Tag Archives: barefoot

May 8 2013

Race Report: Mississauga Half Marathon 2013

Barefoot, Kilted, and Shirtless for the Mississauga Half!

Not a great finishing time (1:57.46.2), but not a bad one either. I went out too quickly at the start (when will I learn?), and pushed the hill at the 10K mark a little too hard. Not surprisingly, I paid for both of those mistakes later, with my pace dropping significantly post-18K. Still, it was a good race and I was reasonably happy with my finish.

A big highlight was a dailymile meetup before the start. I chatted with another good friend while waiting in the start line, ran with another for a short distance in the first few kilometers, and chatted with two more at the finish. That made the race much more of a social event than my races usually are. For an Aspie like me, this sort of stuff is a big deal.

And the weather was pretty much race-perfect: 10C at race start and 19C at the finish, sunny, with a 10 km/h wind, and 42% humidity.

The Meetup

dailymile meetup

The dailymile crew

Dailymile meetups are fun. Interesting, too, as they involve re-connecting with folks I already know, meeting face-to-face with people I’d only connected with online, and meeting new friends. This one was a large group, involving runners who were doing the half and full marathon distances.

The Numbers

My official stats for the half were as follows:

Chip time: 1:57.46.2
Average pace: 5:30
Overall placing: 816/2363
Category placing (male 60-69): 14/48
Gender placing: 525/1058

Interestingly, those numbers suggest that I may finally have broken out of my “mid-pack runner status” in terms of overall and category placing (though not in gender placing). That makes me feel much better about my slow finishing time.

Some Analysis

More numbers. The following kilometer-by-kilometer breakdown, generated by my Garmin Forerunner 210 and filtered through the SportTracks application, tell the story far better than any photo could. Look down the list, and then read on while I unpack the numbers a bit.

Kilometer 1: 5:24 min/km
Kilometer 2: 5:16 min/km
Kilometer 3: 5:18 min/km
Kilometer 4: 5:15 min/km
Kilometer 5: 5:19 min/km
Kilometer 6: 5:26 min/km
Kilometer 7: 5:26 min/km
Kilometer 8: 5:16 min/km
Kilometer 9: 5:18 min/km
Kilometer 10: 5:21 min/km
Kilometer 11: 5:46 min/km
Kilometer 12: 5:33 min/km
Kilometer 13: 5:35 min/km
Kilometer 14: 5:30 min/km
Kilometer 15: 5:35 min/km
Kilometer 16: 5:28 min/km
Kilometer 17: 5:29 min/km
Kilometer 18: 5:34 min/km
Kilometer 19: 5:36 min/km
Kilometer 20: 5:43 min/km
Kilometer 21: 5:31 min/km

My target finish time for this half was 1:53. I’d planned carefully for that. In theory, it was all very simple. I could pull off that finishing time (and therefore a new PB) if I kept an average pace of 5:21 min/km. Simple, right?

Concept was good, execution was rubbish.

Studies of runners at half and full marathon distances suggest that a pace only 2 seconds quicker than the runner’s targeted training pace means diminished performance later in the race. As you can see from the above numbers, I blew things completely. For kilometers 2 through 5, I was doing as much as 6 seconds faster than my target pace. And I did it again for kilometers 8 and 9. In fact, the only kilometer for which I held my target pace was kilometer 10. I slowed down a lot going up the hill at kilometer 11, and then dragged myself along for the second half of the race distance.

That was just lame. There’s no other word for it.

The Finish

Mississauga Half 2013 Strong old animal Continue reading →

May 5 2013

Mississauga Half Stats

Official stats for this morning’s Missisauga Half Marathon…

Chip time: 1:57.46.2
Average pace: 5:30
Overall placing: 816/2363
Category placing (male 60-69): 14/48
Gender placing: 525/1058

Interestingly, I broke out of my “mid-pack runner status” with this one in terms of overall and category placing (though not in gender placing). That makes me feel better about my slow finishing time.

The other good news is that I’ll turn 65 next month. That means that, in many races (but not this one), I’ll move to another age category (65 to 69). I’ll be at the younger edge of that one. Woo hoo!

