A Passion for Running

I had a great run today at lunch!

The plan was to do the 7k loop I did last week with fewer walk breaks (I took 8 last week). As I was changing, Michael grabbed my shoe off the floor and exclaimed, “what in the heck kinda runners are those?!”.

I had just finished explaining about the Puma H-Streets when another fellow said, “Aren’t you the guy doing the barefoot running?”. It was really weird, but after a few moments there were a half-dozen guys all listening intently to me talking about barefoot running and the pose method. I got really excited about the conversation because a couple of them mentioned reading articles about both topics in Runner’s World magazine and all of them seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say.

At the end of the conversation, Nick walked in and asked if he could join my run. I said “of course, as long as you know I’m still officially ‘practicing’ to run”. That didn’t seem to bother him, and I acquired a tag-along.

You know what? I rocked! And the pose rocked! We did the run at roughly a 9:00 minute/mile pace during which I noticed some cool stuff:

1-My feet were very silent compared to his. This was a surprise since I’ve only run by myself and with Aaron since the clinic in L.A. and I simply wasn’t expecting there to be such a big difference!
2-My cadence was twice as fast as his, and yet
3-My breathing was under very good control.

And I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Nick mentioned I looked and sounded “fit”. His statement floored me since I know I’m not fit. Seeing as I’m not fit why would I seem to be? I think the answer is that when I run in pose, I expend way less energy than I used to. I’m light on my feet and because I spend very little time on the ground, I don’t have to work as hard and that keeps my heart rate lower.

Other good stuff? Well first, I only took four walk breaks – four less than last week. Second, we ran 8k – one kilometer more than I’d planned. And third, I did the last 5k barefoot on some pretty rough asphalt pave paths. I have to admit feeling a bit challenged with the last kilometer or so and my feet were somewhat swollen afterward. However, I had no blisters or chafing and the swelling disappeared after only a couple of hours.

Best of all though is that I wasn’t tired after the run. Not tired at all. I really felt like I could have gone much further today. I should qualify that – I’d had enough barefoot running (my feet were burning) but I think if I’d have put my shoes back on, I could have run another 5k in form.

Woohoo! Knock on wood I think I’m back!