fast... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XU7Sddlqis&feature=related... shod and in minimal shoes - screamin'!

I also just spent 1/2 hour watching my grand kids run around. Their form is so perfect too! What a joy to be...
Barely Running