I recently posted in one of my other blogs (RW Personal Growthworks)about the Couch to 5k Program. I have teamed up with the Recreation Center in Bristol Vermont to offer this program to people in the area who are interested in getting off the couch and creating a new milestone in their lives. The course starts this Monday and will meet 3 times a week with an opportunity at the end to sign up for Bristol’s 4th of July 5k race.
If you live in the 5 town area and you are wondering if it is time for you to get off the couch, wonder no more. Put down the remote and pick up the phone. We still have spaces and this is an opportunity to go through this program with not only a bunch of couch to 5kers, but you get to do this with a really possitive, fun, caring, and let’s not forget a bit crazy coach (Don’t worry I won’t make you take off your shoes and wear a kilt if you don’t want to). If you are interested at all, go to the Bristol Rec site and download a registration form or contact me if you have any questions.
I used to carry this story that it did not bode well to be a winter wimp in the state of Vermont. Up until last November I had a job where I worked outside all year long. I am able to muscle through things like that. The views were spectacular.
It doesn’t matter how steeled you are to the cold months, running barefoot during a Vermont winter didn’t work for me. Between my job and the running I got frost bite on my toes a couple of winters in a row.
This past winter, I had hung up my feet. I vowed not to run unless the temps reached above 50 F. I was able to get a few times on quick trips to California and Florida, but mainly the legs stopped moving like that. I kept myself spry with a series of body weight exercises.
Now that we have strung some above 50F days together, I have emerged from my cave and have started to move once again. The soles of my feet get tender as I take to pavement once again. I alternate between different minimalist shoes and the bare feet. Most times when the pavement is warm, I like to feel it on my skin. There is a break in period and I put a thin layer between foot and ground every other run as my feet strengthen.
I feel alive again as I days pass and I start to move away from my groggy schlogg pace. I practice sprints. I carry rocks as I build gardens for my wife. I also throw said rocks. The movement feels good as my body comes alive again.
For many, spring is about rebirth and renewal. As I move into this part of the year and I can go outside more, soak up some vitamin D through my skin, I feel myself renewing once again. I get excited for the warmer days . I get excited about having a body that works the way it does and I am curious about what adventures it will bring me.
Welcome to spring folks. Train hard and have fun.
Addendum:
Today’s run was exciting. Sometimes I am wired up to the IPod and a tune hits me hard, makes me go a little faster, or enhances an emotional groove. this is the one that did it today. Robin Trower had me feel like I was floating along. Exciting.
At the end of 2009, I had to buy new steel toed boots for work. I threw out the average size that I have been wearing most of my adult life, 10 1/2. Nothing was fitting. We measured my foot and it came out to 11 1/2. I wound up buying a couple pairs of steel toes that felt like I was wearing a warehouse on each foot; a little disconcerting at first. Then denial took over and I went about my day to day not thinking much about it. I continued my barefoot training mostly inside on the treadmill and spent my days at work comfortably wearing a couple of warehouses on my feet.
My attention was brought back to my foot size this past weekend. My wife and I were going to a fancy Valentine dinner ball, which meant I had to steal my red Chuck Taylor Converse high tops back from my son, because nothing says chic like wearing some nice threads and using the Chucks as conversational garnish.
As we set out on the trip, I noticed my feet were cold, and my toes were squished up in the toe box. It took me a good hour to realize that these shoes didn’t fit anymore. Denial was sure imposing itself over comfort. We stopped at a store and bought a new pair. Sure enough, one size bigger. Foot freedom has allowed my feet to healthily expand out to their true proportions. I know I used to bind them into my running shoes like a couple of swaddled, cradle boarded babes. Freedom is good. Now if that thing about body parts in relation to foot size is true I’ll be very happy.
I have been in a running funk since the ground froze. I went out for a barefoot run on wet roads and froze. I tried going out in Vibram Five Fingers and my toes got cold pretty fast. This guy, who is known as the local crazy guy in his community was wimping out big time. This is the same problem I have encountered every Vermont winter – shoes or no shoes. I wimp out in the cold.
I joke with my friends that my training regiment is Wii fit and treadmill, except it is not really a joke. I’m not gonna knock the training regiment too hard, after all I am doing something as opposed to sitting at my desk watching youtube athletes doing the things I want to be doing (Long-boarding looks pretty cool; it’s hypnotizing.) and I have done my fair share of that as well.
As I headed into another athletically unsatisfying weekend, my stepson pointed out to me a 5k event in Vergenes, Vt. The event was a fundraiser for a family whose four month old daughter has a rare kind of cancer. This family is active in the running community and the running community was coming together to support this family. Being in a funk, I told the boy that I just couldn’t do it. I was ready to blow it off that quickly, besides we had guests, they wouldn’t understand, and I…I can come up with a million excuses.
The day of the race, I saw a friend on facebook had posted that he was participating in the event. Seeing this, something shifted in me. I was going to do this even if I had to wear…gasp…dare I say it…running shoes. I haven’t worn running shoes in almost a year. I have put them on a couple of times to quickly go into a store, they just don’t work anymore; my feet have widened and they are not happy about being shoved into a tight box. Then my wife, the light of my life, the brain that fills in the empty space between my ears, suggested I wear wool socks. This hit me like a two by four across my fore head.
