Travel exercise tips

My job does not require too much travel, but I usually end up going on two or three trips a year. Although running is a fairly portable sport, I find it difficult, sometimes, to be fit on the road. Through the Consumerist, I found this post on exercise while you travel over at Nerdfitness.com. His tips? Make it a priority, find creative ways to workout without a gym, and eat well.

The post also reminded me of this video. Ever heard of Burpees? Check out this great video by Mike Rowe, the narrator of several shows on Discovery and star of Dirty Jobs.

A good use for the dreadmill?

On episode 99 of Marathon Talk (a British podcast with great coverage of worldwide marathon news) did their training talk segment on using the treadmill (dreadmill) for interval training. They pointed out several things that made me rethink my opposition to indoor training. They mentioned that, for those of us without coaches, using a treadmill can be an easy way to make sure that you get consistent splits since you are setting the pace yourself. I must admit, having used the treadmill for some interval training during the last race buildup, I did find it a lot more enjoyable than other treadmill training. Somehow, the need to focus on being fast and keeping good form helps to keep my brain from lamenting, "ugh, we're running on the treadmill". Their practical training  advice can be summed up in two simple rules: each interval must be at least as fast as the previous and the total number of intervals must go up each week. Give it a listen.

The transition to 180

Back in July I mentioned that I was attempting to move my cadence up by shortening my stride and transitioning to a mid/fore foot strike pattern. At some point in my past, I heard about Podrunner, but I had forgotten until Mark from Run in America reminded me and gave me an excellent suggestion. Rather than jump right into 180 strides/min he suggested gradually increasing turnover and using steadily faster music from Podrunner to help. It has worked like a charm and I feel great!

I started off primarily on the treadmill. As little as I enjoy it, that way I could be sure I was keeping the right pace while tinkering with the cadence. Over a few weeks, I slowly pushed up the same 7:30 pace up to 150, 160, and then 170. It seemed to work pretty well, but I soon realized that I was going to need to do something about my footwear. On a treadmill, it was pretty easy to keep my foot hovering low over the ground and have a midfoot strike, but I could feel my heel nearly scraping the belt. Even though the road is only slightly more uneven than a treadmill, I figured there is no way this cadence was going to work on the road and in these shoes.

The shoes are my Asics Enduros that I have been through about 12 pairs of over the years. I got to reading more about the concept of shorter strides and high cadence which led me back to Pete, (the Runblogger) who has tons of reviews and material about these topics and more. It turns out that my Asics have a heel-to-toe drop of about 12 mm, which seems to be a bit of an industry standard. This wedge shape encourages a heel strike pattern as I have come to use. Many manufacturers are now producing shoes with lower drops (4-ish mm) and some that are bascially zero drop (like Vibrams). Anyway, it is time for a change in footwear, but I will write more on my options later.

In the meantime, thanks for the suggestion Mark, and I highly agree with the recommendations. Not only to the notion of a shorter stride, but Podrunner! The beats are great and incredibly helpful in pace-keeping. DJ Steve Boyett gives the music away for free, so if you like it, be sure to hit up his Paypal page and make a donation!

Running "stadiums" in Ben Hill Griffin at Florida Field

At the gym, there is the Stairmaster and then there is the Stairmaster Gauntlet. If you've not seen these two torture devices, the former has levers that go up and down to simulate climbing stairs while the latter is basically a 'treadmill' of stairs that rotate around underneath you on a belt so that you must truly climb stairs. If I have my choice though, I prefer to do such workouts at the local football stadium.

In Gainesville, Ben Hill Griffin stadium at Florida Field (links to Wikipedia and the UF Athletic Association) has ninety rows of bleachers in the East stands, which are the student sections. This picture gives you a little of an idea what it looks like from the West stands looking East when the stadium is empty.

Copyright courier-journal.com

The UF Athletic Association allows the public to access the stands (not the field) through most of the day. They open it around 7AM, so I cannot workout there before work, but the afternoons are great. "Running stadiums" is quite a popular workout for college students and locals, and there are several ways you can do them. The lower 30 rows are a little deeper and less steep. You can probably appreciate from the picture that the upper 60 rows are much more steep. Some restrict themselves to just the lower 30 or upper 60. Some run up and down the stairs, personally, I prefer to go up and down all 90 rows speed-walking the bleachers themselves. You can run them if you choose, but be prepared to be exhausted after just a few runs. If you walk them, you can expect to have jelly legs within about 10 cycles.

