My Athletic Endeavours

Dartmoor Mountain Marathon July 2010

2010-08-02T13:25:00.004+01:00

Last weekend I ran the Dartmoor Mountain Marathon, the event that I've been training for since January. Was it all worth it, I can't hear you asking from my desk? Yes it was I would reply if I had heard you. Over Winter and Spring it seemed like the date was never going to arrive and I managed to get enthusiastic and lose motivation in several cycles in the interim. I had planned on following a marathon schedule in training, but having run 17 miles off road barefoot (VFF anyway) several times without problems I didn't bother in the end.

Astonishingly, despite a number of niggles over the first few months of the year, I got to the end of July in the longest unbroken period of training without real injury for ages. I'm not sure if I was just lucky, or whether my crazy new technique of really listening to my body paid off. The tension between getting out for regular training (even when you don't fancy it) and listening when your body says "please lie down now" is a hard one to come to terms with, but I managed it.

I read an article about mega-sessions for body-building (somewhere on the internet, reference later if I can ever find it again). In this article the person in question, apparently a champion bodybuilder, would target a muscle group in one session, blast it in one heavy session and then do nothing more until the following week. The philosophy behind this approach being that strength and tone improvements happen after stress, and in response to it. Repeated stress before full recovery was not thought to help anything other than tiredness (I'm paraphrasing). This seemed intuitively logical and in tune with the 'listen to your body' ethos, so I thought I'd give it a go for my leg strength hill sessions. It seems to have worked really well and I can run clear up near 45% slopes that I had to walk only a few short months ago.

I've also been working on endurance too and this was (and still is) the killer. I could do the 17 mile run in just under 2.5 hours, and could make it back home OK if I took a small bottle of water and a sweetie or two for sugar recharge. I also took to training rides with my local cycle club, however, and they made me feel very mortal and insignificant again. The leg strength training was fine, and I could complete a ride using only the big ring for all but the steepest hills, but after a couple of hours in the saddle with the 'fast intermediate' crew I was totally drained. Eating on the way seemed to make little difference, my legs just emptied and I got used to the 'bonking' sensation and riding in last. Again. I'll just have to keep at it.

It did mean, however, that I hit the DMM pretty sure about my fitness and physical capability. What worried me was my mental capacity to navigate in the moors, on my own, without inadvertently going in the wrong direction. I took about a kilo too much food to ensure that this didn't happen. One of life's lessons - hard exercise supresses appetite, and carrying too much food in a rucksac is a pain in the shoulders. At least I didn't get lost though and was pretty pleased with most of my navigation choices. Most of my errors were through over-caution, slowing myself down to (needlessly) re-re-re-re-check routes rather than actually allowing myself the freedom to go anywhere in the wrong direction.

All in all the event was brilliant, let down only by straining my left leg trying to run on tussocks on the first day and being generally completely knackered moving over the terrain for four hours longer than any of my longest training runs on Saturday and two hours on Sunday! Note to self, the North Downs are not a great simulation of open moor, but at least I should try running for longer if I want to be able to keep it up! Training specificity bah humbug. I'll do it all again next year though.

Next project, track 5k in mid-August. Got the spikes at lunchtime today. After a week of hurting leg (from the sprain on the tussocks) and generally feeling pretty decrepitly tired, today I feel sharp and perky again. Time for more sports!

Return to Form

2010-05-19T22:30:00.004+01:00

Today I tested my fitness in the first race of the year. I was pleased with the result.

I've been gently training over the last year or so, retraining myself really - at times it has felt like learning to run again.

I'm not always running barefoot now, but never wear anything larger than a trainer/racer and when these die I'll replace them only with racing flats - for any and all distances. I'll never wear a 1 inch wedge heel again, I don't care how fabulous the expensive and pointless 'technology' in it may be.

I captained a work relay team on a course with 1.4 mile legs. I knew that I was hyped and focused to run a good race, but was not sure what pace that would be - I'm now into my third year where I count as a vet and haven't raced in an event where that counted before. Well, I smoked the course and was well pleased with myself, running it in 7:24. The fastest mans time was 7:14, as second fastest overall I was also fastest vet, with a mile average of around 5:30 minutes per mile.

I don't even feel as if I'm aging! Happy days.

