Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Outdone By My Daughter. . .And Couldn't Be Happier

On a recent run, my wife, our dog, and our daughter ran to a nearby creek. Nearby being 1.75 miles if you stay on the roads. We ran there, me pushing the jogging stroller, my wife holding the dog. We let the dog play in the water a bit. On the way back my four year old daughter said she wanted to run. She was wearing the water shoes we got on clearance recently. Those shoes are still a bit to big for her, but they have Rapunzel from tangled on them so she loves them.

In less than a quarter of a mile, she had tripped over the ends of her shoes slightly skinning one knee. She got up determined to keep running. My wife said to her, Emma I don't think you should run in those shoes, they are too big for you.

So she took off the shoes.

And ran.

1.25 miles barefoot on the road.

The most I've run barefoot has been .5 miles.

Proud daddy.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Memorial

Ran for Micah True today.

The Difference "Nearly" Makes

As you've figured out if you read this blog, I like to run in "minimalist" shoes such as the Vibram FiveFingers and the SoftStar Dash Runamoc. Every once in a while, I go fully barefoot.

Not often over the winter though.

I did not start off as a barefooter looking for as little shoe as possible, I started off in big heavy cross trainers and moved to a lot less. At first running in my VFF Bikilas felt incredibly barefoot to me. After having done a little running fully barefoot I can say that the word "nearly" in nearly barefoot makes a big difference.

It's like the word "nearly" in "She nearly got pregnant." or, "That car nearly hit me."

A single word that can be taken as not much of a difference, but it makes a big difference.

When fully barefoot I feel every bit of texture in the road, and as I am still new to this, it causes me to search out the smoother parts of these country roads I like to run on. I have to be more aware of debris in the road, the Bikilas really do a lot to soften those pointy things. I have to choose more carefully and plan ahead if I need to exit the road due to a big truck roaring down my path, I'd hate to jump into the tall grass and find someone's beer bottle from last week.