Well, with all the worry about what's going to happen to my bare feet come winter, it sure wasn't time to worry about that today. It was a gorgeous, crisp, beautiful, sunny Fall day, and the pavement I run on was near-perfect temperature.
I wasn't going to go out today because I have to run tomorrow to get back on my consistent M-W-F schedule. But some thoughts I read on the Hunter-Gatherer blog (by John Durant) this morning about fractals ("Don't Be a Toaster: Why Fractal Geometry Matters to Your Health") got me thinking a bit, and I began to consider the idea that maybe it's not so crucial to get back on my regulated, consistent schedule as I think.
The idea put forth in the fractal post, is that a "machine-like regularity" might not be the optimal approach, since life and nature are not as regular as all that. When I think back to my 11th barefoot mile and that post I wrote about the picture of consistency I remember how sure I felt that I was on the right track. I was convinced that the principle of consistency was important in getting one's body into condition. Maybe the only way I could tell if I was being consistent was if I could measure it somehow. I had felt very proud of the fact that I had managed to achieve some consistency over what was then a 6-week period.
I have remained pretty consistent since then, with some Sunday races mixing me up a bit.
Here's the new and updated picture of consistency:
As you can see, I have been pretty regular and faithful all summer. In fact, this chart might be almost an exemplification of that "machine-like regularity."
But once I ran my first barefoot 5K race on a Sunday, my consistency started to unravel. I still need those recovery days. I'm not quite ready to run on the in-between days. So, I had to rest after the 5K.
Then there was rain and cold, and I kind of waited it out, seeing if I could run on the in-between days, which kind of affected my Kung Fu cross-training, and caused me to miss a few classes. But maybe that's part of the problem with "machine-like regularity" as well -- there's not so much flexibility, and if something goes off, the whole thing gets thrown off.
Then there was the 1st Annual NYC Barefoot Run, and the sore throat-headache day, along with the stirrings of that self-sabotage thing.
All this has led to a kind of spotty October.
You can imagine that a person like me -- quite attached to going around and around in this consistent manner -- might be a bit anxious to get back on her regular schedule.
So, after reading the ideas put forth in the "Don't Be A Toaster" post, where the thought of not being so predictable and regular is proposed, I'm beginning to wonder -- have I done it all wrong?
I don't think I've done it wrong. I am pretty convinced that this regularity and consistency was needed for me to fashion myself back into a runner. Maybe the "consistency" can be looked at and re-worked now that I am able to run a good 3 miles. Maybe I can go more with the weather, run two days in a row, and stuff like that. But I still feel pretty good that I was able to achieve that consistency over the summer.
I hope I can find a way to be consistent, even if a more fractal way of being consistent, as the winter months approach.
1 comment:
As much as I would like to have my life and training to be free flowing, I have to be consistent and organized or everything will start falling apart.
There are some people who manage winter barefoot running. Obviously they have better model feet than mine.
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