I cannot seem to find any stats about the stairs or the height of the stadium online, so the next best estimate I have is from my Garmin. Those with Garmin devices know that they are imprecise, but the estimate I get is that the rise from the bottom of the East stands is somewhere around 130 feet up divided by 190 feet across, therefore a percent grade of 68% (somewhere around 30 degrees slope).

Hip strengthening exercises to avoid knee pain

Over the past few weeks, and at the direction of PT, I have been doing some simple strengthening exercises that have made a notable difference in my running. I have not had any further lateral knee pain after a run and I have been on several runs of up to four miles at a time. The specific exercises I have been doing are:

1. Straight leg raises
2. Side leg raises
3. One leg squats (or heel taps)
4. Front bends

First, straight leg raises. Lying on your back, bend one knee leaving your foot flat on the floor. Then keep the other leg straight and raise 12-18 inches off the ground. In the video, the person has their leg turned outward, which shifts the focus to one specific muscle in your quads (the vastus medialis) but you can do it without the twist to work all your quads. You can add weights (like in the video) to increase the difficulty.

Second, side leg raises are done lying on your side, in basically the same leg position with your knee bent and your heel just under your bottom. Then raise the opposite leg up, which should be exclusively using your hip abductors (the muscles on the outside of your hip). This guy is not bending his lower leg and using a band, instead of weights, to increase the resistance.

One leg squats, as noted in this video are good for strengthening, but also for improving balance. The variant of these that I did was on a step about 12-18 inches off the ground. This could be a single-step stool, or even a stair in your house. The other name, heel taps, comes from the idea that you should do these just briefly tapping your heel on the ground and then pushing up with your squatting leg. What I found very effective was the bench press benches at my gym. They have a small step at the back for a spotter and since the bench is quite heavy, it will not move with me supporting my weight on the back end of it. I can recall first trying these and watching my knee wobble all over the place but now I can do them without holding onto anything for balance and with easy control of my knee.

Last of the four I call front bends, but I gather that there are a number of names for the exercise. First, get a dumbbell, about 5-15 lbs. Hold that in front of you in one hand. Bend forward, allowing the weight in your hand to go straight down. Simultaneously, lift the leg opposite the hand with the weight, while keeping your leg straight.

Screenshot from user jasoncscs

So, these worked quite well for me, and I am excited to be out there running more. Of course, if your knee hurts, I recommend seeking professional help!

180, the magic cadence number?

I recently got a consult about my running form and one of the suggestions was to amp up my turnover (cadence, footstrikes) from somewhere in the 160's to the 180's. Generally, in the 160's I am landing with my leg too far in front and therefore too extended and too far back on my heel. Luckily, this has not resulted in any debilitating injuries over the past few years.

Switching to a cadence over 180 foostrikes per minute then, was the suggestion for a variety of reasons, and one that I could also find suggested at seemingly reputable websites (Running Times, Ask the Coach, Coach Jim). Primarily the goal is to force a shorter stride and therefore more mid/fore foot striking and landing on a bent knee forcing the muscles to absorb impact as opposed to joint surfaces in the knee and foot. Of course, one of the other reasons is that all the cool kids (ie: elite Kenyans) are doing it and they all run over 180 or even into the 200's during races.

So I've been out there trying to run 180 and it certainly is forcing some changes to my form. I am not sure how I feel about it though. I do notice the bent knee landing and if I really focus I can turnover without feeling like my trunk is moving up and down at all. Clearly that has the potential to improve my running economy for the long haul, but I am finding it quite challenging to accommodate different paces.

Steve at the Science of Running points out that pace is determined basically by two things, cadence and stride length. If you "fix" one, the other is the only option for changing your pace. So, if I want to slow down a little, I have to shorten my stride, but it already feels exceedingly short just to hit the 180 goal.

At this point, I am not officially training for anything, so I am going to keep at it and see how I adjust.

"Everything you know about fitness is a lie"

Men's Journal has a very interesting and in-depth article on the web. The posting is by Daniel Duane from the November 2010 magazine, but I just found it through one of my RSS feeds and I thought I would write a little about it. The general theme of the article is trying to debunk myths about exercise. Now, Men's Journal, Men's Health, and several other similar magazines aimed at men, women, and both genders have articles like this all the time, right? Usually the articles are ridiculously superficial and based on little to no scientific evidence. 

