Minimalist shoes

It's been a while since I talked about barefoot running, partly because I think I tried to do too much too quickly and managed to give myself a mild stress fracture in my left foot. Injury free? My foot *arf*. But after my last post, Gordy reminded me of this video . It reminded me that I'm totally into barefoot running

From left to right:-

Invisible shoes, you buy them as a kit and after a year they remain unmade

My trusty Nike Frees - about 5 years old. Would not be considered minimalist by most barefoot runners but are very comfy and have been around the world with me

Vibram 5-finger KSOs - I should wear these more often as they feel really good to walk in, but it's hard being one of THOSE people. Plus they slap loudly when I run

Inov8 f lite 195s - my new buy. They're very light (395g for the pair) so they'll be good to travel with, and a 3mm sole and a 3mm heel to sole drop means there's a little more structure than the Vibrams. They don't scream 'look at me' when I wear them around, and on a short run last night they felt good but still allowed me to quietly run with a mid-sole strike. I was able to run on dark wet stick-covered paths with no worries and my calves hurt the next day as though I had been running barefoot. I consider that to be a win.....

Another week, another Sydney visit

I was back down in Sydney for a few days this week. Work was dull as always, but I try to get out a bit and make it worth my while.

Escaping this gloomy weather is never a bad thing, even if it is 6am

When I got to Sydney I found my hire car had been upgraded to an Nissan X-Trail. This was probably my favourite hire car so far - a bit noisy and not as well equipped as some of the Fords & Holdens, but fun to drive and surprisingly responsive. Once I figured out the sequential gearbox - put the gearstick in the slot on the right and you flick up and down through the gears manually without a clutch. I didn't realise that and thought it was in normal 'drive' position, and I redlined it out of the carpark trying to get it to change up..... 

Paramatta has a large Indian community around the Harris Park train station, just a short walk away from my hotel, so after the first day I went to pick up a takeaway and spotted this little guy just loose & minding his own business in an empty lot

The takeaway was good - chicken dophiaza, naan bread, deep fried stuffed mushrooms and some IPA. Not up to Manchester level, but still good

The next day I avoided the unhealthy and overpriced hotel breakfast by soaking oats in apple juice overnight and mixing with fresh yoghurt. It tasted better than it looked, unlike the instant coffee.

After another same-old same-old day I managed to get out a little early, so caught a train into central Sydney. After all that rain in Queensland it was good to see a blue sky again 

and a bit of shopping culture

My main reason to visit the CBD was to get a new pair of minimalist running shoes - I think I've given myself a stress fracture running barefoot so am trying a pair of 'barefoot shoes' (sic). There's a minimalist running shop called Shoeological in Kent St and after trying on several of their range I settled for some Innov-8 F195s. 3mm sole and a 3mm heel - toe drop means they're halfway between barefoot and normal runners , so hopefully I'll be able to get some more miles pounding the concrete before I break or strain something else

Whilst I was there it seemed a shame not to visit the Redoak brewery as it was just around the corner....

  

At the airport about to head home now - can't wait, it's been a long week.....

Cool Night Classic 2012

Last night I took part in the 'Cool Night Classic' fun run. This is a corporate fundraiser that attracted over 5000 people for either a 5 Km run or a 3Km walk

There was a lot of corporate branding, and some companies had teams of up to 200 people taking part. I stood out a little.

The start line was packed and it took 10 minutes or so of patient queuing to get across it after the gun went off

My major worry was being unable to see the ground ahead of me for broken glass, pointy sticks and other such unpleasantness

But once the race got underway I just tried to stay in space. It was hard though - some of the paths were pretty narrow and within 100m there were people walking 3 abreast blocking half of the route. This caused a backwash of runners, and I had to be careful not to get swept off the path and into the gardens at the side which were planted with spiky pointy bushes. The organisers also put on three drinks stations (for a 5km run!) and I had to stay clear of these to avoid stepping on plastic cups.

