The 67th Mile – 5K Distance

I figured after successfully completing my first barefoot 5K this past Sunday that it probably meant I should try to run about 3 miles today.  So I did.  Felt easy as pie.

When I checked my route on mapmyrun.com it was 3.19 miles.  So it looks like I’ve done another 5K.

A Fellow Barefooter

Oh, I have to tell you that I saw another barefoot runner finally.  I mean another barefoot runner who runs around here – something that I have not seen yet, though I know they must be out there.  He was running with a baby in a baby jogging stroller.  He looked like he was going along at a pretty good clip.  I wanted to call out “hey"!” and cheer and say “I do that too!”  But he was not close enough to me and was gone almost as soon as I had spotted him.

Functional Fitness – Adding Some Squats

I’m developing myself as a runner, and I’m cross-training in martial arts, and yet – as is so often the case -- there are so so many holes to fill in my all-around fitness coverage.  I think it’s going to take me years to figure it all out. One big hole I’m trying to fill today is to add some squats to my routine.

In the realm of everyday life, I have been wanting to be able to squat down.  I have been having trouble doing this ever since I put on that 25 pounds when I stopped running last year and it affects a lot of things.

On the blog Adventures of a Barefoot Super Hero, I saw pictures of the mom squatting next to her child.  The loss of the ability to get into that position and use it in daily life is a handicap.

Even though I can do a pretty intense workout at Kung Fu – more than I ever thought I’d achieve – it still is embarrassing that it takes me the longest to get up from the floor after we’ve been doing our crunches.

So I have been thinking of adding squats – carefully – to my fitness plan.  I have heard that developing strength from squats will help protect the knees as well.

I’m starting very slowly.  I only did about 3 and I did them before running today.  Don’t think I’ll usually do them before, probably will do them after.  I took a little video (for eventual before/after comparison):

It was helpful watching the video, even though it’s a little hard to watch one’s self at first.  I’m not exactly sure about squat form.  I’ve watched some videos on the topic online.  I know my knees should not come over my toes and it looks like they are in the video.  I also think I may lean too far forward.  My back is pretty straight but leaning forward on an angle.

My squat plan is to work on the form and developing the strength to do just a few before I start putting them into sets of reps.

Last Summer-like Joys

The weather was gorgeous today.  It felt refreshing to blast my dirty feet with the garden hose like I’ve been doing all summer when I get back from my run (followed up, of course, with the care and keeping of bare feet at the kitchen sink).  Last week it was chilly, and it didn’t feel as refreshing to blast my feet with the garden hose.  I wondered what I would do in the winter.  My DH, as if to read my thoughts, had remarked, “You’re going to have to keep a bucket of warm water by the back door when it gets colder.”

Well, today I was back to the summer routine.  Blast the feet with the garden hose, and then sit and dry off in the warm sun.  It’s little moments like this, in their simplicity, that have been part of the joy of becoming a barefoot runner this past summer.

As a tribute to the last few summer-like days, I’ll post a few pictures I took at the height of the summer, of my post run water foot blast!