Fed up with ordinaryExtra ordinary is where it's at

Having worn my Vibram FiveFingers solidly for two days, this morning I took on my first run in them.

I was a little worried because it was freezing this morning. Literally. A bit of snow on the ground and frozen ponds in the park. I was concerned about how well the FiveFingers would cope with slippery conditions and whether or not my feet would turn into blocks of ice! I was wearing toe socks but wearing FiveFingers you can really feel the temperature of the ground.

Even though I was [mostly] expecting the run to be fine on my legs, knees, ankles and feet, having read so many warnings about being extra careful as atrophied muscles will moan and hurt for a while, I was a little nervous that I would ache really badly.

My plan was to do a couple of miles at most.

After one mile I felt good. Really good. My feet weren’t at all cold, I had no pain from either bones or muscles and I couldn’t even feel the blisters that I’ve had on my second toe since starting running.

I didn’t want to stop and so I kept on going. All in all I did four miles but could easily have gone further. I only stopped because I was worried that I’d regret it afterwards when, later in the day, my calves hurt like hell.

I was running slightly differently too. My observations were that I was:

• running with a higher cadence
• taking noticeably shorter strides
• running faster than usual (four miles in just over 30 minutes)

Running on hard ground didn’t feel odd at all. It didn’t feel like I was pounding the ground either. But running on grass and mud, even frozen solid grass and mud felt brilliant. I wasn’t expecting that at all. I found myself running on the verges where possible, not because the pavement hurt but because the grass felt so good!

Grip wise, it’s hard to tell. The thing I noticed was that, because I could feel the ground much more, I could tell when my feet were slipping even a little bit. So I did notice the ground was slippy. I can’t tell if this is just increased sensation or decreased grip.

Now I’m back I can feel the smallest amount of tightness in my left calf. At this point I don’t know if I would feel that normally after a run or whether it’s from the FiveFingers. We’ll see after a longer run I guess. Tomorrow I’ll up it to 6 miles.

Well, my initial thoughts regarding my Vibram FiveFingers are that they’re good. No, better than that, they’re brilliant!

So far the only downside has been that my feet are cold. I’ve got some toe socks for them but they’re the little ankle type ones. Sitting still at my desk makes my ankles pretty cold.

I’m persisting without socks though today as I figure my feet will get used to it soon enough.

Putting them on has been pretty easy, although it makes you realise how little control you have over your toes (have you ever actually tried to move one of them other than your big toe?) and how squashed my toes are. I wear pretty loose fitting shoes and have nothing even remotely pointy but still they are squashed compared to the FiveFingers.

I’ve not run in them yet. I was planning on going out this morning but a parenting related bad mood made me stay at home. Having to get up at 5am doesn’t do much for your motivation. Perhaps I’ll go out later for a quick couple of miles.

I’ll be careful though as the shoe box warned me:

Attention: Walking barefoot is different than walking in shoes. Please read the instructions before use.

Also, I’m very self-conscious when outside in them. I’m sure that will go but at the moment I’m certain that everyone is looking at my feet (I’m sure they’re not really). At the same time though, I want to let everyone look at my ace new shoes! Strange.

After many months of experimenting I believe I have ended the shoe dilemmas.

After running again in my “normal” running shoes for a couple of longer runs, I started getting the twinges that they were causing previously. So I started researching shoes again.

I came across a pair of shoes called Feelmax Niesa. I know, Feelmax sounds like a brand of condoms but these shoes are recommended by none other than Barefoot Ted. High praise indeed and so I ordered a pair. Unfortunately when they arrived they were simply too narrow across the bridge of my foot. They felt uncomfortably tight even without socks. With a sad heart, I am going to send them back. I’m not going to gamble on them stretching with wear as if they don’t I can’t afford to have spent nearly £70 on a pair of shoes that I can’t wear. I’d hoped that the Feelmax shoes would be good.

In the hunt of an alternative, or perhaps just retail therapy, today I went into town to try on some FiveFingers.

The only place that sells them in Sheffield seems to be Naked Ape in the town centre. So that’s where I went.

I tried on various types, or rather, tried to try various types. I couldn’t even get my feet into the KSO Flow or KSO Trek models as the toes seemed too narrow. I’m sure they would have stretched with use but, as with the Feelmax shoes, I haven’t enough money to gamble with that.