When I first heard of barefoot running a friend of mine had told me of this guy he used to race with who was known throughout the Connecticut running community, Charlie “Doc” Robbins. This guy didn’t invest in moisture wicking high tech running garments, or shoes. He would wear a ripped pair of cotton shorts and bare feet, if it got cold Doc would run in a pair of socks (The New York Times also has an interesting article on him).
After I was assaulted by this revelation, I realized I was going to be able to run this event on my terms – barefoot. I scrambled to gather my gear, while I explained myself to our guests (who when hearing donated to the cause).
A quick aside, I was given a Flip video camera for the holidays, so I grabbed that as part of my gear to document the event. I love the camera. It’s easy to use, but the editing program that comes with it is overly simplistic and there are not many editors that seem to work or work well with the MP4 format.
Doing this event was great. I am often surprised at how many people know me or know of my running antics. I am happy to talk up running barefoot style (my brand of kung fu). It certainly showed me I am more resilient in the cold (and in life) than I think. Many people told me they found me inspiring, and I get it. I get inspired myself.
If you at all feel moved to help this family out you can send donations to:
There has been a gentle nagging, persistent, ever urging me to update this thing. I just haven’t been feeling it. So I haven’t. I’ve been fine with that…sort of.
I made a great discovery in the last couple of months of the summer; barefoot cross country running. What a free feeling it was to pound through the different trail terrains. The terrain varied from grassy, to rocky, muddy, wooded; it was awesome. I ran these races on a weekly basis at the Catamount Outdoor Family Center in Williston VT.
It was all good until the first bee sting. The center had set up a course that took us by a nest of yellow jacket type ground bees. I was running along with my brother-in-law and his daughter when I noticed what I thought were horse flies starting to fly around us. I then heard a runner exclaim that they just got stung, followed up by my brother-in-law starting to slap at himself and his daughter. My slow brain finaly caught up and I urged my niece ahead while her dad took seven or eight hits. I thought I was going to get away clean, but I took a sting on the calf. No big whoop, I finished the race and went on about my evening. Over the next week my calf got very itchy, but nothing really came from it.
Two weeks later the center set up another race on the same course. I questioned them about the bees and they said that they had cleared the course but threw up the disclaimer that they could always come back. Come back they did. This time I got stung on the same leg down by my ankle. This time, my foot swelled to the point where I couldn’t get a shoe on my foot (I do still have to wear steel toed boots at work).
My swollen foot. I named it Babar.
After that race, my body started to have strange reactions to various other sources (At one point my lip swelled to the point where I looked like a Simpsons Character).
The warm days started to get colder, and I ran on wet roads, which was really uncomfortable as it made the soles of my feet raw.
My strategy was to keep myself in shape this winter by running barefoot on the treadmill in my house, which has worked to a point.
I just listened to a podcast featuring a program called Girls on the Run. This is a nonprofit organization that encourages preteen girls to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through running.
From my understanding, this program brings young girls together through regular gatherings and works on building self esteem and fitness. Eventually theses classes culminate into the girls participating in a 5k that emphasizes unity as opposed to competition.
Girls on the Run’s mission: To educate and prepare girls for a life time of self-respect and healthy living.
This is a fantastic program. I know kids who have participated and have really enjoyed the process. On the podcast there was a 9 year old girl who sounded so strong in who she was; she attributed her strength to this program.
So if you have elementry to middle school aged girls in your life, I highly recomend getting involved.
Went on my long run today. Sometimes when I run longer distances I have passages of phrases bounce through my head. It is like I am trying to work out some kind of thought puzzle. Today’s echoing thought comes from one of my favorite Shakespearean “Rah Rah” speeches in Henry V.
Nerd fact 1. I actually memorized this monologue at one point in my life.
Nerd fact 2. While I was running I was playing around with the words to fit the barefoot runners I know.
So with apologies to the bard, my co runners, and myself for being uber-nerdy, this is what was running through my head:
WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no running to-day!
KING. What’s he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark’d to bonk, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to finish,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my huaraches wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this race,
Let him depart; his Nike’s shall be made,
And crowns from entry put into his purse;
We would not run in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to run with us.
This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian.’
Then will he strip his Vibrams and show his feet,
And say ‘These soles I had on Crispian’s day.’
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Richie the Kilt, Ken Bob and El Mono,
Wendy “The Toe” Nail and “Henna” Hulseapple, Caballo Blanco and McDougal-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that runs the course with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That ran with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
I recently posted in one of my other blogs (RW Personal Growthworks)about the Couch to 5k Program. I have teamed up with the Recreation Center in Bristol Vermont to offer this program to people in the area who are interested in getting off the couch and creating a new milestone in their lives. The course starts this Monday and will meet 3 times a week with an opportunity at the end to sign up for Bristol’s 4th of July 5k race.
I used to carry this story that it did not bode well to be a winter wimp in the state of Vermont. Up until last November I had a job where I worked outside all year long. I am able to muscle through things like that. The views were spectacular.
