A February Limp Home

Happy Leap Day Barefooters!
I hope everyone is enjoying their bonus day.  February is over.  The weather is warming.  So I should be happy, right?  That would be a lot easier if I was running, but I'm not!  I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I'm once again leaning toward blaming the Vibrams.  My injury happened while on a long barefoot run, but occured just two days after my first run in the Vibrams all year.

February started well, and I had a pretty good couple of weeks at the start of the month.  The first week included a business trip to Chicago and a couple of nice barefoot runs in new surroundings.  The second week was nice as well and I was looking to finish with a Saturday run on Feb. 11, but the weather wasn't cooperating.  Windy and cold (19 degrees) and I didn't feel like flirting with frostbite again.  So I decided to do a quick Vibram run over to MacGregor Park and back, utilizing the 1.6 mile trail in the park, for a total of 5.21 miles.  Afterward, I had a little pain in the lower right back and a little TOFP Top of Foot Pain on right foot.  But nothing I hadn't felt before, and figured that it just happened to coincide with the trail run in the Vibrams.

After a day off, on Monday I went out for a "mid length" barefoot run and it felt great.  I mean really great!  It was 29 degrees and partly sunny with a slight southerly breeze.  I ran straight north on Anthony road and...well...ala Forrest Gump...I just kept on going.  I kept thinking I would turn back, but then kept picking targets just a little farther ahead and thinking how great it would feel to do my longest barefoot run ever.  I ended up running all the way to the Tipton County Line!  And that is 8.1 miles from my house.  OK, I thought, great, I'll get to turn in my first 16 miler!  Upon turning around things were still feeling great and the breeze was now in my face which actually helped to cool me down.   I was enjoying this lightly travelled road and running right down the middle on the softer tar portion left from 3 year old chip and seal.  I was really feeling great.  I had no problem keeping a really consistent 8:40 pace and even started calculating about what time I would be back home.  Running along, thinking life was grand, when all of a sudden, TWANG!!!  A sharp pain in the middle of my right foot stopped me cold.

And I mean cold.  I tried to walk it off.  I tried to shake it off.  I even sat down in the middle of the road, actually laid down on the road and massaged my foot, but to no avail.  I started walking back...but I still had almost 7 miles to go!  I felt like crying but figured that just wasn't gonna help.  I walked on the side of my foot.  I was limping slightly.  I tried several times to run, but each time, after only 2 or 3 steps, the shooting pain was back.  I was convinced I had broken something.  But what to do?  There was no traffic coming along, no cell phone...heck no shoes (at least last time I went on my 11 miler I had hauled along my shoes in my jacket pockets, just in case...Duh!  this was a major screwup!)

I said a prayer.  God, just please keep the partial sun coming, and keep the wind from getting too strong...and please let me get home before dark.  Well, I kept limping along at about a 20 min/mile pace.  The sun stayed just warm enough.  While the wind was bitter, I never got super-chilled and tried to concentrate on not wasting energy shivering.  A few cars came along after I had been walking for over an hour and I thought...well, I've come this far, no sense hitchhiking now...I sort of regretted not flagging down the first couple of cars, but once I got within 2-3 miles of the house, I knew I would survive.  The Garmin went dead for the last couple of miles, but I felt I was finally back in familiar territory...at least they'll find my barefoot corpse!  Well, as you can see from the above picture, the right foot has definitely seen some damage.

I made it back home after 2+ hours of walking and immediately jumped in the hot tub.  (God answers prayers!)  My whole right side was sore from the limp home.  I waited 48 hours before deciding to go to the doctor.  The GP did an X-ray and compared to the X-rays taken back in July when I did this to my left foot.  He then sent me to a podiatrist when the X-ray showed nothing.  The podiatrist did a bunch of twisting and prodding and gave me the diagnosis of "soft tissue damage" and said to let pain be my guide, continue icing and take Aleve (Naproxin Sodium).  I was just happy he didn't stick me in a walking boot.  He scratched his head on the whole barefoot running thing but to his credit he didn't discourage it, and did ask a ton of questions about the whole phenomenon (maybe a future barefooter!) 