I had been very nervous before the race because I wasn't sure how the barefoot thing would go down, and there were definitely a couple of double-takes on the starting line, but after a km or so I was able to get into a reasonable rhythm and just focus on staying loose and relaxed and enjoying the run. I think I became a bit of a 'target' for some people after I overtook them and I heard a few comments between runners, but only one guy made a point of telling his mate that 'you'd have to be stupid to run this barefoot' at a volume that I was intended to hear. I'd passed him and he was disappearing off behind me at that point so I wasn't too worried about his expert opinion.

I finished in about 30 minutes (still waiting on the official time) so I'm pretty happy with that - I was basically running at the same pace that I ran with shoes. I'm glad that I knew the course well though , and would have been a lot more wary of running an unknown route that might contain obscured pointiness. 

I'm a bit sore this morning, both underfoot and in my calves & achilles, but it feels like stiffness instead of injury. Although that may change as the day goes on!

Edit - official time was 31min 35s, so a bit slower than my shod pace. Hopefully at the next event I'll get a clearer run!

Barefoot Southbank loop

I've been slowly building up my barefoot running distance, and last week I managed a 3.8 km run. So this week I thought I'd push it a bit further, break the 4 km barrier and loop across the river  - always a worrying thing to do as there's no easy way to shortcut back if things don't go well!

It turned out that I didn't need to worry as I felt pretty good. I've been refining my style to try to limit the work done by my calves and use my glutes & hammies instead and that seemed to pay off as I felt light on my feet, was enjoying the run and kept finding reasons to extend the distance. I managed just over 4.7 km in all, which I was very happy with, and even though I was trying to keep it slow & steady I still managed a 10.5km/hr average. Although I'm sore this morning...

Whilst I was out I saw posters advertising a Corporate 5km fun run next Thursday evening, with a possible 4,500 runners & walkers. What do you think - a good opportunity for my first barefoot 5km?

Incidentally I've been asked a few times why I run on tarmac & concrete instead of grass. You definitely get a sanded feeling on the soles of your feet when you run on artificial surfaces, but the shot below shows what you pick up from hanging out the washing on our apartment lawn. These are "bindi's", small caltrop-shaped thorns that embed themselves into whatever steps on them.

 

I'd prefer to take my chances on the tarmac....

Gorillas in the bush

New tracks have been seen alongside the tyre trails in Daisy Hill tonight

as I'd finally plucked up the courage to do a trail run in my Five Fingers

It was great to be back out in the bush at dusk again. I only covered around 2 1/2 km in 20 minutes or so (with some breaks for photos) but when I got back I felt that I could have run for longer - always a good sign. My average speed was the same as for my old trail runs, although obviously the distance was a lot less so you can't compare directly.

I was expecting all manner of knee, shin and achilles pain as I'd also done a 2km barefoot run around Southbank two days ago but I feel remarkably good - I may rewrite this tomorrow though. The Five Fingers worked well as the 2mm Vibram sole protected me from the worst of the pointiness but still let me feel the texture of the ground, and at times harshly reminded me that I need to bend my knees more when jumping on to or stepping off of logs and rocks. I did go for a small walk barefoot once I'd got back to the car as my feet were feeling a little hemmed in, but I think I'll not be running barefoot out there. For a while at least :)

Barefoot in the belly of the beast

We had a demo in Sydney this morning, and to make sure we could get there on time we had to fly down last night. I was at another client in Brisbane during the day yesterday so I didn't check into the hotel until 9.30pm, but luckily the demo didn't start until after 9am the next day which gave me time to go for a early morning run through the CBD, through Hyde Park and out onto the bridge that crosses Darling Harbour.

It was a bit nippy out at first but once I got moving it was fine, although the locals I passed on the way seemed to be a bit more dressed than I was. 

 A couple of hours later I was suited and booted and doing my stuff high up in the matrix.

