I’m on vacation in the Midwest this week and am impressed that the weather rivals our recent Bermuda weather.  It seems they’re having an atypically warm April which is fine with me.

Yesterday I went for a fabulous barefoot run.  The roads here (I am staying out in the country) feel very different underfoot than those at home.  You can run for miles out here and barely see any traffic.  Most of the roads are a little grittier than at home, but there’s no glass to speak of.  I also managed to sneak up on four deer without them noticing me.  After living on a tiny island, wildlife and open spaces always cause my breath to catch in my throat.  Funny how you can live in a tropical paradise of palm trees and turquoise waters and be moved by a huge still-brown field in the Midwest.  I guess it’s all what you’re used to.

1) It feels good. I love the way the ground feels underneath my feet.  I experience the world in a different way when I can feel the texture, temperature, and details of the surface I walk on.

2) My feet don’t stink. I used to have the extremely stinky feet.  This has been a non-issue since I ditched my shoes.

3) I trip less (actually, I hardly trip at all anymore).  I used to trip all the time and just considered myself clumsy.  It turns out that I am much more adept at navigating the world in bare feet.

4) I am more present. Being barefoot requires me to be in the moment.  I have to watch where I am going in order to make sure I don’t step on anything unpleasant or painful.  This keeps me off my cell phone and in the place where I am.

4) I sleep better. When I get into bed at night my feet tingle from the day’s travels.  It’s a great feeling and makes me feel like I earned a good night’s sleep.

5) I can run any time. When I find myself in a great location or with a little extra time, I can go for a run and am not stuck with the excuse of not having my shoes.

6) Bare feet in public tend to attract open-minded individuals.  People that would have otherwise passed me by on the street often stop to ask about my lack of shoes.  For the most part, these are very pleasant conversations and contribute to a happier day.

7) My feet look good.  They are healthier and stronger and they don’t have the look of feet that have been crammed into small spaces against their will.

8 ) I save money.  I don’t have to buy running shoes and I don’t need socks.

9) It’s simpler.  I don’t have to think about where I last left my shoes as I’m headed out the door.

10) Kids think it’s cool. I am a teacher, and a huge fan of kids.  Kids love the fact that I don’t wear shoes (I do wear them at work) and they get a huge kick out of seeing me shodless in public.

Yesterday was sunny and warm and I couldn’t wait to get out the door and get to the beach.

My foot seems to be completely healed so I was psyched to do some beach sprints.  I did sprints up and down the water line interspersed by strength exercises on the rocks.  It was warm enough afterwards that I jumped into the ocean to cool off and goofed around doing handstands for a while.  It’s so nice to be running healthy again and equally exciting that the weather is warming up at last.

Well, I am nearly finished paying the price for my brilliant plan of running 30 days in a row.  After lots of phsyiotherapy and no improvement, I finally went to a podiatrist.  This particular podiatrist was very kind to me and did not seem to have any issues with my barefoot running.  He told me that I have sprained one of my tarsal joints from ‘too much too soon’ and from tacking a race on at day 18.  I was skeptical when he taped my foot up and told me that would help, but it has been just over a week and the tape has worked wonders.  I have done two (barefoot of course) runs and I have no pain.  I guess my joint just needed a little immobilizing and rest.

Of course now I am walking around barefoot with tape on my foot and everyone is saying “I TOLD you you would cut your foot!”.  I just laugh and smile.  I can’t debate that my foot is injured from stupidity, even if it’s not the stupidity to which people are referring!

We have had the most spectacular weather this week after a long, long winter of windy, rainy, damp-to-the-bone days.  With the sun out I just want to roll around on the ground absorbing the heat from the ground.  Being barefoot is that much more wonderful when you can feel the heat from the ground.

It’s supposed to be nasty weather again this weekend so I’m going to get outside and play as much as possible while it’s warm.

Lately while looking around the blogosphere I have been wondering where all the women are.  I mean, there are plenty of women out there, but I don’t see many blogging about running without their shoes on.  This leads me to wonder if the female barefoot runner is a rarity, or if other barefoot running women just have better things to do than blog about it.

So far the only barefoot running women I can find are:

Sharon, Tina, Jessica, and Angie.

Are there others of you out there?  If so, drop me a comment with a link to your blog.  I’m interested in the experiences of other women participating in this “fringe” activity and how the world responds to you.

It’s interesting how sometimes men get angry and yell at me when they see me running barefoot.  I don’t imagine that my barefoot male counterparts experience this same anger and it makes me wonder what it’s all about.  Why do people care whether I have shoes on or not?  I’m not hurting anyone in any way.  Not even myself, actually.  If I was standing on the side of the road smoking a cigarette (with shoes on) would people yell abuses at me to “protect” me from my actions?  I doubt it.