However, the FiveFingers Classic fit easily. The (very helpful) guy in the shop said it was one of the quickest he’s seen someone get into them first time. Perhaps I’m just made for them! Anyway, the shop assistant was wearing a pair of Classics and it was really good to be able to ask all sorts of questions about them. (Did they last well? Did they rub or slip in use? What was the grip like? …)

I decided the take the plunge. I bought a pair.

And it’s a strange feeling. I’m wearing them in the office at the moment and they feel great. But I’m also a bit scared to go outside in them! Will people laugh/stare/chase me with sticks? We’ll have to wait and see.

For now, I can’t wait to get out for my first run in them! I hope I don’t regret the purchase…

After a particularly unhelpful appointment with my GP, I had an appointment with an Osteopath (Phil Heler of the Wainwright Therapy Centre) on Friday. I wasn’t too sure that he would be able to help much but after more than a month of headaches, I was ready to try.

An hour, and several twists and clicks of my head later, I felt great! My head and shoulders felt a bit bruised almost but the tightness was gone.

A few days later and my head still feels tender but the constant ache isn’t there at all. I’ve got another appointment on Friday and hopefully that should finish it off. Hoorah!

I’ve just got back from my longest run in a couple of months. A good 8 miles up through the parks to Ringinglow and then winding back along the streets of Bents Green.

The first half was hard though. I had to walk the hardest 0.5 miles through the woods to the Norfolk Arms pub. Still I’m glad I pushed on and didn’t turn back.

I’m absolutely knackered now though. Not legs type tired but sleepy. Very sleepy. Perhaps a strong coffee will help!

My head was pretty bad for a good portion of the run too. Running with a headache isn’t ideal.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Roger and out!

We had a partial meeting of the fellowship this morning (Rich is in Spain at the moment) with the aim of bashing out the route.

Then JP let it be known that he can’t make the agreed date as he’s got some exams slap bang in the middle. Crap.

I guess I should be happy that we haven’t got further with the planning as it would be a lot harder to sort if we had accommodation booked already.

Anyway, getting out diaries, it became apparent that we’re pretty limited on how much we can move things either forward or back.

Also with Rich out of the country, we’re unable to agree a new date anyway. I have no idea when he returns. I hope it’s soon! If you’re reading this Rich, drop me an email will you?!

It all means that far from getting clearer, the whole thing is getting unclearer. Or should that be “more unclear” or “less clear”? Either way, it’s not good. It raises the question too of what to do if we can’t agree a date at all.

We’re still looking for support too. Ideally we’d like someone to either cycle or drive ahead of us, carrying our baggage from stop to stop. They would also be on hand to aid in an emergency. We’ve had a couple of leads but they’ve not come to anything. If you fancy it, please let me know!

All this disorganisation reminds me of a scene in Red Dwarf (Series 5 – Quarantine for all those interested):

Lister: We’re a real Mickey Mouse operation, aren’t we?
Cat: Mickey Mouse? We ain’t even Betty Boop!

Oh my word… We aren’t even Betty Boop…

This week has been pretty good. From starting in pain and despair, I’m ending (the working week, anyway) on a positive note.

I’ve clocked up at least 14 miles this week, with one 6 mile run included. I’ve been out a total of 4 times.

The six miler had a couple of 20 second water breaks in, but I did it in just under an hour still. Going out consecutive days has been an effort too. My legs do feel tired from that.

From where I was over Christmas, I’m pretty happy with that to be honest. Still behind where I should be, and way off the 150 miles a week I’ll be doing on the run, but happy none the less.

Mentally, I feel much more able to run too. After not running for so long I started to think that I couldn’t. It is amazing how much of running is mental. You think of exercise as a physical activity but your body is so much more capable than you think. The problem is that, biologically speaking, bodies are things of habit. Breaking that habit requires a big mental effort. After all, for most of the day I’m sat still at my desk. Is it any wonder that my body is lazy?

Anyway, to get back on schedule I need to have run at least one 10 mile run by the end of January, which is scarily next week!

I’ve decided to not get too bothered if I miss that goal but really need have done at least 8 miles by then. It’s a balance between setting achievable goals and pushing yourself. I figure that if I’m back on target a week into February, it’s not much of a big deal.

This is getting serious (and I’m getting nervous). The run is only about 4 months away and we still haven’t decided on a route.