This article is also a little lean on evidence, but the general approach is refreshing. For example, rather than encouraging "some cardio" and "a little core strengthening" the author dismisses these vague statements about how to approach fitness. Instead, he dismisses them as bogus and goes on to skewer "big corporate gyms" and point out how much of what they do is not really aimed at getting people healthy, but at getting as many people as possible to sign up so that they can turn a profit on the people that pay dues and never go to the gym, or pay extra for personal training. Instead, the author encourages you to have a goal and train for it. Pick a sport that you can gear up for and then go do that sport and get out of the gym!

The author talks about why the gym is over 90% "machines" and you have to go out of your way to find the free weights. Free weights are dangerous and invite liability for the gym. Much easier to buy fancy and shiny machines that anyone can use and promote the heck out of them.

These are a couple of the sidebar images from the article, but check out the full text, it is worth your read.

Copyright held by Men's Journal

The big push in training

Hard to believe, but my Boston training reached its zenith last week. I ran 60 miles three weeks ago (with a 24 miler on Saturday), 50 miles two weeks ago, and over 70 last week (with 28 on Saturday)! This is the first time I have ever done that much in a week before. It has not been easy getting up at 4:30 to get ten miles in before work, but I feel great and I am ready to start the taper. I cannot imagine running any more miles than this without resorting to two runs a day. While some consider me crazy for the amount of running I already do, I am not quite ready to move into two runs a day. That said, I do know one other person at work who ran to and from work as part of her training for a marathon, and that might work okay.

Run for Japan and donate today

I ran 28 miles today for my peak run prior to Boston in 3 weeks and while I was out there, I listened to episode 62 of Marathon Talk, which is a great conversational podcast out of the UK. They talked about an initiative to show support and raise money for relief efforts in Japan, over at runforjapan.com. The goal on this website is to have runners dedicate a run and in the process collect enough dedicated miles to circumnavigate the globe. Also on the website is a link to donate to the Red Cross relief effort through Virgin Giving. A dollar per mile sounds like a reasonable amount to me, so donate today!

Enjoying long run-walks as Boston approaches

As I have mentioned previously, I picked up the idea to try Jeff Galloway's run-walk method after he visited Gainesville a few months ago. I have been using it to help make my long runs more bearable and the short breaks have done the trick, also seemingly helping to reduce recovery time. Anyway, I mention it again because as the Florida spring is here, and will only last a few weeks before jumping straight into summer, I have been doing long midweek runs as I build up miles for Boston. I have done two 10 milers over about an hour and a half in the 40 degree mornings and they have been just wonderful. Quiet, calm, cool, and with walk breaks, I feel like I could go on forever at that pace.

Yesterday I had to skip the run outside since it was heavily raining. Instead I stuck it out on the "dreadmill". Despite going for 90 minutes, even this was made tolerable with the judicious use of walk breaks and a good audiobook. Good to know for future training!

Worst long run ever

This past weekend I had what might have been the worst long run I have ever had. I went out to the Hawthorne trail for 20 miles by running 10 out and back. In all likelihood, my legs were not exactly recovered from the half marathon performance on the 20th. I did take some acid suppressant prior to the run, but that did not stop me from getting a little nauseated. No changes in the pre-run breakfast or gels either. Further frustrating was the onset of serious cramps around 8 miles in. The cramps, almost all in my abdomen, were almost unrelenting when I ran, but thankfully abated when I walked. So, I did manage to figure out a strategy of slower running and massage that made them bearable, but on occasion they spiked forcing sudden, unplanned walk breaks. The weather probably contributed seeing as how the temperature got up to the 80's when I was expecting nothing over the low 70's per the forecast. I got the miles done, but they were not pretty, not enjoyable, and not fast, but hopefully it was worth it for furthering my stamina in preparation for Boston. Things do feel better after some sports drink, water, lunch, an ice bath, and a warm shower but I could do without a repeat performance of that run.

San Felasco 2011

San Felasco is a nature preserve with abundant hiking and cycling trails just north of Gainesville, Florida. I have posted about it a couple of times before, and it continues to be one of my favorite places to go for a long run on the weekend. I went out for a 15 mile run in late January and took a few pictures and movies on the trail. If you are wondering, the panorama under my blog banner is made of pictures from San Felasco. The two movies are of a deer and an armadillo. Both were plentiful, and I must have seen a dozen armadillos right on the side of the trail.