Full race report to follow soon.

Apr 25 2013

Mississauga Half: Strategy

Mississauga Marathon logo

The Mississauga Half Marathon is only 11 days away. That means it’s time to put down in writing what I’ve thinking about for weeks – how to run the race.

If possible, I’d like to better my current PB for the half which is 1:54:58 (set at the Sarasota Half in mid-March). If I were to aim at a finishing time of 1:53, that would mean an average pace of 5:21 min/km. My pace at Sarasota was 5:27, which means upping the pace for Mississauga considerably. Training’s gone well, though, the Mississauga course is a (slight) net downhill and, more importantly, doesn’t have the nasty stretch of rough asphalt that Sarasota did. So far, so good. I’ll put 1:53 down as a Target.

Next comes a Desirable. That would mean a finishing time of 1:54, which would still give me a PB, just not by as respectable a margin. A 1:54 finish would require an average pace of 5:24, which, given my training, is doable. I’d be quite happy with that.

Any runner worthy of the name knows, though, that races always bring surprises. Given that, I’ll put in an Acceptable here, which would would be anything under a 2:00 hour finish. To pull that off, I’d simply need to run at a 5:41 pace. These days, that’s pretty much cruising speed for me, even over a couple of hours.

So I’ve got all these positives: my home course, net downhill, good training, and a promising weather forecast (low of 10C, high of 17C, and a 40% chance of light showers). As if that weren’t enough, I’m going to a meetup just prior to the race start with some of my dailymile buddies. And I’m going to be barefoot, kilted, and wearing blue and yellow for Boston.

All those ducks, all in a row. Let’s hope it goes as planned.

Apr 10 2013

Barefoot Spring Run Off 8K

HSRO 8K - leading the pack

Leading the pack

This was a good race, for all kinds of reasons. To start, it was a return to a race that I did five years ago, after getting back to running after an absence of almost thirty years.

Second, it was a chance to pay back. Late in 2005, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Since then, I’ve had very good care from the good folks at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital. For this year’s Spring Run Off, I raised just over C$1,500 to support PMH’s research and treatment programs. It’s only a drop in the bucket, given the prevalence of prostate cancer these days, but it’s something.

As if that weren’t enough, I managed to set a new personal best time for the 8K. My chip time was 44:12.8. That’s a 6 minute improvement over my finishing time in 2008. I placed 6/21 in my age category, 649/1173 in my gender group, and 917/2244 overall. It’s a good result, and one I’m very pleased with.

Just before the race start, I had the pleasure of meeting with some fellow dailymilers. It was a very pleasant way to start race day. The weather was good, though a touch on the cold side to start: 2C, sunny, 11 km/h wind, and 55% humidity.

The Spring Run Off course is interesting, and a tough one if you’re trying to do it quickly. As you can see from the map below, it’s a double loop, with a smaller one within the larger. The roadways are narrow, which can make mid-pack running somewhat crowded, especially as many runners optimistically start well ahead of where they should. The route includes two rather steep descents and two comparable climbs. The second climb, a short but brutal 400m, occurs just before the finish line. This is where elite runners make their final strong kick – for the rest of us, it’s a bit of a slog. In either case, it’s a great location for spectators, and makes for a very exciting finish line atmosphere.

Spring Run Off 8K map

The man's alright!

The man’s alright!

I ran this one well. (No false modesty here!) I knew that if I kept to an average pace of 5:30 min/km or so (which, given my recent training, was eminently doable), I’d be able to finish in a respectable time. So I pushed the pace a little on the flat bits, took the descents fairly gently (not so easy to go downhill quickly when barefoot, and my left hip doesn’t like downhills), and did my best on the climbs. As I was running slightly ahead of mid-pack, I didn’t feel as crowded as I had five years ago. Also, I’m much more confident than I was then, so could move through the crowd fairly easily. In fact, except for the descents, I managed to pass other people quite steadily throughout the race. An unusual occurrence for me, and a very pleasant one! Overall, it was a good strategy, and one that worked well.