So I've been off running now for 2+ weeks and have decided to take the whole month of March off as well and let it heal up the right way.  It feels about the same (maybe a little worse) than what happened to the left foot last summer (which started the whole barefoot thing for me.)  I'm hoping this "damage" falls into the category of the natural "spreading" that goes on with the metatarsals as the foot adapts to barefooting and shed the confines of the dreaded shoes, or as we barefooters say:  "foot coffins."

Either way, I probably needed a break for a while.  No races, or even goals on the near term horizon...although I did sign up for the Monumental Marathon in Indianapolis at the end of the year...barefoot?...hmm....we'll see.

Happy Barefooting,

BF Dan

February Mileage: 

Week 1 = 17miles

Week 2 = 24 miles

Week 3 = 9.3 miles running, 6.9 miles walking OUCH

Frostbite - A Barefooter's Nightmare

Hello Barefooters,

Yeah!! January is over and I didn't have to resort to wearing the Vibrams at all!  But there were a couple of days when I probably should have.  All in all the month was pretty warm here in Indiana.  The highest temperature I ran in was just yesterday at 53 and the lowest was 11 (more on that in a bit).  The highlight of the month was definitely my first barefoot race ever, which was the Jackie Sanders Miracle Mile in Kokomo (a weekly club race) which I ran (and won!) in 7:06 in the snow with about a 1 inch covering on the ground.  This was my fastest barefoot mile ever and I will be interested to see if I can repeat that speed on the asphault.  The other highlight would have to simply be the fact that I was able to go completely barefoot for the entire month.  The problem with the normal Indiana winter is that there is just never enough sun to completely dry the pavement in between rounds of percipitation.  But this was an unusually forgiving January which had very little snow (a few inches) and several sunny days.  Another issue was the fact that even when I got some sunny dry pavement, it was often littered with salt and calcium chloride (or whatever that green stuff is!) which is not friendly to barefooters.   Another highlight was when my 11 year old daughter Megan ran with me a couple of times although she did wear shoes (thankfully she's a little brighter than her old man!)  The last run with Megan was a very cold day (only 22 degrees) and she fell down on some ice at the turnaround.  Luckily we didn't have far to go and she was able to limp it in.
So, back to the title...just how long does it take to get frostbite!  Well, based on my limited experience (twice this month) it takes as little as 3 minutes.  (and it is both temperature and moisture dependent)  The first time I got it, I went out to run on the Midland Trace Trail which is about 5 miles from my house.   I intentionally drove to this trail to avoid the treated roads and was looking forward to my coldest run yet of 19 degrees.  I did a quick half mile out and back and was very disappointed to find that the after about the first .4 miles the trail was salted!  I did my best to avoid the salt chunks, but as you know, it's the super cooled liquid underneath that gets you.  The feet were really cold when I got back to the truck and i drove home with the heat blasting.  At first I thought I had kindof burned the top of my feet with the heater while thawing them out but the pain/numbness went away after about 48 hours.  Then about a week later, I stupidly tried it again, this time on Anthony road and in my driveway after a nice 3 inch snowfall.  It was a very brisk 11 degrees and I stayed only on the very packed areas and off the treated parts.  I only went .35 miles and then jumped right into the hot tub to thaw out.  I thought everything was hunky dory and at first regretted that I hadn't gone a little further but, still I was happy with my "conquest" of the tundra.  But then, after feeling fine for about 6 hours, my toes started to ache...I mean really ache, and even went a little numb.  It was more than a little scary.  This time it was a full 72 hours before the were back to "normal" and with that they still felt a little leathery and had some slight tingling and numbness.  The key to both of these situations was the moisture.  If you run when it's "really cold" then it needs to be "dry."  This will be my big take away from the whole fiasco, and hopefully I've learned my lesson.  Luckily, the rest of the month was warmer, so I was forced not to do anything stupid!  I'm still hoping not to put on the Vibrams again unless I just have to, so I'll continue praying for more of this mild winter. 

Again, thank you all for the comments and encouragement on the blog.  I feel blessed to be able to run barefoot and again blessed to be able to share it with you.  I will only be doing monthly postings from now on, but if you want to send me questions in the mean time via email, feel free. 
And stay safe out there!