 We finished early which gave me time for some bike ogling

and then some liquid recuperation - IPA from the Redoak microbrewery

Brisbane had a public holiday today, which means that I get a day off in lieu for todays efforts. Maybe I'll have a long weekend in Sydney?

Barefoot at Southbank

Southbank on a sunny Sunday morning in the winter can seem like an idyllic place to go for a run. Beautiful blue skies, great scenery, a car-free riverside path and an exercise-friendly temperature of around 16-18 degrees.

 Look a bit closer and it's not so appealing for a barefoot runner

The embedded gravel is not easy on the soles of your feet! It's something I'll need to harden up and get used to as one of the 5km 'fun' runs that I want to do goes along here. I am spending one day a week with a client near here and there are lockers available so I will be able to go for a run after work, and maybe go for a dip in the beach pool afterwards. That's one of the advantages of barefoot running - less stuff to carry down with me!

I ended up doing a 'lap' of Southbank and covering just under 2km, and given the recent problems with my achilles I'm happy with that.

You get some odd looks running barefoot though - even more so when you're carrying your shoes in your hands...

Sunday morning run

It's been a long hard week over here with long demanding days at the client, including going in on Saturday for 7 hours. I've pretty much had enough of it all, I'm mentally exhausted and just want the next few days to be over quickly so I can go home.

I'm not expecting much free time this week either so I thought I'd make the most of my barefoot run around the shopping centre this morning. I added an extra loop in which bought the distance up to almost exactly 3km (as mapped on mapmyrun), which is a km more than I've managed before. It took me around 20 minutes so my pace is 10km/h-ish, which is the speed I normally run in shoes. I'm pretty happy with that, although I have done something to my achilles tendon on my right foot as it feels bruised and painful to touch. Ah well, I've got almost a week to recover.

The accidental triathlete

This morning I thought I'd take advantage of the clean, clear streets around Publika shopping centre and go for a barefoot run. I walked up to the mall, stashed my shoes under a convenient flight of steps (watched by some bemused security guards over the road) and did a lap of the centre.

I ran almost 1 1/2 km, which I'm pretty happy with given the heat, my mild hangover and the lack of exercise. It did get some odd looks from the staff as the crazy mat salleh jogged past but nobody seemed to mind, the surface was pretty smooth and best of all my shoes were still there when I got back.

As it was Wheelie Sunday I was also able to hire a bike and so I gave myself a 'half hour of power'. You'll be sad to hear that this time they didn't give me a pink girls bike, but on todays bike the rear brake didn't work & the tyres were half flat. Never mind - braking is for wimps and the resistance from semi-flat tyres just mean I get a better workout. I put the bike into the biggest gear and went for broke.

Hillclimb corner is two ramps that take you up to the top level - tough work in the sun. Then there's a  sprinted along the top driveway, attempting to bunnyhop the speedbumps on the way (hard with cheap flat pedals and trainers on!). A few downhill corners test body positioning and cornering technique and then there's a cruise along wobbly child alley - partly to recuperate and partly because the 5 yr olds don't seem to hold their line however loudly you shout 'track right!'. I managed 6 circuits this time around, something to aim for next weekend.

After dropping the bike off and having breakfast I wandered back to the apartment, picking up some shopping on the way. By the time I got home it was 11.30 and humid, so I went for a dip in the hotel pool to cool off and to stretch my calves out. It was then that it struck me - a ride, a run, a swim....my god, I'd accidentally become a triathlete! Fortunately it doesn't seem to be a serious case as I still have the ability to smile, I haven't timed myself putting my shoes on and I haven't suddenly found a pair of budgie smugglers in my suitcase. I think I was saved because one of my transition stages included eggs Benedict and a long black.  The true test will be next weekend - will I still be able to ride a bike within 4m of another person without randomly veering in their way?

