Back Out There -- An Easy Barefoot Mile (1.4)

November

This is my third November run.  I am getting back out there after having lived through the onset and recovery from a weird sudden-onset anterior fibular head somatic dysfunction.  I'm still not sure what caused it, but my husband fixed it and you can read about that here.

To finish the story from the last post, once the fibula was back in correct position and the fibular head was no longer encroaching on the nerve in whatever way it was, my limping and my pain improved steadily.  Remember my husband had told me I would be able to run on Wednesday (yesterday)?  Well, it came true.  I felt good as new by Wednesday.  It felt miraculous to me because the amount of impairment I had was the worst I had ever felt besides one time when I sprained my ankle, and I'm absolutely amazed that a person could recover so thoroughly in such a short amount of time.

New Running Wear Strategy

All through the summer, my "uniform" was a pair of bike shorts and a short sleeved T-shirt.  The picture on the right is a reminder of what that "uniform" looked like.

However, as it gets cooler, I start to adjust.  I lengthen the sleeves and the legs and end up with a long pair of tights and a long-sleeved shirt.

Depending on how cold it is, I might have one of the following:

• long leggings with short-sleeved T-shirt
• long leggings with long-sleeved T-shirt
• long leggings with my Nike pro thermal long-sleeved turtleneck (wrote about here) and a short-sleeved T-shirt layered on top for added warmth
• long leggings with Nike pro-thermal long-sleeved turtleneck with long-sleeved T-shirt layered on top for extra warmth

These are my cooler weather variations.  I would say these variations work for me in the low 40 degree F to low 50 degree F range.

So, here I am with the long sleeves and the long leggings.

When it gets colder (below 40 degrees), I will add a pair of running pants over the leggings, and probably use the thermal Nike pro top with a sweatshirt on top and a pair of gloves and a hat.

(You may also notice that Daffodil is sporting a longer coat for the cooler weather.)

But what shall I do with my feet?  Still haven't figured out.

Anyway, the long-sleeved top I'm wearing is a new one.  I bought myself a T-shirt from the Barefoot Runner's Society, and here's why:

The next 5K I'm signed up for (which I've been signed up for since last January) is the Disney Family Fun Run in January.  I had heard somewhere that Disney does not allow people barefoot in the parks, so I had been expecting to run that race in my Vibrams

But I found out on a message board at the Barefoot Running Society, that there are going to be some barefoot runners down there running the Disney marathon and half marathon barefoot.  One of the posters said that he called Disney and that they welcome barefoot runners.  I think that perhaps I should call directly myself, rather than merely take the word of one person I met on an Internet forum, no matter how legitimate the person may appear to be.

So the barefoot runners suggested we wear the T-shirts down there at Disney.  That made me want to be part of things.  We are planning to have a  meet-up down there, so that is something to look forward to.

About Wednesday's 1.4 Mile Run

Oh, dear, I have so much to talk about. But I don't want to keep you so long on my blog when you have a ton of other blogs to get to today.

For one thing it was great weather.  I might even have been able to get away with my summer attire.

I am thrilled that the good weather has lasted this long.  I never would have expected myself to have run all the way through October without any foot coverings.  And now here I am running a third time in November without my shoes.  This is thrilling to me (and I'm not sure exactly why).

As good as I was feeling, I thought that this run had better be an easy one.  As I set out it occurred to me that this was yet another great purpose and function for "The Barefoot Mile."  The Barefoot Mile can be used as a tool to get back after injury.  It is a mile where you can test things out and see how they are going.  It is a mile where you can remember what you forgot while you were taking days off.  It felt so good, and I had such a feeling of joy to know that I will be able to continue running after all that I wanted to just keep going.  But I restrained myself.

I was a little nervous putting weight on that leg, and I think it did feel a little funny, but overall it was great.  I had some thoughts about the amount of force that leg was absorbing, and especially how that force will be much greater in someone who weighs more.  I might make a separate post to talk about those things. It may surprise you what I think the cause of it really was, and it may have something to do with arch support in my flip flops. Flip flops that I bought to wear when I had plantar fasciitis last year.  But I'll explain that later because I know you have to get going.

Anyway, things went well and I am delighted. I wasn't even winded running almost a mile and a half.

The light has shifted and is lower in the sky this time of year and I've been accompanied on my runs by my shadow recently.  The shadow obscures the sidewalk and makes it harder to see stuff on the sidewalk, so the shadow has made it slightly more hazardous. I decided to use my shadow to check out my form.  I watched to see how steady and smoothly the head of my shadow traveled on the sidewalk ahead of me.  Pretty smooth.  I tried to take a video of it with my Droid.  It was impossible to hold the camera and hold Daffodil and watch the sidewalk for dangerous things.  But even with the camera shaking and all those handicaps, I think you can see my head in my shadow moving along smoothly.




Before you all go, and before I forget, another fun and  exciting thing that happened this week was the appearance of my guest post on the Barefoot Running University web site.  Jason Robillard, author of The Barefoot Running Book, one of the main sources knowledge I have about barefoot running, had asked for people to submit ideas for guest posts a while back.  I had written to him to say I wanted to write something about running barefoot while overweight.  He liked the idea, and as a result of the correspondence I also got to meet him at the 1st Annual NYC Barefoot Run a few weeks ago. It was a real pleasure doing the guest post, and I never would have imagined, when I started barefoot running and decided to kind of online journal about it, that it would ever lead to such cool fun developments in my life.  Anyway, if you haven't already seen the guest post, you can see it here:  "Can I Run If I Am Overweight?"