Bad advice on marathon training

Lifehacker is an interesting website which, on occasion has some nice posts on interesting ways to tackle everyday problems. Recently, they posted an article on how to "Hack a Marathon". I have not provided the link, because I do not want to encourage anyone to visit the site thus providing ad revenue for such as post since it is not a post on how to hack a marathon. Instead it is a reposting of another blogger's experience running a marathon without any training. If you would like to read a post from Lifehacker about running, try this one instead.

The original posting is also titled "How to hack a marathon", the advice provided is not much more than a list of things that they, and many other marathoners do, to prepare for and endure the race. Thankfully, the original author now has a disclaimer on his website conceding that it is not a good idea to run a marathon without any training.

Can it be done? Yes. He did it. Should it be done? No. It is a great way to do some true damage to your body, and if the conditions are outside the norm (very hot or cold, rainy, etc.) you could get seriously ill. It should go without saying, but since that is clearly not the case, let me say: please do not try to run a marathon without training.

Happy new year and some plans for 2011

Now that 2010 has come to a close, it is time to review the electronic run logs and recap some of the highlights.

• Total mileage run: 1600 (+/- depending on Garmin's accuracy)
• Mileage compared to 2009: +1 mile (no idea how I came so close, not planned in the slightest)
• Calories burned: 185,462 (worth 1,973 chicken wings or 639 slices of cheese pizza)
• Races completed: marathon (1), half marathon (1), 15K (1), 10K (1), 5K (1)

Plans for 2011 include:

• Ragnar Key West (this coming weekend!)
• Gainesville 5 Points of Life Half Marathon (my wife's first 1/2!)
• Boston Marathon 2011 (w00t!)
• World-wide Half Marathon Challenge (haven't missed one yet)

I'm settling in to some quality training runs for Boston. Still running everyday, but I am trying to make at least 3-4 runs/week some kind of focused quality run (hills, minimalist, tempo, or speed) in addition to long runs with a 5:1 run/walk ratio which I feel has helped me to keep up mileage without making me sore and tired to the point of slacking off on weekday runs.

Update 3/31/2012: My running log was slightly off and was including cycling miles with my running totals. The total miles for 2010 should be 1535.

RRT Ep 93: Running in the Heat

This post is a little out of order since I've already mentioned and followed-up on my participation in RRT 94, but I started this and wanted to finish out a couple thoughts on the previous episode.

So, thanks to Adam, Amanda, Joe, and Flo for a great Ep of the Runner's Round Table. I've whined plenty (here, here, here, and more) about running in the heat, although it is not quite as bad as Amanda's in Austin. I enjoyed the discussion and in particular took away some good educational points. First was Flo's discussion of dew point and how to add it to temp to figure out how oppressive a run might be and second was the general discussion about the "quality" or training value of hot weather running and tried to make distinctions about training for hot races vs. how to get in daily runs in a hot climate.

Anyway, I've been running in Florida heat for a while and I found some stuff to learn, so you might too! Lately, I'll say that my primary tactic for hot weather running is to try and find some form of core/strengthning/quality that I can focus on which does not depend on speed. While I don't feel like I can do intervals, I do feel capable of Fartleks in the AM. Also, doing minimalist/Vibram runs and hill workouts have been keys to quality this summer.

Give the gift of life, but not right before a race!

I am a frequent blood donor; needles don't bother me and I like the idea of literally helping to save lives (yes, I try to do that every day at my job as well...) Shortly befre I ran the Jacksonville Marathon last December, I was "due" for a donation and the vampires are usually set up somewhere in the lobby of my hospital, so I have to walk past their curtained-off area every morning and evening. I figured though, that donating right before a race was probably and bad idea, especially if I was trying to score a BQ.

If you take the contrasting side of this, think about what athletes try to do to improve their performance. Accusations of "blood doping" are all over competitions like the Olympics and the Tour de France. Oxygen is carried by red blood cells which are full of hemoglobin, so more hemoglobin and more red blood cells equal more oxygen. The general idea is that if you can carry more oxygen, then your endurance is improved. People accomplish this legally by training at high altitude or sleeping in oxygen deprivation tents (low oxygen levels force your body to make more hemoglobin to try and carry more). They accomplish it illegally by using drugs like erythropoietin (which is a hormone your body makes, but there is a synthetic form as well).