A message from the Gods

The variously-aligned spirits of Malaysia intervened tonight with a message. The internet at the apartment was down when we got back which meant I could not follow my usual routine of work at the clients, come home, work, eat with colleagues (generally discussing work), work some more, shower, sleep, repeat. It seemed to me that deities of all pantheons were looking down and shouting ‘go for a run you fat bastard’, so I strapped on my Five Fingers and headed off.


This was the first time I’ve run in Five Fingers and it’s an interesting experience. As you’d expect it’s pretty similar to barefoot but the extra coverage makes you feel impermeable to small stones, cracks in the pavement and the like. You find yourself running over patches of gravel just because you can. But I can also see why so many people injure themselves starting out ‘barefoot’ running in minimalist shoes – if you’re not careful it’s easy to run further than you intended and injure your calf muscle or Achilles tendon. And I noticed when peering at my form in a shop window that it was allowing me to heel strike slightly without really noticing it. I ended up running probably 1500m (plotting it on a map later showed it to be just over 2km), which is a bit further than I usually run barefoot and I’m sure my shins and calves will punish me for it tomorrow (waking up later shows that assumption to be correct).

I cunningly planned my route to end up next to a shopping centre so after some stretching outside cooled by wafts of air-con I wandered around the supermarket stocking up on groceries and relishing the chilled air. I definitely prefer the feeling of going barefoot – it’s so much quieter for a start - but that wouldn’t be wise where I am now. Publika shopping centre seemed much cleaner and well maintained so I might give it a go there next ‘Wheelie Sunday’, if I can find somewhere to stash my shoes without them being tidied by an over-vigilant cleaner.

Incidentally for the barefoot nerds out there (I’m looking at you Marin) I’ve also been checking out the prices & availability of ‘minimalist’ shoes. Merrell Road gloves & Trail gloves sell for about 380 MYR retail ($120ish) in the sports shops. Adidas five-finger copies are a bit cheaper. Nike Frees are just under 300 MYR or around $100. You could probably get them to reduce those prices a bit if you weren’t as hopeless at bartering as I am. You can also get Nike Frees in Petaling St markets, for I’m guessing around 160-200 MYR (I’ve been to scared to ask). They’ll be knock-offs, but what are they going to do – skimp on the padding?

The internet is due to be down all night and will apparently be fixed at 10am tomorrow*. Without the 3G on my phone it feels a bit like it used to feel when there was a powercut and you would put the kettle on to make a cup of tea and wait it out. My first thought was ‘excellent – I can give Liz a skype’, then I tried to use the internet radio, then I picked up my tablet and tried to hop on-line. I could write up some visit notes but that seems far too much like hard work and I think I deserve a soak in a hot bath and an early night. Unfortunately I’d arranged to work from home tomorrow morning to get a bunch of coding-type stuff done, which is much easier when you can listen to music, swear freely and not have to wear a tie. I’ll probably have to go in tomorrow morning instead as their anticipated fix date will be 10am Malaysian time. Who knows when that will come around?

*In case you’re wondering I’m writing this in the evening on a word doc and will transferred it over to blogspot when I get the chance.

Being that guy

My knee was playing up when I was in Thailand, especially after spending a day climbing in & out of boats, and so climbing wasn't an option. In fact at the end of some days it was pretty sore after just walking around. I took my Vibram Five-fingers with me in the hope that I'd at least be able to fit a run or two in but sadly that wasn't to be.

I did get to walk around in my Five fingers a lot though. I tried to alternate them with my regular shoes - my knee would hurt a little less but my calves would get stiffer. They didn't seem massively out of place in Tonsai

although they are a pain to wear at the beach - putting them on once you have sand on your feet can be time-consuming and a little raspy.

They got a few more looks & comments in Patong

I'm starting to find them really comfortable - wonder if I can wear them in the office? Maybe only with a dark suit.

After a very lazy long weekend at home I've just done my first run in a month and comfortably managed a barefoot km, so I think the constant walking around hasn't set me back much. Sadly I'm only around for a week before flying to KL for a week on business and I won't get the chance for many more runs in the next fortnight. That 5k fun run will have to wait....