Running Like New

2010-02-21T14:35:00.003Z

On my last long run I covered 17 miles. It was a good run, I managed an even pace and ran strongly on the ups and downs. Near the end of the run, at around 12 or 13 miles I started to lose form a bit, hunching my shoulders and shortening my stride, especially on hills. I would find myself imagining the distance to go and tightening up. Then I'd try to focus on keeping fluid, just staying strong and on form and everything would free up again. I'd have thought that that would be enough, but I kept slipping out of good style into a scrunch again and it was a battle to keep concentrating. It seemed wrong and irritating that I'd slip out of a style that felt free and easy and into one that felt forced and harder, but there you have it. I vowed that I'd practive this looser style on my next few runs to see if I could slip into good habits rather than poor ones.

In the mean time I came across the attached article at Wildfitness (http://www.wildfitness.com) written by Christopher McDougall (of "Born to Run" fame) about connective tissue and its role in actively supporting musculature rather than just holding it all together. This article seems to be a continuation of his search to run without pain, and he is certainly discovering some interesting people in his journey! http://www.wildfitness.com/pdfs/Mens_Health_Oct09.pdf

Well, I did run yesterday, and I thought through these points of form throughout and it was a bit of a revelation. I felt a bit like a pupeteer as everytime I straightened my shoulders I could feel my torso straighten and my legs lift. I am not sure whether I went any faster, but it certainly felt easier. I also found that my calves were less niggly focusing on my whole body rather than just my lower limbs. I've still got a few months before the DMM, but I'll have to find some races to test my pace on. Yesterday's run was slow because it was very muddy and I had to shorten my pace to stay upright on some sections of the Downs. A road run next time I think.

Underway for the DMM

2010-01-17T23:08:00.003Z

I have got my act together and started my preparation for the Dartmoor Mountain Marathon in July. Yesterday I ran 7.7 miles barefoot-style in my VFFs. It took me 1:06:09 making a pace of something over 8 minute miles. I felt good, but my calves were starting to tighten. Today I calibrated my iPod Nike+ sensor and afterward went for a short blast - 2.9 miles in 21:36, at a pace of 7:15ish minutes per mile. This was in my Mizunos and I feel as if I've barely warmed up.

I have a little motivational motto now - one of those silly inspirational comments that I read somewhere and thought was rubbish. It goes along the lines of "if someone trained today and you didn't, then they will beat you". So now I have to keep pace with this notional phantom so that they don't beat me. When I get fit enough my next motivational cliche will be "you can practice, practice, practice, but you will never beat me". But I don't think that I deserve it yet.

I am already excited about the DMM. I don't know the area, so have scanned the google-map satellite view of the National Park area and read the Wikipedia entry. I tried to buy the OS 1:25000 scale map of the park but my local map shop didn't have it in. Luckily the OS shop is round the corner fom work so I'll be able to scan the hills in my imagination later in the week.

I've read the kit list several times, I don't know why as I have all the gear I need except a tent and I spent about three hours on Friday and Saturday googling lightweight one and two man tents. I have a few in mind but will try to find a supplier where I can see them before making a final decision. It's going to be so cool dusting my Mountain Marathon gear off again.

Inov8 X-talon 212

2010-01-14T19:06:00.003Z

I have now given my new X-talons a quick test out and they were extremely promising. I have only walked/jogged on an errand so far - I have not run in them properly. I went out in the snow for a four mile round walk last night and they grip very well indeed. I was pretty amazed, especially as my comparison was a pair of Mizuno road trainers. The X-talons are very light (my size 9s weighed about 230g each rather than 212 precisely, but the Mizunos, themselves 'light' road shoes, were 360g each).

The soles are good and thin, with a slight heel, but nothing to complain about - bear in mind I think ordinary trainers are high-heels. They flex at the forefoot where your foot does naturally, you can feel the shape of ground underneath them, but best of all because they are so narrow they slightly compress the feet laterally and let you edge really hard like a good pair of clibing shoes. These are shoes you should be able to trust on steep and marginal ground - a hypothesis that I fully intend to test when the weather sorts itself out slightly and I can see my local trails again.

I look forward to running the studs flat and having a great time in these light, fast, fell shoes.

Target Acquired

2010-01-09T10:59:00.003Z

After being indecisive about 2010 goal setting at the end of last year I got my act together this week and entered the EnduranceLife Dartmoor Mountain Mountain (DMM). 55km over two days with over 2km ascent in the B class. It's not until July, but it gives me something to aim for. I've been out for 50 minute runs in the snow over the last couple of days and got out for a two hour walk, doing food shopping, with Katie today rather than use the car. For the first time in my life I've actually set up a training schedule, based around marathon training with two months base building first and a month of running with the pack immediately before the DMM. The marathon schedule has a couple of races included so I'll be finding other sub-goals to train for in the Spring.