Happy Barefooting,
Barefoot Dan

January Weekly Mileages = 6, 14, 12, 14
  

Happy New Year! - 44 Mile Week

Happy New Year Barefoot Runners,
I hope everyone had as nice a week as I did.  I am truly blessed and it was great to be off work for the entire week!  I had my highest mileage week since I started barefooting and my longest barefoot run ever this week -- 11 miles.  The daily breakdown for the week is as follows:

	Miles	Time	Pace	Temp
MON	8	1:16:00	0:09:30	39	BAREFOOT
TUE	0.25	0:03:19	0:13:16	33	BAREFOOT - Ouch! Turned around.
TUE	6.15	0:57:22	0:09:20	33	in Vibrams
WED	6.65	1:01:07	0:09:11	26	in Vibrams
THUR	11	1:45:56	0:09:38	38	BAREFOOT
FRI	7.05	1:01:12	0:08:41	46	in Vibrams
SAT	5.16	0:46:07	0:08:56	37	in Vibrams

The two barefoot days were relatively dry (not counting short slushy run on Tues) and as a result these were my 2 longest runs of the week.  The feet felt really good on both of these barefoot days, although I did sort of develop and then re-aggravate a blood blister on the ball of the left foot.  It still looks pretty bad but doesn't hurt (and it didn't pop, thank goodness).  On the 11 mile run I actually carried my Vibrams in my jacket pockets just in case I got into trouble.  It was nice to have them (psychologically) although I didn't feel the need to use them.  This was a particularly long route down Hwy 38 all the way to the South Harbour Fire Station and then back up through South and West Harbour subdivisions.  The roads in these sub divisions were very rough and weren't exactly dry as they had been snow covered just 48 hours prior.  All in all it was a great test of the feet and I felt very fortunate to hit 11 miles by the end of my first year barefooting!
The other days I used the Vibrams as it was either snowy (Tues) or rainy (Fri) or just wet. 

Even though I hated using the Vibrams, I do love the fact that I'm still able to run on these "bad weather" days and keep up the cardio.  And I really needed them for warmth in the slushy snow on Tuesday morning.  I also appreciate the tread on the bottom of my my particular brand of Vibrams (KSO TrekSport) for extra traction on the snowy hills, etc. 

Once again, thanks to my Garmin 405CX I was able to run 7 completely different routes in each of my 7 runs.  I really think the Garmin motivated me to go longer three different times this week and helped push me to the 44 mile total (incidently, this is my longest week of the year since early Jan 2011.)  It had been a particularly low mileage year even in shoes, prior to starting the barefoot thing in Mid July.  My total annual mileage is 839 miles (lowest since 1995!) while my Barefoot Mileage is 202 and my Vibram Mileage is 70.  The first half of the year was shod but only 560 miles or so, due to hip and hamstring injuries (now completely healed thanks to barefooting!)

Overall this has been a great "start" at barefooting and thanks to the mild winter so far, I've been able to steadily increase my mileage and start going back-to-back instead of skipping days.
Weekly Overall Mileage = 44 miles
Weekly Barefoot Mileage = 19 miles

Stay Safe Out There This Winter Barefooters!
(...because the colder weather is coming!)

(BF) Dan Lutes

Merry Christmas Barefooters! - 5 New Routes in 5 Days - 28 Miles

Merry Christmas Barefooters!

I'm loving this "warm" December.  I ran 5 times this week and ran a different route each day (thanks to the Garmin).  Only used the Vibrams once and that was for my long run on Wed. which was around the Bear Slide Golf Course for a total of 11.5 miles.  I probably should have used the Vibrams a 2nd day on the Thursday out and back to MacGregor Park but went barefoot even though it was kindof wet for that 3.8 miler.  I don't mind going barefoot in the wet, as long as I know it will be a short route. 

The lowest temperature I ran in all week was today, Saturday, which was 32 degrees but it was Sunny and actually kind of felt warm.  Maybe because it was Christmas Eve!  It was a great run out to Flippins Road and then, since I was feeling so good, an unplanned out and back heading south on Anthony road.  The feet felt great even though it was cold and this had been a "high mileage" week already.  Today's 5 miler was a great way to cap off a 28 mile week.  This was my biggest week yet although the long run was in the Vibrams.  By the way, that is also the longest run yet in the Vibrams.  The other nice thing is that I started pulling the pace down, turning in a 9:14 on the barefoot 6 miler on Mon, an 8:42 for the Vibram 11.5mi on Wed. and another 8:42 for the barefoot 3.9mi on Thurs.  I am looking forward to being off work next week and getting in some good runs in some beautiful weather.  So far, the weather forecast shows dry, sunny and highs in the 40s...you gotta love a mild December in Indiana!!