A confident finish, for all the toughness of that last climb, and all that was left was to bask in some spring sunshine.

Mission accomplished

A heartfelt thank you goes to everyone who supported me to raise funds for this event. That’s the real cause for the great feelings and the celebration!

Mar 21 2013

Race Report: Sarasota Half Marathon 2013

Working hard at the 7K mark

This was a good one. My finishing time of 1:54:58 was a new personal best (by about a minute), and I ran the course four minutes faster than I did last year. That finishing time put me 13th out of 46 runners in my age group (male, 60-64). If I’d been one age group up (65-69), my time would have made me 8th out of 31. I turn 65 in June. So there’s hope for me yet.

The race started, as it did last year, at 7 AM, about half an hour before dawn. That meant starting in darkness, which always feels a little odd to me. Not bad, not good, just odd. The great thing about it was that the sun came up as I was heading back across the John Ringling Bridge, at about the 6.5K mark. That was quite a sight. About half a kilometer later, I saw, hovering over the big pack of runners on the bridge, an octocopter with a camera mounted on it, exactly like this one.

Octocopter

Someone was having some serious – and very expensive – fun!

After the bridge, the route turned north, along Tamiami Way (Route 41), a nice stretch of barefoot-friendly road where I settled down to my target pace. North along that flat, straight stretch, then left towards the Ringling Museum of Art, then left again and into the Neighbourhood of Rough Asphalt. OK, that’s not entirely fair – it’s actually an upscale community, called Indian Beach/Sapphire Shores, of lovely 1940s and 1950s Gulf Coast-style homes.

Sapphire Shores

It’s very pretty (I wouldn’t mind living there), but the road surface isn’t comfortable on bare feet, especially ones that are trying to go quickly. The problem, you see, is that, back in the day, pavement here was made with crushed coral as part of the asphalt mix. It was probably inexpensive, and it seems to have lasted well, but it’s hell on the soles of the feet. It slowed me down, just as it did last year (but not quite as much, because I was expecting it this time).

After about 5K of that challenging nonsense, the route got back onto Tamiami Trail, and we were on our way to the finish. More spectators and more comments (“Omigod, he doesn’t have any shoes!”, “Badass!”, “Awesome, dude!”, “Yay Canada!” and the like). I tweaked my pace just a little bit in order to finish well and in style.

After crossing the finish line and accepting the humungous medal, I happily consumed a cup of yogurt, granola, and fruit, drank a bottle of water, and waited for my amigos Chris G. and Marcus C. to pull in. Here we are, in front of the beer truck after the race finish. They’re still wearing their medals. I’m wearing pink stains from chafed nipples.

Three amigos

Did I mention the nipple chafing? No? Well, I made a bad rookie mistake, and forgot to BodyGlide the nips. Didn’t notice it at all while running, but someone pointed out the telltale pink stains after the finish. Argh.

I also finished with a blister on each heel, and my feet were pretty tingly. Otherwise, I was in good nick. The weather was near perfect for this traveler from the frozen north: 10C at race start, 21C at the finish, sunny, 17 km/h wind, 56% humidity.

What worked well for this one? Well, my heart rate-based training program paid off big time. Because of it, I was able to manage my pace well, even through the gnarly bits. I adapted to the Florida heat quickly and well. My fueling protocol was spot on. (Whey protein isolate drink 2 hours before race start; two electrolyte tabs 1 hour before; 1 Hammer gel 5 minutes before; Hammer HEED throughout race; 1 Hammer gel at halfway mark; Hammer Recoverite immediately after the finish.) And my running kilt was absolutely the right choice. It was far more comfortable than any shorts I’ve ever worn, and will be my drug of choice for all future races.

I think I’m finally becoming a runner! Or, more correctly, I’m discovering a joy in racing that I hadn’t thought possible. And, if I keep to a similar pace and finishing time next year, I may even be able to break out of my long-standing “I’m just a mid-pack runner” habit. Turning 65 and moving up an age category might just do the trick. Older and quicker would be perfectly alright with me.