That said, lots of people have read my recent research paper on barefoot running and it is gaining unexpected interest around here.  I don’t think anyone has actually taken their shoes off yet, but some people are looking dubiously at their sneakers like they might consider it.  It doesn’t hurt that Lieberman’s recent study out of Harvard on barefoot running hit the mainstream media this month.

With regards to my own actual running, I have still been resting after my unnecessary injury.  I am hoping to hit the beach this afternoon and see how things are feeling.  In response to my foot’s need for rest from running I dragged my poor neglected bike out of the shed and have been pedaling to work.  It took me three days of numb feet and squished toes to realize that the reason my cycling shoes no longer fit me is because my feet have grown and spread from all this barefoot running.  I find this to be a fascinating phenomenon and proof that my feet are recovering from a lifetime of being in shoes.  So barefoot triathlete beware: don’t buy new cycling shoes until AFTER about six months of barefoot running…!

My brilliant plan to run 30 times in 30 days, thus boosting my ego, motivation, lean muscle mass, calorie allowance, fitness, and place on the human totem pole of achievement has been foiled.  The kicker is that I didn’t see this one coming: I’m injured.  Duh.  Actually, the kicker is that now I’m injured, the world of naysayers and shoe evangelists is going to blame my injury on my bare feet instead of the actual culprit which was not listening to my body.  [Insert string of frustrated curses].

Anyway, the whole purpose of barefoot running is to listen to my body so I knew I had taken a wrong turn this morning when the following occurred:

I woke up with pain in my foot for the second day in a row but was pleasantly surprised to note that is was slightly less pain than yesterday.  ”Aha!”, I said to myself “I guess I can run today after all!”.  And off I trotted to the gym before work.  Determined to complete my 30 in 30, I jumped on the treadmill and cranked it up.  One minute in things were still feeling pretty good.  Two minutes in and I am calculating that I only have 18 minutes left to have accomplished my goal for the day.  Three minutes in and I have a decided limp and the thought “I can push through this for 17 more minutes” enters my mind.  Thankfully this thought was followed immediately by “Are you CRAZY??!” and the pushing of the ‘stop’ button on the screen.

So I lose one point for running for 3 minutes and I gain one point for stopping  Which means I have zero points and a sore foot.  Better than minus one point and a VERY sore foot.

And onward goes the journey towards being less of a pig-headed runner and more of a self-attuned athlete.

This weekend was International Race Weekend here.  It a fun weekend of running that kicks off with a mile race on Front Street on Friday night followed by a 10k on Saturday and a half and full marathon on Sunday.  Lots of people come from overseas to compete and it’s really a fun time.

As I was leaving work on Friday one of my colleagues asked if I was running in any of the races.  I said “no but….maybe I should”.  Then I drove down to race registration and registered for Saturday’s 10k before I could change my mind.  So Day 16′s run was a 10k race.  I ran in my VFFs which was a big step towards public VFF-wearing.  Considering I wasn’t rested at all, I’m fairly pleased with my race.  I ran about 4 minutes slower than my personal best and the course was pretty hilly so really, no complaints.  Of course, I harbored all sorts of secret dreams of running a personal best but with no speed-work and no rest, this was hardly a sensible hope.

Anyway, enough excuses and race post-mortem.  It was a fun race and I’m really glad I ran.  On Sunday I went out on the marathon course for a quick training run and then stood in the ocean to “ice” my legs.  Since it was sunny this quickly morphed into a swim and was the perfect way to kick off Sunday.  I even jumped in on the course and ran a little bit with one of the top local males to keep his mind off the pain.  I was pleasantly surprised by how good my legs felt following Saturday’s 10k.

I ran early this morning because my feet are feeling a little sore and I thought it would be nice to have number 18 in the bag before the sun came up.  I’m glad I did since now it is windy and rainy and I missed most of the bad weather.

That’s all the news from Day 18.  I feel like I’ve turned a real corner with my body’s ability to absorb training, so here’s hoping it sticks!

Day 12 has barely begun and I’m pleased to say I have completed my 12th run of January.  Last night I did a recovery run after work.  I was sore from my gym workout on Sunday and didn’t expect much of my body.  Surprisingly, I felt great out there and went a little longer than planned but kept it to a short half hour, keep the mantra “train today so you can train again tomorrow” in mind and being careful not to overdo it.