Merry Christmas to All,

(BF) Dan Lutes

Total Miles for Week = 27.9 Miles (16.4 Barefoot, 11.5 in Vibrams)

Barefoot in December!

Hello Barefooters,
So far this has been a great December for barefoot running in Indiana.  Temps have been staying in the upper 20s and 30s and we have had several sunny days.  As you know, moisture is the barefoot runners enemy, so I have really appreciated the few sunny days we have had to both warm and dry out the pavement.  I've also been having a blast using my new Garmin 405CX which has encouraged me to go on some longer routes and even go off and discover some new ones.  It is amazing how easy it is as a runner to get into a rut of running the same routes OVER and OVER again!  The Garmin automatically maps out my route on my laptop when I get back so it's great to try new routes just to see how they will look on the map! 

Here is an example of my 10 mile route I ran this past Wednesday.  Also graphed are elevation (green) and speed (blue).  So far I'm really happy with my purchase.  This was a Cyber Monday buy and I got it for only $150!  I had always held off buying a running GPS thinking that I liked the freedom of NOT having all the "infrastructure" and hassle of the GPS and connection to computer, etc.  I like the idea of just getting up and going on the run first thing in the morning...the simplicity of it all.  But this Garmin makes it even simpler, and now I can just go for a run without worrying about staying on a pre-measured course.  And in the case of travelling, I can just get up and go and this model even helps me get back to the hotel if I get lost (if will give "turn by turn" directions to "return to start").  I haven't explored half the features yet, but I'm definitely having fun playing with my new toy!  The breakdown for the week is as follows:  Monday= 6, Wednesday=10 (in Vibrams), Thursday=1, Friday=4.8, Saturday=1.5, both Monday and Friday were dry/sunny so I went barefoot even though it was 32 degrees both days.  The Wed and Thurs runs were wet/rainy (but in the 50s) so I used the Vibrams on Wed and went short (although barefoot) on Thurs.  It was interesting to look at the bottom of the Vibrams after using them and finding several different sized "pebbles" stuck in the treads.

Here is a photo of the collection of "stuff."  I guess this is what always sticks to my feet when they get wet, so I do appreciate the Vibrams in the wintertime.  Now by far the most interesting run of the week was on Saturday.  I was up visiting the in-laws in northern Indiana and we recieved an un-expected half inch of powdery snow this morning.  Since I had already planned to do a short recovery run that day, and hadn't brought along the Vibrams, I decided what the heck and GO BAREFOOT IN THE SNOW!  It was 28 degrees with almost no wind and a fine powder of snow still falling.  It turned out to be really fun.  I fired up the Garmin and went on a 1.5 mile run out on the shoulder of Hwy 120 down to Camp Lutherwald and then turned into their entryway a couple hundred yards before turning back toward the house.  Believe it or not, the feet felt pretty good.  Even though they started to numb a little, I never completely lost the feeling in my soles and could actually still feel the small rocks, especially in the snow covered gravel driveway of Camp Lutherwald.  The Hwy 120 shoulder felt great since it was a very smooth surface, made even softer by the thin covering of snow.  I got back to the house and felt like I could have gone another half mile or so but decided I should just call it quits and enjoy my "triumph" over the snow.  I came back inside and warmed the feet while playing around with the Garmin, downloading the data and showing off the new toy to my brother-in-law John.  I'm definitely looking forward to some more snowy runs this winter although still not looking forward to the much colder temperatures ahead.  Well, everyone be careful out there and stay safe with your winter running.  Enjoy the challenges ahead! 

Happy Barefooting,

(Barefoot) Dan

Total Miles for Week = 23.3 Miles, (10 in Vibrams and 13.3 Barefoot)

Stonehenge - Barefoot!

Hello Barefooters,
Well the trip to the UK went well.  I went barefoot for the first night I got there (last Thurs) but only went 1 mile.  The sore spot was better, but the pavement was all wet and littered with small pebbles and sticks.  I decided then and there to switch over to the Vibrams for all the rest of my runs on that trip.  I got to visit Bath, Stonehenge, and Lands End over the weekend.