By the way, this is the only race I’ve ever run where I was paced by pelicans. This pic was taken by one of the official race photographers at about the 16K point of the race, right in the midst of the “Bad asphalt, go to your room!” section of the route. We don’t get pelicans back home in southern Ontario, so I was delighted to see them.

Pelicans along the race route

I want to do Sarasota again next year. Bad asphalt and all, it’s still a good course, and a great race. Maybe I’ll be even quicker. Old dog, new tricks, that sort of thing. :)

Mar 19 2013

A Good One!

Sarasota Half 2013 medal

On Sunday, I ran my second Sarasota Half Marathon. It was a good one!

My finishing time was 1:54:58 (5:26 average pace for the distance), which means I set a new PB, and ran the course 4 minutes faster than I did last year. I placed 13th out of 46 in my age group (male 60-64). I’m very pleased with that result.

I’ll post a full race report as soon as I get some photos pulled together. Stay tuned!

Mar 9 2013

Argh! The Cops!

Once again, I’ve run afoul of the law. Literally.

It happens three times or so each year. I’m out for a happy barefoot run, when, all of a sudden, a police car swoops to the side of the road beside me, lights flashing. A window is rolled down, and I hear the ominous words…

“Excuse me, sir.”

This morning (the first nice day we’ve had in a long time, I might add), I was enjoying a short, easy-paced barefoot run around my local ring road. About 2K from home, not one, but two, cop cars came to a rather sudden stop beside me. Flashing lights, cruisers angled against the curb so they were actually blocking traffic, and very quickly a cop standing on either side of me while I was questioned.

Yes, you’ve got the picture. A white-haired gent in running clothes (but no shoes!), and two young, well-muscled cops, complete with guns and flak jackets. Said older gent being questioned about why he’s running without shoes, where he lives, if he’s ever been injured. etc. Evidently, a “concerned citizen” had phoned in a report that he/she had seen “a man running without shoes,” and the cops had to come by to ensure the public’s safety.

One of the cops even called in an ID on his onboard laptop, I guess to make sure I wasn’t some sort of known criminal. While he did so, the other cop stood just off to my side, hand resting casually on his holstered gun. Maybe he was afraid I’d make a break for the nearest traffic light, or go berserk in the way that barefoot runners are known to. I’ll call the image to mind again – a 64 year-old, 144 lb. runner, barefoot, clad in tights, a long-sleeve running shirt, and a bandanna, in between two thirty-something, 180-or-so lb. cops in street armour, with weapons at the ready. Right, I’m so dangerous.

Other runners get waved at or chased by dogs – I get hassled by interfering busybodies and the state’s paramilitaries. This happens all too often – and I’m hugely, hugely pissed off by it. Just sayin’, that’s all.

Mar 1 2013

Palm Trees, Sunshine, and Bare Feet

Sarasota

Exactly 14 days from today, I’ll fly from my home near Toronto, Ontario to Sarasota, Florida. Two days after that, I’ll run the Sarasota Half Marathon. It’ll be palm trees, sunshine, and bare feet for me. And not too soon, either. It’s been a rough winter.

It’ll be a shorter visit this year than last, when I ran Sarasota for the first time. Just the common story of too many responsibilities and too little time, I’m afraid. I’ll fly down on Friday, enjoy the warmth, the company of friends, and (hopefully) the beach on Saturday, race on Sunday morning, then fly home again late Sunday afternoon. I won’t exactly spend more time flying to and from Sarasota than being there – but I expect it’s going to feel that way.

Seems a bit of a rush, you might be saying. Why all the bother, you ask. Well, I’m going to tell you.

There are the obvious reasons, of course. First of all, on March 17, when the race happens, it’ll be cold here and warm there. Second, I’ll get to run with my friends Chris G. and Marcus C. Third, it’s a nice event at my favourite race distance. On the other hand, I’ll have to endure the minor discomforts of flying, something I’m not keen on. I’m not particularly keen on hotels, either. And I’ll be away from home, which is never a preference.

So why do it at all?

You know, sometimes I wonder that myself. And wondering about it brought the realization that there’s one reason why I’ll make the effort. Let’s call it the “Long Journey” concept. If I wanted to be fancier, I’d throw out words like microcycle, mesocycle, and macrocycle – in other words, periodization. Good words all, because, deconstructed, they tell the tale, and tell it very well indeed.

