Invisible Shoes?

Invisible Shoes?

VFF KSOs are not what I would call invisible, but I have not had very many people ask about them.  Of course, I do not see all that many people while out in them, but they do get stares when they are noticed!

I have been doing well in the VFFs but had a rough time the last 3 miler I did in them.  I had to stop and stretch my feet after the first 1.5 because of pain across the metatarsals... my old nemisis...  After the second 1.5 I had to get them off!  Then the Injinji socks were off and I did 1/4 mile barefoot.  That helped get them back to normal, but scares me a bit about the VFFs!  I planned to do 6 miles that day and just couldn't finish.  Luckily, I have put in a few runs in them with no problems.  I do better in them on gravel paths... you get a massage while you run!  Maybe I just did not get them on right. My time was back to the over 16 range, but with the pain I was happy with not being over 17!  I had no residual pain the next day, so I guess they are right about listening to your body!

In the mean time I found a site about Invisible Shoes!  It is a site that sells sized huaraches, custom huarache kits, and materials for making your own.  I have been experimenting to find a way to permanently tie the strap so that you do not need to tie them on every time you wear them.  The guy on the site had a great design, so my conveyor belt huaraches are tied for the last time I think!  They felt good on a nice 5 minute trial run. I will watch to see if the heal strap stays up.  Traditional huarache tieing has the same kind of strap placement but I slip one ankle loop through it to keep it up.  This actually is a problem with my method because it pulls the straps down onto the ankle joint, which is bad tieing form.  Maybe this will improve my traditional tieing as well!  This is a much better plan for the kids huaraches too, I do not think they would have liked tieing them on every time!  The site has also has instructional videos and reviews by several customers. http://www.invisibleshoe.com/

Barely Running

Hot Footin'... not good...

3/29/2010
Hot Footin'... not good...

I am only just now recovering from an "experiment" last Tuesday. It started snowing like crazy in Westminster (North Denver), so I was not going to run outside! (some of the barefoot enthusiasts run in all kinds of weather, even snow storms!) I started to head to the car to go to my community indoor track... I get a little dizzy there running around 14 times per mile... a 6 mile run is a lot of laps!!

Then, it popped into my head... My building has an exercise room with tread mills I have been meaning to try... so I went to the car for my stuff, drove around to park close to the exercise room door, and headed in.

I do not have a very good history with tread mills. I find them boring and when I push, it is just like work instead of running-to-the-top-of-that-hill... ya'know? However, back when I was walking barefoot (did that for 4 years before I started running!) I once tried it on a treadmill while on a business trip. I was on there for 10 minutes and started feeling pain on the soles of my feet. I decided I should "push through it"... I am old enough to know better! I ended up with serious burns on the soles of my feet! I did not need medical attention, but they did form blisters and I had trouble walking for a week. Next trip I had "water shoes" which solved the problem. (Some barefoot style runners use those too.)

Someone on the Huaraches/Minimalist/Barefoot Yahoo Group mentioned running barefoot on a treadmill all the time, so I piped up with my story. They generally puffed up at my comment, maybe they thought I was exagerating. It could be my weight at around 265 pounds, I weigh a lot more than most of them. I think that does 2 things. First, it creates a lot of friction as the foot presses down on that rubber strap rubbing over the steel plate. Second, Although I try to maintain a 180 bpm pace, I still do not spring off the surface as much as a lighter person would, so I think I am in contact for a longer time. Surely that is true when I walk.

Last Tuesday, after a mile on the mill, I started to feel the burn through my mocs! I was a little surprised because the water shoes did a pretty good job of insulating me. Perhaps the leather soles are just not as good as insulation (although I like them a lot better for running!) I immediately started weaving back and forth across the surface so that I was not heating up the same belt strip. I suspect that it is pretty instantaneous heating and the weaving was not really very successful, but it did allow me to finish a 4 miler. I fealt so dumb later that evening when I started to feal the results of another burn! It was not nearly as bad as the earlier experience but it did knock me out of running for the rest of the week.

There are a couple of things I did like... I got to measure my pace length fairly accurately. That turned out to be longer than I had estimated on my odometer-measured runs. Not sure how to explain that. Also, I got to feel what various paces fealt like. I get winded pretty fast if I go faster than a 15 min mile for long (Remember, I am barely running!). I did run at a 10 min mile pace for 1/10th mile on an interval training session. On the treadmill I could just set it to the pace I wanted to try. I ran quite a bit at 14 min mile pace, and I think that will help me with confidence in the future. I know the "feel" better now.

I did 2, 4 mile runs so far this week and they felt great along the Highline Canal in the beautiful weather! No more treadmill burns for me! Be careful on the hot belt!
I am Barely Running.

Sub 40 deg and feeling great!

Sub 40 deg and feeling great! (Sorry, this is a couple of months old, but the blog was down and then I lost it...)

I have been looking out the window at work at the nice hill that I used to run up and down when it was warm... hey wait! It is 40 deg! That is warm when you have as much insulation as I have! Yesterday it killed me to be working instead of out there while there was light... I can always work when it is dark- ya'know?

So, today, I went out for a run at 3:00, then stayed late at work to finish the day - not too many people around to see/smell me... It was 40 when I left and about 35 by the time I finished with the sun setting early behind a cloud bank. All I was wearing was my KSOs, Injinji socks, shorts, long sleeved tee, and a light hat. I stayed very warm and did not need the wind breaker I had tied around my waist.

The goal today, other than just getting out, was to see if my time interval training paid off. Would I finally break the 48 minute mark for 3 miles? Maybe even a sub 45 minute??? It could happen! Well I will take what I got... 47:35! Can you believe that??? Three miles under 16 minutes! (I timed each one individually of course) OK, so I am barely running, but remember that other than the intervals last Tuesday I had never gotten below 16 in almost 100 miles of running... sad but true. So, today is a big day... I broke through the barier. Now it is on to 15. If I can get down a little below 14 I can challenge my son to do the Denver Marathon with me and skip Portland next year!

There is one technical item I have not mentioned yet. One of the runners on the huarache group named Harry brought up his study of using your arms during running. Most people I see running are flailing there arms around so much that it hurts to watch! On the other extreme, I have been making as little motion with them as possible. Harry has been learning how to use them right and sharing that with the group. For now, let me mention one thing I am trying. As you may remember, I have a rough time running down hill! Seems odd, but it is true. I just loose the floating feeling and easily start to slap my feet down, or go to a heal strike. Harry said to study Ryan Hall as he runs on YouTube. Harry's coach mentioned that holding your arms a bit foreward would move your center of balance foreward enough to stop the pounding. That sure would beat my current method of stopping, running in place, leaning forward... you remember the drill. I worked on this during my intervals and again today on my 3 miler and it seemed to help a lot. Pretty cool for a guy who is...
Barely Running