My Best Barefoot Race!

The USATF-NJ 8K XC Championship was yesterday. I ran it barefoot. I ran 32:49, was 2nd in my age group, and was 4th man on the winning open team and 3rd man on the winning masters 40's team!

Washington Crossing State Park was a new venue for this event. In previous years it was at Deer Path Park. Last year at Deer path, I ran the last couple of miles barefoot, after whipping off my spikes on the side of the course. I needed shoes there for the first few miles because of some gravel sections of the course that would have slowed me down too much without shoes. I ran almost a minute faster on that course last year, however my time this year may speak to the difficulty of the course, because a bunch of people that were in front of me last year were behind me this year. This new course is a three-lap course, with a decent amount of hill running each lap.

I am so glad I decided to go barefoot. I wasn't going to at first when I began my warmup and course checkout. I ran one lap and didn't feel that I could maintain race pace through one wooded section, full of roots and pine cones. The rest of the course was pretty much grassy trails, which was perfect. After my first lap warm up, I ran into a friend who wanted me to run another lap with him. I did - this time faster than the first lap, and I had no problem maintaining comfortable faster running throughout the section I was initially worried about. So my decision to go barefoot was easy.

And here is an interesting observation about the Achilles issue that has been bothering me on my left side. I am feeling very little pain from it today. The issue was one where the pain would migrate around my Achilles and under my foot to feel more like plantar faciitis. It changes day-to-day and even during the course of a single run. Over time, it has begun to feel more like classic PF. One would think that the day after a barefoot race that it would hurt a lot. As I said before, today it hurts less than it has for a while. I am thinking that wearing shoes is what actually aggravates it. Perhaps because I tend to run faster in shoes and I put more strain on the tendons? Or perhaps any heel elevation - no matter how slight - causes my calf and Achilles to stretch less each time my foot lands, and also contributes to my tightness in my hamstring?

Ten BF Yesterday after racing on Sunday!

Today I have DOMS = Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. I've got nothing to complain about. I haven't raced since early August. I jumped into the Joel P. Spector 10K with nothing but easy distance running, and ran 38:29. I am glad certain people were behind me that I worry about for the USATF-NJ Grand Prix. I wore my Saucony Killkenny XC flats for a road race. They worked great. I had little to no Achilles pain during the race, but had some during a 5 mile cool down.

Then yesterday was a perfect barefoot day. And for some reason I felt very good, so I ran 10 barefoot miles at Greenbrook Park. The grass was long and cool, and ground is finally saturated with moisture.

Can you see why I have DOMS today? It is because I should have forced a shorter run yesterday. But with an 8K XC championship race this coming Sunday, I need to maintain distance for the NYC Marathon by getting in lots of distance from Monday through Thursday. Hopefully, I will recover in time for the XC race!

BarefootSoles asked: "Anyone ever step on a nail?"

No, but I have nailed on a step...
...Here's one outa left field - but first go out to your car, remove one of the floor mats, turn it over, and press your hand against the bottom side... ...Ok, so you're back?.... Read on:
On Sunday I was running at the New Jersey shore after we were hit with what was left of tropical storm Ernesto. Our condo was on the bay side, so to get to the beach I had to do about 1.5 miles on the sidewalks and over a drawbridge. Probably from the storm, there was a car's floor mat at the beginning of the drawbridge, where it started to incline. The floor mat was clear plastic, and it was UPSIDE DOWN with thousands of small nail-like pointy things sticking up. I figured they wouldn't be cool to step on, so I ran around it and continued on to my out-and-back mostly beach 10 miler with no problem. But, on my way back, maybe a little fatigued, and running down the bridge, after going around a family on bikes in the narrow walkway, my left foot landed squarely on the upside down floor mat - and it wasn't anything like laying on a bed of nails, as I was hoping, where the pressure is so spread out over each individual point it becomes negligible - it hurt like hell (for a second). My loud "OUCH" scattered a few seagulls...

Running During Tropical Storm Ernesto

It was still raining and blowing fairly hard this morning in Ventnor, where we are visiting. I went for a run fairly late, about 10:15 AM, on the Ventnor boardwalk into Atlantic City. This was an out-and-back run, first half going north. I was running into the wind. Sometimes the wind was about 50 MPH. It was more concentrated around the bigger buildings. It slowed my running down and I felt like a kite ready to take off. The wind drove the raindrops and sometimes sand hard enough to hurt.

I ran a few blocks on the beach itself. The ocean was wild and rough. The surf was big breakers from far out. Foam blew across the beach from the waves.

One great thing about this run was I could run right down the middle of the boardwalk in AC. Normally I would have to be running around people and avoiding ones walking towards me at this time. It was also cool to see the few runners besides me who were gutting out the conditions. And some of the people on the boardwalk were surprised to see me run by.

It took me about 43 minutes to get to the Taj boardwalk overpass. Then after the turnaround with the wind at my back I was able to run much faster. It was effortless flying for a while! Amazingly, after some of the heaviest rain intervals, the wind stopped as if Someone flicked an off switch. For the final 20 minutes or so, the weather turned calm. Still, it took me only 36 minutes to get back.

This was a good workout for my head. It is days like this that make me think I am getting ahead of others who might skip a workout.

Heel Pain and The Miracle of Ice

I have a confession to make: I have had a heel issue for about a month. I think it started at the Escarpment Trail Run. This is a 30K trail race in the Catskills, over 3 major mountains, with about 10,000 feet of climbing. The trail is continually rocky, and it was wet this year. The rocks were slippery. Though it was cooler this year than in 2005, most people that ran it last year and this ran slower this year. I ran a little faster: 4:09 this year, 4:15 last year. I really wanted to go under 4 hours, but I saw that slip away. The down hills hurt more than the up hills again, but after going out much too fast in 2005, I learned to walk the hills much earlier this time.

Anyway, I kinda ignored the little twinges in my heel at that time and continued with 3 more races over the next week. The following Tuesday night was the RVRR Summer Series 5K XC race, which I ran fairly fast. Then the very next weekend was the River To Sea Relay. In that, I ran both of my major legs fairly fast, plus stepped in for half of another guy's leg. Totaled about 17 miles of race-pace running on that day. By then the heel pain was increased a bit. I continued to ignore it, though, and my training had not been too heavy for a couple of weeks after that. Yet the pain persisted. I am fairly sure it is not PF, but just some Achilles tendonitis. The pain was kind of moving around. And it would hurt less when warmed up. By the beginning of this week it was hurting with every step, which isn't good.... So I decided it was time to do something about it!

This week I am happy because I shot my mileage up, but paid attention to the pain. All I did was ice it a couple of times per day, and I have been able to both increase mileage and reduce the pain. I will have a 60 mile week and an almost healed heel.

Three in Five

I have reported here and elsewhere before that I have only done two half-races barefoot, removing my shoes half-way through an 8K XC race and a road 10K. However, last Tuesday, I did an entire 5K XC race barefoot, winning my age group in 20:25. I almost chickened out, after warming up barefoot and then putting on XC shoes. But the shoes felt restricting, and I figured if I ran barefoot it would actually force me to go easy. See, I wanted to recover from The Double Trouble 30K trail race I had done two days prior, where I also won my age group (wearing XC shoes). Then I completed a The Sunset Classic 5 mile road race on Thursday, my 3rd race in 5 days, in 31:30 (shod).