Cycles

The microcycle in the above graphic corresponds to my winter training. I started that on November 26, and will finish the day before the race, with a short, easy shakedown run. The mesocycle is made up of my spring races (Sarasota, Harry’s Spring Run Off 8K, and the Mississauga Half). The macrocycle is my whole 2013 training and race calendar. After the Mississauga Half (May 6), I’ll do some unstructured running until August 5, when I’ll begin training for my fall races (the Milton Half and the Scotiabank Toronto Marathon). The transitions between the parts of the long cycle are short periods when I rest a bit (sometimes only a day or so) and change gears. They’re sometimes smooth and sometimes tricky. Usually, I just have to let them happen.

So, you see, I’m going to Sarasota for the rhythm! To finish the short cycle, start the mid-cycle, and move into the long cycle. I’ll move through time and space and meaning. I’ll simply be continuing my barefoot journey. It’s all good.

Ah yes, and we mustn’t forget the palm trees. I’m partly going for the palm trees. Technically, they’re known as Arecaceae, a botanical family of perennial lianas and trees. They’re flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. Roughly 202 genera with around 2600 species are currently known, most of them restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates. (Thank you, Wikipedia.) They’re one of my favourite things in the whole world. I think, when I get to Sarasota, I’m going to hug a palm tree.

Palm trees

Feb 21 2013

How You Land Matters

As regular readers of this blog know, I train and race barefoot. When I race, I’m always surprised at how noisy the runners around me are. Not because they talk a lot (some of them do), or because they yell (some of them do that too), but because they thump. Yes, shod runners, you sound like a great thundering herd. It would be really annoying if it weren’t so comical – and sad.

Why do shod runners run noisily? Because the vast majority of them heel strike, that’s why. Barefoot runners don’t. It’s almost impossible to heel strike when you run barefoot, for the simple reason that it hurts too much. Barefoot runners have either a mid-foot or a fore-foot landing. It’s a stronger, more efficient, and more natural way to run. Sadly, running in shoes is almost certain to keep you from running naturally and quietly.

Before I go any further, I’d like to urge you to change the way you talk about running style. Instead of saying “foot strike,” say “foot landing.” In doing so, I follow barefoot legend Ken Bob Saxton’s dictum that one should never strike the ground, but always land gently on it. I also recognize that language has power beyond its mere sound. If you say “strike,” you will strike. If you say “land,” you’re well on your way to changing the way you run to something better.

Here’s an excellent graphic that shows some of the good and bad about “land” versus “strike,” and about “heel strike” versus “”mid-foot and fore-foot landing.” (When you read it, don’t forget to substitute “land” for strike.” You’ll be a better person for it.) The graphic comes to us courtesy of the good foks at Altra Zero Drop shoes. More about them later in the post.

Foot Landing

The whole story about foot landing needs some science if it’s to be understood properly. Some of the best work available comes from Prof. Daniel Lieberman, who heads the Harvard Skeletal Biology Lab. I invite you to check out this video for some good images of barefoot running foot landing, as well as how Lieberman’s research shows that barefoot runners, who tend to land on their fore-foot, generate less impact shock than runners in sports shoes who land heel first.

There’s more good stuff – the hard science data kind of good stuff – here, on an excellent page from the Skeletal Biology Lab site. On it, you’ll find some great videos and comparison data on the difference between heel striking and forefoot striking. (Remember what I said about substituting “land” for “strike”!) Long story short, the page illustrates how and why a large collision is generated when heel striking and why such a small collision is generated when forefoot striking. The page is really “feature rich,” as they say in the software world, but it’s well worth spending some time on. If you do, your understanding of running will benefit immensely.