Having run OK in ordinary Ascics road trainers for the last couple of runs I decided I was tired of not having proper trail shoes. My Adi Swoops died last year so I went and got some Innov8 X-talons. So far I've only run up and down the stairs at home in them, but I will get them snowy over the weekend. They seem fantastically light, and the studs look good so I'm expecting a sharp ride. I never really liked the Swoops, they always seemed too bulky. I only bought them as Adi discontinued their Lightfoot, a truly responsive minimal fell shoe that I loved and was gutted when they were stolen with my old car - I think I regretted the loss of the Lightfoots more as the car was only an old Vauxhall Astra, which gave me far less joy.

Anyway, I'm all tooled up and looking forward to building up really carefully so by July I will be so sharp I'll have to be careful not to cut myself! Katie will be running the Edinburgh Marathon in May so we'll have to balance our training carefully. The last few times I've run a mountain marathon (either SLMM or KIMM/OMM) I've relied on natural fitness and been fairly laisse faire about training, but this time I'm determined that it will be a stroll in the park. You can never tell on the day, weather and all sorts play a part, but I'm going to be a strong contender.

2010 Starts Early

2009-12-29T21:13:00.002Z

After a terrible and lazy December I deceided that I needed to get my act together again. I went out for a frosty run yesterday morning. Only a short run on road. I did go and check the trails but they looked too muddy to be fun in VFFs so I stayed on the tarmac. It felt good to be out and running free again. I took around 50 minutes out to cover a variety of quiet roads and well drained paths. Not sure of the distance and don't want to discourage myself by measuring it.

Despite feeling fine yesterday I woke with a feeling in my calves of a moderate to harsh beating with sticks. It took about five minutes of walking before they losened off enough to consider normal walking. I was going to take Becki and a friend climbing today but they said that they'd rather ice skate. That suited me, a steady couple of hours of impact free cardiowork coming up. I love skating but we don't go often enough. The feel for the ice returns quite quickly though. I find it easy to exceed by capability on the ice once I get up to speed but today I concentrated on staying in control. I focused on skating tightly with tension in my legs and it seemed to work a treat, also trying faster smaller push-offs with my feet seemed to give me more control, especially in tight corners - I was in a public rink.

Good Intentions

2009-12-25T23:21:00.005Z

This year has been paved with good plans and plenty of start-ups, but I'm going to have to up my game if I want to meet any of my 2010 goals. Katie has entered the Edinburgh Marathon but despite threatening to enter one in January I never got round to it, and as I haven't trained either I'm not likely to do it. I had been on a roll in November and was starting to feel really sharp. Since running barefoot/VFF my calves and feet feel totally different - much stronger - and my running style has completely changed. When I was on form I felt as if I had developed a lope that I could keep up for hours. I got a cold in early December though, and while the cough only lasted for a week I haven't been out for a run or a bike ride since. I'm starting to feel edgy and unfit now. I've stuck with the press-ups, chins and yoga/karate so I feel strong, but not fit.

I'm still determined to run a 50km ultra in the first 6 months of 2010 and a 50 miler before the end of the year. I also want to enter an open race or two on the road bike too. Maybe I ought to enter an event and plan some training. Who knows whether I'll keep my commitments? Life is short, I'm not stressing it - there's always 2011!

New Running Dawn

2009-11-28T14:29:00.002Z

I haven't posted in a while as I haven't done too much worth writing about. This may not change that trend, but I'm doing it anyway! I have only run once or twice a fourtnight for the last six weeks, so I've really been slacking. Hardly any cycling either as the weather has been too foul for the good bike but the brakes on my winter bike are suicidally poor at the moment and I've just not made the time to sort them out. Canoeing would have been a better bet with the rain we've had recently. I did decide not to be so scrawny and finally put my chin-bar up seven years after moving into our house. Now I do chins, press-ups and sit-ups every day so I feel stronger even if no one can tell the difference.

I went for a short run last night and it was sooo sweeet, it felt like another step change in my progression to barefoot ultra-marathoning. I've been doing the odd lower leg strength exercises while not running and last night I felt as if I was bouncing down the road on the balls of my feet, and best of all it felt fast and effortless. I'm sure that having a straighter back also helped as I felt I was getting more air in too. I felt quite primal loping down the road at an easy spin that was faster than I've gone for ages.

Although it was slightly hazy, the moon was bright and I didn't need to put my head-torch on most of the time. I had a blast and came back mini-amped from the awesomeness that was an hour run feeling like I'm competative again - and this time running with a natural lope from running in VFF rather than fat foam.

