Just Do It!

Frosty Fall Leaves - in Villach Austria

Good Morning Barefooters,

If some of you out there are still on the fence about your next running goal, I'll pass along my mantra which I borrowed from a Nike ad 20-some years ago:

JUST DO IT!

These three small words have been on the bottom of my running log for as long as I've been keeping track of my daily mileages (at least the electronic spreadsheet version) since about 1994.  Whenever I pull out the log to think about the next marathon or the next distance or speed goal and whether or not I've got what it takes to get it done, those three words just keep staring back at me...JUST DO IT!

Of course, this shouldn't replace the planning stages for a big goal like running your first ever marathon, taking on the challenge of a first Triathlon, or even for switching from shoes to barefoot.  But, it's like anything else...if you JUST think about it or TALK about it and never JUST DO IT then what is the point?  I mean, at some point, this intellectual activity has to stop so that the physical activity can begin.  And then, it is literally as simple as putting one foot in front of the other...stepping out the front door and doing it.

If you don't ever JUST DO IT, you'll always wonder if you could have.  And after all, what's the worst thing that could happen?...if you really hate whatever it is, you can always go back to doing whatever it was you were doing before.  And then at least you can say that you tried it.  As the great Henry Ford once said:  "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right!"


The nice thing is that this philosophy can apply to just about anything you need to do, including NOT doing something.  If you are injured and need rest, then instead of feeling guilty about taking time off from running you can JUST DO IT and take a zero day (or week) to get healthy again.  Anytime we apply the JUST DO IT mantra we get ourselves out of the "over-analyzing mode" and move forward with what needs to get done.

Morning Headlamp Run on
River Path in Villach Austria

That being said, right now I'm taking some time to let my ankle continue to heal.  Even though I did take some time off after the Appalachian Trail injury I think it still needs some more time off.  I rested for two days over Thanksgiving break and I'm looking at taking even more down time.  Since I've already hit my mileage goal for the year, I didn't see the need to just keep piling on the miles.


The month of November was pretty interesting, however, since I was out of the country for the first two weeks of the month.  I was on a business trip in Villach Austria for the first week and in Munich Germany for the second week.  I got in some interesting runs in both places and actually ran every day in both places (except Sunday).  This was in spite of a rather nasty self inflicted toe injury the first day in Villach when I stubbed my toe (hard) on the bed in the hotel room...just walking over to look out the window! 

Villach Toe Injury - Stubbed Toe

The picture shows the fourth and fifth(pinky) toes nice and purple after about 48 hours.  It didn't really hurt when I ran, just when I put them back into the shoes each day for the business meetings.  This continues the trend for my messed up right foot...it seems like every blister, pain, stress response, etc...always happens to THIS foot.  Anyway, I actually ran about 25 miles each week while overseas and got in my coldest run of the season (30 deg. F) prior to leaving Munich.  


The weather has now turned colder back here in Indiana as well and I have now run as low as 27 degrees F.  We had quite a snowstorm last Saturday here but I got in a nice 15 miler in the dry, dark, pre-dawn hours ahead of the big first wet snowstorm of the season.  I enjoyed my Thanksgiving break this past weekend and I'm now on a business trip to Michigan for the next couple of days.


Enjoy your winter running,


Barefoot Dan


(November Mileage = 146.12 miles)