Back to the folks at Altra Zero Drop. I’ve mentioned them because they seem to be one of the few shoe manufacturers who base their product design and development on the kind of information Prof. Lieberman offers, rather than paring down a traditional shoe model in order to sell to the growing minimalist market. They’re not the only one, of course – Vibram Five Fingers, Luna Sandals, and Xero Shoes minimalist sandals do the same. But the Altra Adam looks like a running-specific, zero drop, midfoot landing shoe that’s been designed from the ground up, rather than by a marketing team. Might be worth a look, if you’re thinking of a shoe that will allow the good form that comes with a midfoot or forefoot landing.

Full disclosure: I have an affiliate relationship with Xero Shoes, which means I get a small commission from them if you buy one of their sandals via a link on this blog. I own a pair Xero Connects and a pair Xero Contacts, which I previously reviewed here and here. I also own two pairs of VFF KSOs, but I haven’t worn either of them for about four years. And I’m working at getting a pair of Altra Adams for review. Stay tuned!

Feb 18 2013

Update: Heart Rate-Based Training

Heart rate

Yesterday’s 90 minute barefoot treadmill run marked the end of week 12 of my 16 week training program for the Sarasota Half Marathon, which takes place on March 17.. The training’s gone well, so I’d like to offer an update. First, though, a little backstory of why I’m following a heart rate-based program.

The logic, as outlined in Benson and Connolly’s book Heart Rate Training, which I’ve mentioned previously, is, once you think about it, blindingly simple. HR training is the most user-specific training available to the ordinary (and elite, for that matter) athlete. It relies on your cardio-vascular system, which means that it reflects your overall state of stress 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. More to the point for training purposes, it offers immediate and consistent feedback about your stress level, intensity level, and your rate of adaptation to the training process. That means that, rather than relying on a pre-determined set of data for my training, it’s all been done on the basis on ongoing, daily, and very personal data. It’s all about me, and nobody else.

Before I started the program, I did a treadmill-based test to determine my maximum heart rate, which turned out to be 163 bpm. Every morning of the program I’ve determined my resting heart rate, which is between 43 and 46 bpm, depending on the day. (To do the latter, I use a nifty little program on my Android smartphone called Instant Heart Rate.) I track all of my workout, and the associated data re resting heart rate, weight, blood pressure, and length and quality of sleep with SportTracks. That gives me a comprehensive and easily-accessed reference library of how the training’s going. Of course, my trusty Garmin 210 is the backbone of the whole system, as it’s what shows me what my heart rate is.

Buikding endurance – and speed – following a heart rate-based program takes time. Not just weeks, but sometimes months. I’m fortunate in that I’ve built a strong aerobic base over the past year. I’ve also worked on speed in my previous training programs for various races and distances. But this HR-based program has made an enormous difference. It’s different from the others.

Here’s one graphic example of how that difference manifests itself. It’s not my data, but an image I downloaded via a Google search, and include here because illustrates very nicely a couple of points I want to make.

HR versus speed

The top graph shows the runner’s heart rate for a certain distance, in which she kept to a pre-determined heart rate. The lower graph shows the same distance and time, but with the runner following a pre-determined pace. Going for pace resulted in peaks and valleys of heart rate, which resulted, as one would expect, in feelings of fatigue. That inevitably affected her endurance, and would, in the longer run, mean less endurance and a lower running economy. Running to heart rate, on the other hand, mean that she adjusted her pace to keep at the pre-determined heart rate, and so conserved her energy levels, her power, and her strength.

Endurance isn’t everything, of course. That’s why, as part of my training program, I’ve included interval and tempo runs as well as the endurance-focused sessions. Such an ongoing heart rate-based program increases the size of the body’s capillaries and develops mitochondria, so that strength, endurance, and speed are all enhanced.

It’s all been good.

What’s the bottom line? Following this heart rate-based training program has 1/ built up my endurance, 2/ lessened my fatigue levels, and 3/ made me quicker. As an instance of the latter, consider the following: my current PB for the 16K distance (1:35:18, a pace of 5:57) was set in June 2008, at the Toronto 10 Miler. Yesterday, I ran 15.8K in 1:30, for a pace of 5:41. Yesterday, I was cruising, not racing. I wasn’t pushing hard, and I had plenty in the tank at the end of the run. Is it any wonder I’ve become a fan of heart rate-based training?