So, it stands to reason that if you have less hemoglobin and fewer red blood cells, you will have less endurance. In this study by Birnbaum et al., ten healthy young men, donated a unit of blood and significantly decreased VO2 max by about 3 liters/min. So, if you're Steve Prefontaine (VO2 max 84.4) then a drop of 3.5% in you VO2 max might not make much difference, but for us mortals, it might mean more of a 7.5% drop. By the way, this page gives you an idea what your VO2 max might be, and depressingly demonstrates why we slow as we age.

Tha full text of the study's abstract is here:

1. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2006 Dec;46(4):535-9.

Effect of blood donation on maximal oxygen consumption.
Birnbaum L, Dahl T, Boone T.

Exercise Physiology Department, The College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, MN, USA.
lbirnbau@css.edu

AIM: This study determined the effect of donating one unit of blood on various
physiological parameters associated with a VO2(max) test. METHODS: Ten healthy,
male subjects (23+/-4 years, 178+/-7.6 cm, 74.4+/-12.3 kg) completed a VO2(max)
test 24 h before donating one unit of blood (~500 mL) and 24 h after donating
blood. The Bruce protocol was used to determine the subjects' VO2(max).
Physiological responses were measured at the end of the VO2(max) test. A repeated
measures ANOVA was used to determine if there were significant (P<0.05)
differences in the subjects' physiological responses between the VO2(max) before
and after blood donation. RESULTS: Significant differences were found in VO2(max)
(mean+/-SD, 3.18+/-0.74 vs 2.87+/-0.53 L.min(-1)), cardiac output (Q, 25+/-5 vs
22.5+/-3.3 L.min(-1)), stroke volume (SV, 134+/-37 vs 121+/-22 mL.beat(-1)),
delivery of oxygen (DO(2), 5+/-.87 vs 3.97+/-.68 L.min(-1)), and hemoglobin
concentration (Hb, 153+/-12 vs 135+/-16 gm.L(-1)). No significant changes were
observed for heart rate (HR); arteriovenous oxygen difference (a-vO(2) diff),
systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP). CONCLUSIONS:
These findings indicate that donating one unit of blood decreased VO2(max) due to
the decrease in Q, which resulted from the decrease in SV since HR was unchanged.
The lower VO2(max) along with the decrease in DO(2) would be expected to have a
negative effect on athletic performance.

PMID: 17119517 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Hill work, beyond the dreadmill

Never been a big fan of hill work, but if I am going to tackle Boston in 2011, I would be a fool to not incorporate some during training. At present, I am working on my base, trying to keep up a solid ~30 miles a week and mix in a variety of styles and workouts to keep it fresh and get used to training beyond slogging away at the pavement, ie: Fartleks, barefoot/minimal, and hills.

Now, most of the "hill" training I've done has been on the dreadmill. That is partially because the act of changing speeds and grades has helped to minimize the monotony of indoor running. Also, it can be hard in Florida to find decent hills to run. A recent trick I learned from Andy, Florida Ultrarunner of the Year (over at http://intheslam.blogspot.com/) is to try bridges, since Florida seems to have more of those than hills. That said, Gainesville has few of either. Now, there is the "bacon strip", as described in  "Once a Runner" set in the fictional town of Kernsville (Gainesville), but that stretch is out several miles from campus and I am usually on a tight schedule. But then I remembered "cardiac hill" over by Shands. Silly of me to forget, of course, since I went to college here and presently work at Shands, but anyway.

The hill is located near the eastern edge of the medical campus and runs from the MacKnight Brain Research Institute, north up to Museum Drive which is sort of the southern border of the 'main' part of UF's campus. It is steep enough that bicyclists easily break the 20 mph campus speed limit coming down, but few are energetic enough to ride up it between classes. The other day I decided to run from my car (a half mile warm up) to the hill and then run repeats until I got to about 4 miles of distance and call it a day. There is a flat area of road at the base of the hill which makes a suitable area to turn around and get ready for the next repeat. In total, the distance for each repeat is about 0.4 miles, with the hill proper being 0.11 miles or 580 feet. I have used a couple of different website to find the elevation necessary to calculate the grade of the hill. My standby is http://www.mapmyrun.com/, but periodically, the elevation charting is broken. After a little google search, I found that the USATF  site also has an elevation chart, but it is not as robust a mapping system as mapmyrun. That site say that "cardiac hill" rises 41 feet over 0.11 miles. So, percent grade equals rise over run x 100. 41 / 580 * 100 = 7.06% grade. Going back to my post about hills in Tallahassee, It would appear that this hill is not as long, but steeper than the infamous hills of Newton. Hopefully this should suffice to strengthen the quads and hammys for Boston!

