barefoot time trial!
Ever have one of those days when you just felt like blowing some carbon out? Well, today was one of those days. I think it must have been part of the reset after the excitement of Aaron’s wedding, and the stress of the past few weeks at work.
I ran slow and easy down to my favorite marked mile and then proceeded to run the mile at a medium 8:30 pace. Once I got there, I took my shoes off, ran another mile and then turned around and made my way back to the second marker. I guess that makes it a 3 mile warm up.
I hmmmed and hawed for a minute, felt a little fire ignite, and off I went to see what I could do for a comfortable, yet fairly fast mile in my bare feet. You see, up until today I had never challenged myself in a speed kind of way while running barefoot.
My main focus was on maintaining correct pose form. Concentrating on form seemed to help since before I knew it, I was passing the half-mile marker in 3:30 and it hardly seemed like I was exerting myself! I kept going still focusing on form with visions of a 7 minute mile swirling around in my head. I hadn’t really planned on running that fast (truly, I would have been happy with a 7:30 or 7:45 in my barefeet) but I was running so comfortably I figured I might as well give it a shot.
The second half-mile felt great up till the last two hundred meters which starts with 100 meters downhill and ends with 100 meters uphill. It was a challenge going fast and maintaining form on the downhill and I really sucked wind on the uphill but…
I came in at EXACTLY 7:00 minutes!
This is a big win for me. First, because I haven’t run a mile that fast since before my last marathon in October. Second, because the mile felt really comfortable and I stayed in form. Third, because I believe that in a few runs I can get that down to a 6:45 - my pre-pose method, pre-barefoot running one-mile interval pace. And fourth, because it was in my BARE feet!
Way cool. 
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On another subject, Gretchen came along with me for the first time since October. She ran with me for the first warm-up mile until I took my shoes off. My changing to the pose method obviously messed her up since she measured the mile at only 0.92 of a mile. Looks like Gretchen and I will need to visit the track for a recalibration.
Comment by jeff
Tuesday June 28, 2005 @
wooohooo!
that is fantastic, mark! you are completely out of control. 7:00 barefoot? i’m stunned.