As you loyal readers will remember, we’d tried to get this sorted before Christmas, but it didn’t happen. It’s still not happened…

The latest update is that we’ll be running the Hadrian’s Wall walking path. Great. But that’s only 84 miles. Add on the 6 miles to get from the end of the wall to the sea and we’re still 60 odd miles short.

It’s really important to me that we run a marathon distance each day for the 6 days we’re running. That’s the whole point of the exercise!

John-Paul is wanting to avoid road running at all costs. I can understand that, and I’d much rather run cross country but doing so has two drawbacks for me. The main one is that running 26 miles cross country is way more effort than on road. Secondly, keeping off-road require much more route planning than following the well described C2C cycle way.

The Hadrian’s Wall walking path is well described and sign posted. It also has a fair amount of ‘accessible’ paths which means they should be easy going.

So I’m happy with that part. We just need to add on 60 extra miles…

A bit of research revealed that there is a Hadrian’s Wall cycle route that starts from a place called Ravensglass. This is about 60 miles down the coast from Bowness-on-Solway, where Hadrian’s Wall starts. The plan is that we will follow the cycle route from Ravensglass to Bowness and then join the walking path from there.

It’s not ideal from my perspective to be honest. If we can run 60 miles of cycle way, a lot of which is on roads anyway, what’s the big difference to just running the C2C route? The thought of running up the coast seems pointless too. Mentally I imagine running across the country, the coastal bit just seems pointless.

Anyway, I just need to get over that I guess and get the route finalised. Note the “I” there. As I’m the one who is bothered about the route and getting things booked in, I need to do it. I can’t wait for us all to get together for the evening and bash it all out as it’s not going to happen. I just need to crack on with it otherwise the stress of it not progressing will get to me too much.

I really wanted the whole thing to be a group effort and didn’t want to push my agenda on the run. Looking back, I think it would have been easier if I had. We’d be a lot further on too. I’ll remember for next time!

Okay, this isn’t a running related post but I’m really quite miffed! No one, other than one guy I was playing Scrabble with, has noticed that I’ve left facebook!

I wanted to leave without telling people but I obviously wanted people to notice I’d gone! It’s quite humbling to realise that in actual fact people aren’t hanging on my every word, waiting with baited breath for my next thrilling status update!

I’ve also found it strange not being able to tell people what I’m doing. I’ve found myself wanting to update my status with things like “Kit Barker is dismantling a big desk” or “Kit Barker needs more coffee”. You know, the usual facebook status update. The thought that people don’t know what I’m doing is somehow troubling. I’m obviously having withdrawal symptoms!

The other side of it is that I’ve had to text people or phone them to ask how their recent holiday was and such like. That’s not a bad thing but if I was on facebook I’d have picked that up through status updates and would have been able to see photos. It obviously has it’s plus points.

At the moment I am thinking about rejoining but with a new policy of not posting everything I’m doing or only checking it twice a day. I would definitely keep it off my phone as I don’t want to get back into the habit of checking it every 2 minutes, even when on the toilet!

Sacrifice. That’s a scary word. But if I’m serious about during this run I need to make some.

I was talking to Smack recently and he inspired me by how disciplined he’s been. He’s given up alcohol, not eating chocolates, not eating at all after 8pm and so on and so forth. He’s set a target weight he wants to achieve for the run and is going for it.

The very thought of giving up say alcohol fills me with dread! That’s not to say I’m an alcoholic, but there’s always an upcoming special event or a reason not to just round the corner. But, if I’m sincere in my desire to do this 150+ mile run I need to make sacrifices.

I haven’t got round to giving up beer yet but I’ve done something equally scary. I’ve deleted my facebook and twitter accounts. That’s it, they’re gone. No more can I waste time reading meaningless and banal status updates or playing Scrabble when you know you’re opponent is cheating (of course, I would never, ever look at Scrabulizer.com or even know about it’s existence…) or deleting the continuous stream of invites to facebook pillow fights.

It’s not just about the time saving, it’s about removing clutter. Mental clutter. I spent so much of my time checking social networking sites at work but also on my phone and it’s such an intrusion. I’d check facebook on the toilet, at the dinner table, walking home… I get no benefit from it and it fills my mind with crap!

Nowhere could I escape. Well, now I have. It feels a little weird at the moment to be honest. How do I talk to people? How do I tell people what I’m up to? But it also feels like I’m free. I’ve dropped off the radar. I’m anonymous and I’m free from the binds of the world.

Well, almost.