On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this week I ran an out-and-back 5 miler from the hotel each morning before work.  The route is along a busy road and the path goes from pavement to gravel and is littered with a lot of sticks and vines.  This coupled with the fact that the runs were all in the dark necessitated the use of the Vibrams.  But it was nice to put in some speed and not worry about the wet surfaces.  Believe it or not the Vibrams actually started giving me blisters on the back of my heels where the upper heel cup squares off.  Other that that the Vibrams were really comfortable and 15 miles on back-to-back-to-back days was a first. 

The weather was nice ranging from 39F to 45F with a little wind and rain mixed in.  So when I got back to the states, I put in a nice 6 miler on Friday (still in the Vibrams) and continued to enjoy the increased speed.  Today, Saturday, I went out and did a true barefoot one mile in the 25 degree Indiana weather.  It was my coldest run yet and a good test of the healing feet.  I could have gone longer but decided to stop and call it a week.  Didn't need any more meatball pictures (oh and thank you all for your concern!!  couldn't believe all the comments I got on the last posting...believe it or not, it wasn't as bad as it looked)

The other nice thing about today's run is that I got to try out my new toy...Garmin Forerunner 405CX, an early Christmas present to myself!  This "watch" tracked my entire run and downloaded it wirelessly to my computer where I could see my avg. speed, heart rate, and even elevation gain/loss all on it's own little web page.  It's quite impressive.  I guess now that I'm not spending any money on shoes, I can spend more on my watch...what is wrong with this picture?!  Oh well, it may give me some more motivation to get out and brave the cold this winter...still not looking forward to those super cold Jan/Feb mornings...Brrr!!

Happy Barefooting All,

(BF) Dan

Feel like I have to leave the "BF" in parenthesis until I shed the Vibrams again!

Total barefoot miles last week = 5.1 miles

Total miles this week = 22 miles (21 in Vibrams!)

MEATBALL !!! -- Why did I run again so soon?!!!!

OUCH - That was dumb.  Why did I run again so soon.  Last Friday's run up in Howe IN kind of did me in but by Monday afternoon I was looking at the weather map and thinking that the foot didn't feel too bad.  And acutally it didn't feel bad at all and I was kind of amazed at how the skin had completely healed and there was no residual pain...after all it had been a whole 72 hours since I was bleeding.  God has given us amazing healing power in our feet (and our whole body for that matter).  I decided to go out when it was about 39 degrees (and dry) to get ahead of the incoming snow.  My route gave me the choice of a half mile, a one mile, a 3.1 mile or a 4.2 mile total.  I checked the feet 3 different times (at .5, 1.0, 1.6) and everything looked (and felt fine).  So I went for the whole 4.2 and decided to check again at about the 3 mile point. 

Uh-oh.  At 3 miles I started to see a little "pink" on the healing wound and the weird part was that the OUTSIDE of my foot was hurting/burning again...kindof like last Friday.  I surmised again that with the outside edge of my foot hurting I was changing my gait and putting new pressure on the ball of the foot and leading to another blister on top of blister.  The pavement was still a little wet in spots too, which may not have helped either.  I decided to just grin and bear it and actually kind of pickep up my pace on the last mile.  But when I got back after 4.2  miles, it was brutal....I had to take a photo and didn't even bother to brush the leaf off my foot.  (I think it would have hurt to much to wipe my feet anyway.)  Of course I did soak in an ice bath after and then hit the hot tub.  Even though the foot felt even worse than Friday, I felt okay about it knowing it would heal quickly.  And I did stay ahead of the approx. 2 inch snow we had the next day.  Now it's Wednesday and I'm sitting in the Boston airport on my 4 hour layover on the way to London.  The foot feels pretty good today, 48 hours later, but I would definitely not be up for a run today.  Looking forward to sleeping on the plane and maybe getting in a short run in Wales on Friday or Saturday.  Yes, I did bring the Vibram 5-Fingers since I know the weather forecast is cold and rainy for the whole time I'm there.  I also know my running routes from the hotel and much of it is trail or road with some gravel sections, so not really conducive to barefooting.  But we'll see!

Happy Barefooting!

BF Dan