Overdoing the dencorub

I think I might have applied a bit too much extra-strong Dencorub recently - I'm losing skin.

 Just glad I spotted it when I did, who knows how far it could have gone?

  

Knee news

I've spent the week limping around and struggling with the heavy clutch in the Landy. It's not been lots of fun but I can feel it getting better day by day and hopefully it will be stable and secure when I'm carting backpacks in & out of long-tail boats or hiking over slippy rough trails. Not sure how I'll go with the climbing, will make a call mid-week about whether to insure myself for it.

Yesterday I managed a 5km walk to the shops & back so that was a good sign. I also picked up some extra strength Decorub (Deep Heat for any UK readers)

This stuff is viscious. It's like when you're at a sushi bar and accidentally swallow a huge glob of wasabi lurking in the soy sauce. You know it will pass and you know it won't kill you, but my god it hurts until it dies down. Handy hint - don't put it behind your knee, because if you do then when you bend your knee you get a double-dose...

...and back down to earth again

Normally once I declare I'm going to get something sorted or commit to an exercise goal I end up injuring myself soon afterwards, and this week is no exception. Went out for a trail run with a mate last night in perfect conditions - a bit breezy, 28 degrees, low humidity - and was really enjoying the run until about the 2km mark. Then the inside of my left knee started hurting and it quickly got worse. We ended up walking out by the most direct route, which judging by the number of spiders webs we walked through along the way wasn't used very much.

This morning my knee was still sore and by coincidence I had an Osteopath appoint. Bec reckons I might have a grade 1 sprain of the medial ligament, which means rest, ice & ibuprofen. It's very sore today, I'm hoping that arnica cream will work miracles and at least have me walking without a limp soon. I'm off to Thailand next weekend so I'll do whatever I can to sort it out, even if that means sitting on the couch watching motor sports all weekend.

I blame it on the foot-coffins :). 

Labels

I've finally gotten round to indexing my blog. So now if you want to view all posts on a particular topic, just select the appropriate label. I've broken the posts down into the following :-

• Beer
• Bikes
• Cheese
• Food
• Life
• Music
• Running
• Skating
• Travel
• Work

Which isn't a bad selection of things to be writing about. Life is good :). Was in two minds about splitting out 'Beer' and 'Brewing' but can always do that later if need be.

Most posts are linked to a couple of labels - this one is linked to them all so you can have a starting point. Have fun!

Barefoot loop

For the last 6 weeks or so I've been slowly (very slowly) extending the length of my barefoot run. Up until now I've been doing an 'out & back' route but last night I finally reached a distance which would allow me to run around the block - a mental milestone* as it feels like you're actually getting somewhere

It's funny how long it takes - 10 minutes or so of warming up, 10 minutes wandering around outside waving my phone in the air waiting for a GPS signal, run for almost 5 minutes, stretch for another 15. But nontheless, I now consider myself enough of a barefoot runner to post this

*Actually 'milestone' is a bit of a misnomer as the loop is only 0.75km long. 'Half-milestone' is probably more appropriate.

My shoes are awesome

Kitty asks

so obsessed with those...shoes?


i saw a guy wearing them in singapore and decided that i MUST have a pair, but jonny was all dismissive and, "they'd smell so bad." but... but! i love them! do they smell? WHAT ARE THEY LIKE? what is life like when you're that person who wears those shoes? when i saw the tourist in singapore i said, "he must be french."

can't you go barefoot running on nice grass? keeps you run-fit and allows for "grounding" or "earthing"...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XumPQLTzPWI


please note: i have family members who wear crystals and say things like, "i really like his energy," and they are all, "i'm just gonna go walk barefoot on the beach, i need to earth, you know?" so maybe grounding / earthing is one of those new-agey faux-physics-y things and it's all nonsense and i have no idea? it can't hurt, though.