Heat and humidity got you down? Take a walk break

I missed my chance for a run in the morning yesterday so I was stuck between going to the gym and waiting it out and running in the cooler evening temps. Of course I picked the wrong day to wait things out because the temperature was going to be in the 80's with 100% humidity (hooray afternoon thunderstorms!). But, run I must, so I geared up. I was planning on doing 6 out and back and about half way. I tried to go at a reasonable pace to avoid overheating, nevertheless, my legs were fine but I was huffing and puffing. I took a short walk break and decided to keep that up for the rest of the run which, while certainly not very fast, was tolerable and somewhat enjoyable despite the dripping sweat.

Clearly I'm not the first guy to think of talking a walk break during a run, but the man most associated with that strategy has to be Jeff Galloway. His Run-Walk-Run method is one of the cornerstones of the numerous books he has written (Book on Running) and the countless people he has coached. He owns a couple of running stores in Atlanta, GA where he continues to coach and organize races. His name runs parallel in running history with Amby Burfoot and Bill Rodgers (college teammates) as well as Frank Shorter (co-founder of the Florida Track Club).

Anyway, the basic idea of run-walk is to set up a ratio of running to walking and stick to it, even it you feel strong. This gives you rest time that you can bank to retain strength for later in a race. I was using a 3:1 yesterday and it felt great. Steve Runner has begun dabbling in run-walk and Episode 237 of Phedippidations features him running a 10K road race at nearly 8 minutes under his goal time (acutal time 0:57, desired goal 1:08).

Many people do this for much longer races and are able to dramatically extend their endurance. Paradoxically, like Steve, they are able to complete the race faster by walking than by trying to run the entire thing. For me, it is a great solution to the stifling heat of summers in Florida.

Memorial Day Weekend running at the beach

Running on the loose sands of the Northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico can be both a great workout and a treacherous risk (primarily of twisting an ankle). Usually when I run the beach, I use a pair of ancient worn-out trainers that I am not afraid to fill with sand. On occasion, I run barefoot but this adds the dangers of broken shells, jellyfish and more. Thankfully, I had my new Vibram's with me along with a pair of Injinji toe socks. In my first couple of outings, the VFF gave me some raw areas and early blisters. After I read about others using toe socks, I ordered some and they worked great! So for three consecutive days, I ran 4 miles a day and only had to cut things short due to calf soreness. I'll be taking a few days off for my calves to recover, but I am excited about incorporating minimalist runs into my base training.

Brand New Vibram Five Fingers

Between the lay press coverage, Steve Runner's experiences with minimalist shoes, the Runner's Round Table, and Born to Run, the roars of support for minimalist/barefoot running have deafened me and I decided to take the plunge and add them to my Amazon wish list. So, happy birthday to me and thanks to my Mom and Dad M. for the black and orange Vibram Five Fingers KSO's. I took them out this morning for my first run.

I had tried on a pair of size 44's a while back to check out the fit and they were pretty darn good this morning. One big toenail needs a little clipping and it was a little scrunched in the tip of the shoe, but not bad, so I went with it. Today was a run basically all on pavement with a little concrete and just one or two spots with uneven surfaces. Breaking into my stride, I ended up landing on my forefoot for the first 3 miles or so. The sensation was quite interesting. The padding is plenty enough to keep the rough road surface from hurting, but you can still feel the coarse rock in segments of pavement. In terms of time, I was definitely running more slowly, concentrating on form and landing, my pace was about 30-45 seconds slower than typical.


Now, I have simulated barefoot runs several times in the past by forcibly landing on my forefoot using regular Ascis Gel Enduros. It works pretty well and I know to expect some serious calf ache afterwards. This time the ache set in at about mile 2.5 of my 4 mile out and back course. (ie: no cutting it short, because I still had to get home :-P) Then the blisters started. I could feel them starting to crop up near the end of the run and sure enough when I got home, I could see a good one under my second toe, another on the inside of my big toe, and there was a small subcutaneous hemorrhage on the other big toe where I think I landed and took off from right on top of a pebble.

Bottom line: Felt great during the run, need to find a solution for the blisters.

I read some other blogs and comments about the VFF and I found two general opinions:
1) The blisters will be less as my feet become accustomed to the VFF
2) Toe socks (like Injinji's) can help a lot

I'm hoping that using the VFF once a week or so will be a good "strengthening" addition to my runs and add some ankle/foot/toe stability.