Marathon Recovery

Hello Barefooters,

 I have truly enjoyed the month of November.  As you know, I started off the month with my first ever barefoot marathon at the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon on Nov 3rd.  Since then I have just been taking it easy and running only what feels comfortable.

The feet have really been recovering nicely.  I have been amazed at how much I've actually WANTED to run since the marathon.  I guess I thought now would be the time to slack off and not be too motivated since the marathon goal was now acheived.  But it seems like just the opposite has happened.  With this big psychological barrier out of the way, I now feel free to go out and JUST RUN...and that feels really good...to just go out and not worry about the miles, or the pace, or even the weather that much.  To just go and run whatever feels good that day and then call it quits.  Well, that lasted a couple weeks and then by the third week, I put in a 20 mile week (two 7 milers and a 6 miler)...which is now considered "high mileage!  It was great to run that high of a weekly mileage but then I did have to back it off the following week and only did 9 this week including just 3 this morning. 



INDY STAR:  At least MY FEET made it into the local paper!



About halfway through the month I received my marathon photos and put together a little slide show.  Most of these photos are from that slide show (sorry, I haven't figured out how to post it in the blog).

I was also happy to learn that my photo (or at least my feet) made it into the Indianapolis Star (Newspaper) but it may have just been on their website...here is that photo.

Now that I've had a little time to reflect and recover, I did go ahead and sign up for the Mini Marathon in May 2013.  I've actually run this half marathon 17 times, but this will be the first attempt barefoot.  I'm thinking about the Sam Costa Half Marathon in March as well, another annual favorite. 



"Floating" above the brick street just seconds
away from the finish line.



If the temps aren't too hot by the Mini in May, I might be able to start adding in some speed by then!  I've also kind of mapped out the rest of the year and have set my sites on running a "500 Mile Barefoot Year" in 2012.  Right now I'm at 435 miles, so it is definitely within reach if the weather stays halfway decent in December. 

I had my annual physical today, and got a clean bill of health.  I sat and reminisced with my doctor about the low point of my year back in February when I came limping in to him with my stress fracture.  I told him I still blamed it on the Vibram Five Finger run the week before and think I had definitely overdone it with the shoes.  I HAVEN'T RUN IN THEM SINCE!!  And acutally, that was my only Vibram run in this calendar year.  So, for all practical purposes, I'm now fully converted to barefoot and have no plans to return to shoes of any kind, at least not in the near term.  Not sure if I want to keep doing long distance runs, but it certainly does feel good to know that I can at any time if I want to.  As you barefooters know, it's pretty much all in your head!

So for now, I'll just keep doing what feels natural and stay connected with the earth...one footfall at a time.

Stay Safe,

Barefoot Dan

November Mileage:  63 Miles

Week 1= 26.2, Week 2= 1 , Week 3= 7, Week 4= 20, Week 5= 9