This morning I met some friends for a 6am run.  Because it was dark and I’m not into plunging feet first into the darkness without being able to see where I’m stepping, I wore my VFFs.  When I arrived I was greeted by a number of questions about my “shoes” and my new interest in barefoot running from one of the women whom I don’t know very well.  I’m not really into defending the whole barefoot running thing.  I like it, I believe in it, and so far it works very well for me.  If other people want to wear shoes, that’s their business – I don’t feel like I need to convert them.  This is a process of me listening to my own body and I believe other people should listen to theirs and wear whatever they think is best.  Anyway, I answered her questions while we were running and told her what I know from my own research and experience and just as she was uttering the words “Well, you’ll have to keep me posted on how it’s going” I caught my big toe on the sidewalk and hit the deck.  As I was picking myself up I joked “well, it’s not going very well at this moment!”.

It’s interesting because I have been so much less of a klutz since I took off my running shoes and part of that is because being barefoot forces me to be present and aware.  As soon as I put on my VFFs and started a conversation, I was back to my old non-present self and back on my face on the pavement.  After that I stopped talking and got in line behind the others and had an excellent run.  Other than (another) hole in my running tights, I’m no worse for wear.  And thus wraps up January’s Day 12 of running!

First things first, today is the 10th day of the year and will be my 10th run of the year, so I am doing well with my resolve to run through January.  I did this once before, but I was living in New England at the time and dealing with IT band issues, so my runs were usually a slow 15 minute slog in the snow and often with snowshoes.  On the island, things are a little different and although we are having Seattle-like weather with rainy, windy days and precious little sunshine, the ground is not cold and I am not currently plagued by injury.  Also, my Vibram Five Fingers have been very helpful in allowing me to run on days when the soles of my feet are a little sore from the previous day’s rough terrain.

Yesterday I had the unusual Saturday experience of having nothing to do all day, so after a few hours of lounging and allowing myself to be lazy, I got antsy and decided to go on an “adventure run”.  Suffice it to say, if you grew up on this island, there’s not much “adventuring” to be had since it’s not very big, but I was interested to see where I would end up if I just ran for the heck of it with no real destination or goal in mind except to undertake and adventure.

So I put on my VFFs and a running belt with plenty of water, a gel, and some money, and out the door I went.  I took it very slowly and ventured on and off the Railway Trail and explored some roads I haven’t been on before.  I ended up doing a big loop and after one stop at a store for some refueling and an hour and forty-five minutes of running I was back at home again.  Although once I measured the course I was a little distraught at how slowly I had run, I am trying to remember that the purpose of the run was adventuring, not speed.

I thought for sure that I would be sore this morning and that my feet would be aching, but the only damage I have to show for nearly two hours of running in minimalist shoes is a tiny blister on the top of my foot from a seam in the VFFs.  I am amazed at how my body handled that amount of running considering that was my ninth day of running in a row!  Although I am not anywhere close to fast yet, I’m very happy with my body’s resiliency and the strength I have gained from running barefoot.

I spent the holidays in the Midwest during and after a snowfall of 18 inches or so and with temperatures below zero.  Needless to say, my barefoot running was somewhat interrupted.

Having been living in my blissful barefoot Bermuda bubble for the past year, it was enlightening to be reminded of what a “real” winter looks and feels like.  When I originally started barefoot running I loved the sensations of it so much that I didn’t see myself as a future owner of a pair of minimalist shoes.  I’m in Bermuda – what would I need those for? Bare feet work just fine.  But when I arrive in the cold, snowy Midwest, I was grateful that I had had the forethought to order a pair of Vibram Five Fingers “just in case” and that they were waiting for me upon my arrival.

Because I have been a runner by one description or another for most of my life, the funny part of my trip is that I took my running shoes (unworn for several months) with me.  It just felt weird to travel without them and I had this idea that I’d regret it if I left them.  As it turns out, I was glad to have them because I had not really put much thought into footwear and flip flops were hardly warm enough to stand around in outside during my first stop-over in Boston.  But of course, since my VFFs were waiting for me in the Midwest, I’m pleased to say that I was able to do all my holiday running without cushioned running shoes.

As far as the VFFs go, I am very happy with them.  Certainly they are a far cry from the joys of actual barefoot running, but they kept my feet from getting frostbitten and were far more comfortable than regular running shoes.  They didn’t have much traction in the snow, but I was more interested in just being out there than I was in being fast.

I arrived home last night amidst gale force winds and bouts of rain, making my first run back FAR less pleasant than the silent crispness of my snowy Midwestern runs last week.  Nonetheless, my feet were happy to be warm and are thrilled to be reunited with the ground once again.  The plan is to get a run in every day during January.  I think a January half-marathon is a little premature for my not-yet-fully adjusted bare feet.  I did run 10km barefoot before I flew to the US, and didn’t have any pain or blisters, but I think I need more time before I can run twice that.  I would like to run a full marathon (my first) this year and have set May 24th as the date for that.  It’s time to stop pfaffing around and do a marathon already.