The Five Finger shoes get a lot of questions (warning - clip contains rude words)

They're comfortable to wear and they feel good to walk around in but they're hard to put on, especially at first. You need to train your toes to go into the correct toe, and if you try to rush and pull them on quickly you end up wedging two toes into one hole - which isn't comfortable. Mine don't smell, but then again a) I've not used them much and b) I lived in a house with four other climbers for 5 years so I don't notice that kind of thing. There are lots of jokes out there about 'how do you get the smell out of your vibrams' so I guess they will get worse over time, although you could wear Injinji socks. They also dry pretty quickly so you could wash them regularly & easily.

 

The main problem with them is that you suddenly become 'that guy'. It's hard to wear them in public and not feel like you're an attention-seeking freak - or worse, French. I took them down to Melbourne a couple of years ago for Skate Melbourne and still remember the utterly disgusted stare a suited-up businessman gave me as I walked along Swanston St. 

 

They're also apparently the cause of a lot of 'barefoot' injuries. The sole is fairly thin, but still thick enough to take the sting out of running on tarmac. Which is good in some ways, but also allows you to run further than you would with no shoes at all and that can lead to injuries. You run barefoot with a different gait and use different muscles - more much work from the calf - and tender soles mean that you naturally limit your runs to distances that are less likely to cause injury (I'm up to 600m now! Woot!). Vibrams take away that feedback loop. I've read that if you can't run the distance barefoot, you shouldn't be running it in Vibrams.

 

Running on grass is also a good idea, but again 'they' recommend you start on tarmac as the feedback to your body is more immediate. You know if you heelstrike, very quickly, and you adapt your gait to suit. Sand or grass is more lenient. Besides, every time I've tried to ground myself & connect with the earth at out local park I end up stumbling into a patch of bindis, getting swarmed by inch-long ants or being bitten by something too small to see but which still leaves my feet itching for days. Over here, tarmac is safer..... 

The evil blue roller of extreme uncomfortableness

Everybody over 30 who works out in any way will have their own favourite 'alternative' therapist, and mine is the team at Osteoworks in Kangaroo Point. Over the years John White & Rebecca Edwards have used their osteopathy talents to help me cope with backache, neck pain, scoliosis, hip pain, shin splints and even a thoracic hernia. They also have a kick-arse massage therapist on the team - Peta Payne is both an excellent skater and a masseuse who has worked with national and international sporting teams. Kick arse she does - if you request a remedial deep tissue massage she slips a strap of leather between your teeth to stop you chewing the upholstery on her table. And as well as being very good at their jobs they're also all lovely people, which is good because if they weren't so nice you'd probably end up punching them to stop the pain during treatment. So if you're suffering from muscular aches & pains, give them a call and see what they can do and say hello from me*. Unless you're the regular US or Russian reader of this blog, in which case a it's a bit far to go. But please add a comment on how you found me - sadly I suspect they're just web-bots.

Anyway, I visited Bec on Tuesday to get my knee looked at. It turns out it's not particularly my knees fault, more my feet, legs and hips have become a mess of tangled tightened muscle and overstretched tendons, and that's putting unusual loads on my knee. Running will do that to you (I blame Nike). Bec started to loosen everything up using what felt like trigger point therapy, finding knots of twisted muscle fibres and leaning heavily into them with pointy elbows & fingers whilst I stared into middle distance and mentally retired to my 'happy place'. It may not be pleasant at the time but it really makes a difference when it's done.  

She also recommended the use of a foam roller at home to keep everything loosened up.

Blog readers will now be divided into two camps. Some will be looking at the photo wondering what it is, whilst others will be hiding behind the sofa hardly daring to look like a kid watching Dr Who meet the daleks for the first time. The idea is that you lay on this innocuous looking thing and roll your tight muscles back and forth across it. It's not so bad on the front of your legs, but most people who ride, run or walk will have a very tight Iliotibial band (IT band) which is on the side of the thigh. I'm supposed to roll for 60 seconds on each side, but currently I can only manage one full roll before I'm whimpering in a corner & planning to throw the thing over the balcony.

