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.