*Note - Bec doesn't agree with barefoot running on tarmac & concrete, so if you do see her keep mum about that bit ;)

Barefoot running

'Born to Run' was an interesting read. The basic premise is that the high injury rate in running is due to the use of heavily padded running shoes. These mean that people are able to run with a heavy heel-strike, which in turn puts excessively high stress loads on the legs, ankles, knees & hips. Heavily engineered shoes were only introduced in the early 70's by Nike and people were running for centuries before then, so ironically those expensive technology-laden shoes could be causing more injuries than they're fixing. The answer? Barefoot running.

Of course it's not as easy as that. You can't just take your shoes off and run, as most feet have been softly pampered over their lives, although admittedly less so in Australia where thongs and waking barefoot are more common. I've been doing some digging around and I've had some suggestions from other runners, and the important thing is to very carefully transition into barefoot running. To the level of 'run 200m on concrete or tarmac and see if it hurts the next day. If it doesn't, increase the distance to 250m. If it does, rest until you feel OK and then run 200m. Repeat.'. That's the kind of exercise regime I can cope with.

It's a weird feeling running barefoot but it's quite gratifying. You very quickly adjust your gait so you're striking on the sole or toe area with your foot under your body, you increase your cadence to match and you become very aware of the road ahead. It's also incredibly quiet, instead of the flap flap flap of normal running shoes. My longer term plan is to continue to run trails once a week and slowly increase the distance I'm covering (in normal trail shoes), but also to try to include one or two short barefoot runs a week to improve my running style - and just because it feels good. I'll post up how I get on.

There are various shoes on the market which are 'minimalist' and which are supposed to either help in the transition to barefoot, or alternately give a slightly padded alternative. I already own a pair of Vibram 5 fingers which are very funky looking shoes - I got these as lightweight shoes to wear so I could walk around after skating

These would make it slightly more comfortable to run on rougher surfaces, but for now I'm staying barefoot as apparently you're more likely to develop a safe running style when there is nothing between you and the world below. Although I'm hoping to work up to a trail run in these later in the year. I'd leave yowie tracks. 

Running is rubbish

Bad weather and work pressures have stopped me getting out to the woods for a trail run for the last couple of weeks, so I've resorted to pounding the pavements again. On Wednesday night I extended my regular route a little to 7.5km (including 80m of descent / ascent), which I managed in 44 minutes. More importantly I started to get back into 'the zone', with my mind quieting down, my body feeling loose and a sense of calm sometimes penetrating the plodding. God help me, I started to enjoy it.

Until I woke up the next day with a very painful knee. Normally it's my shins that ache so at first I thought I'd partly conquered the shin pain, but the day after that the aches & pains although focused in my knee also spread down to my shins and ankles. I wasn't quite hobbling, but I was definitely limping. I sought solace on-line, but my regular bunch of triathlete runner types basically told me to suck it up, everyone gets hurt so your whinging and get on with it. Which to be fair is probably good advice.

By coincidence I also got a copy of 'Born To Run' by Christoper McDougall yesterday. The author starts off with the simple question 'why do my feet hurt when I run' and then heads off to a remote area of Mexico to dodge drug smugglers & hang out with a tribe of ultra-runners. His early comments on running are worth paraphrasing...

"Take up any other sport and my injury rate would classify me as defective. In running, it makes me normal. The real mutants are the runners that don't get injured. Up to eight out of ten runners are injured every year. No invention yet has slowed the carnage. If anything it's actually ebbed up; Achilles Tendon blowouts have seen a 10 percent increase. Running seemed to be the fitness version of drunk driving; you could get away with it for a while, you might even have some fun, but catastrophe was waiting right around the next corner'.

He also visits a sports doctor who's advice is 'get a bike'. Now there's a thought.