Not Ready to Ride

2009-10-24T13:46:00.003+01:00

Although I had planned cycling this morning I didn't make it to the Redhill CC Saturday ride today. It rained all night and was still showering this morning. I didn't want to use my good bike but although I had got my winter bike out of storage I haven't got it set up right. I gave it a test ride a few days ago and discovered that the brake levers nearly pulled to the bars before there was any action, which was none too reassuring. The gears aren't sharp and as I haven't put mudguards on yet I was looking to get soaked from above and sprayed below.

I decided to go for a run instead. The ground was going to be wet and I wanted to run off-road, but I figured that as it has been so dry recently the ground would not be too muddy. I ran in my trusty red VFF Sprints - they have become my trainers now. I hardly ever run in large foam shoes any more. My Mizuno waves seemed lightweight when I bought them, but they don't any more - I almost wore them to save the VFF from the wet, but they made me feel as if I was wearing high-heeled shoes. Which I was in a way. I feel quite adequate as a man, so why would I want heel-lifts to go out running?

Despite a constant drizzle it was not at all cold and as I'm currently uninjured the running was good. I finally feel as if I have completely made the transition to barefoot-style running. I say barefoot-style rather than barefoot on purpose though. I do tend to use VFFs when I run as many of the trails around me are maintained with sharp gravel and despite repeated attempts my feet have never quite adapted. I'll keep trying it on occasion, but I prefer to enjoy my runs rather than grimly endure them.

Anyway, it was fantastic. I started off feeling quite out of sorts and a bit grumpy for no reason, but within five minutes I knew that I was sorting myself out. I ran across a couple of stretches of wet grass to get my feet used to being damp. I didn't plan on running through puddles on purpose, but I wasn't going to go out of my way to avoid getting wet feet. I ran past the stables and up the steep path up the hillside on Gatton Park. At the top of the incline I turned right off the main path and took the winding single track that involves jumping and ducking - much more fun. There was a vague mist floating on the higher ground and it was all very atmospheric.

When I got onto the top of Reigate Hill I saw three women walking across the path, so rather than have to disturb, or wait for, them I ran through the grassy field alongside. It was much mistier on the top and I don't think that the even saw me. The top of the hill was great, it was like running in a warm but damp blanket. I don't think that the visibility was much greater than ten metres. Despite the VFF having no tread I have learned to avoid smooth chalky soil and kept to grass, leaf and stone covered trail, consequently I only rarely slipped.

Its hard to describe the rest of the run without being quite boring. I saw about six people in the entire hour that I was on the hill, and enjoyed one path so much that I turned round and ran it a second time before continuing my route. The slope that I was most worried about was fine as it was undercover and so was not too smooth or slippy. My only gripe with the run was what I was wearing - I had leggings and thermal top thinking that it would be cool, but although the breeze on the top was cool I spent most of the run feeling too hot. I did feel as if I have got the barefoot style nailed though and I had no trouble keeping a fast smooth cadence going. I say no trouble, it was easy at first, but after an hour and a half I was losing form. I was pleased to find that I could get up the side of my killer climb no trouble at all - short fast steps seems to be the thing, not big power steps that nearly kill you.

Ran for 1:49:57, tired and happy. Tight calves and achillies tendons, but no niggles and still running well. Been ravenous for the rest of the day.

Dunsfold Sportive Completed

2009-10-12T17:40:00.002+01:00

I had a great time in my first bike event this weekend. I entered the Dunsfold Sportive mid-distance, 58 miles of hilly fun. Having almost joined Redhill cycle Club (application form would have been in the post if I hadn't left it in the office last Friday)I planned to ride out with a club team. In the event I joined two others, Gary and Sean to form a break away, more by accident than by design.

The day started well, up early to load the car and eat breakfast in plenty of time. I was disappointed by the threat of rain but got to the venue at 7:50 and had plenty of time to load pockets with food and provisions and lose my phone - which I then found in another pocket I hadn't checked! The ride started well, riding in the pack with all the Redhill CC from the off. A nice comfortable pace, cruising at 20mph had me very optimistic that a gold finish was virtually in the bag. After a few miles I joined Gary at the front for a share of the pace setting, but after a couple of short climbs we found that we'd strung the group out a bit. Being impetuous we didn't back off to allow the others to regroup, but pushed on. On a short sharp hill we picked up Sean and dropped everyone else. These guys taught me a lesson in self-inflicted pain!

We rode in a three man mini-chain gang through Cranleigh and Walliswood and up Leith Hill. We were overtaken at the top of Leith Hill by a rider who looked unstoppable so I jumped on his wheel and we screamed down the hill getting up to 37 mph on my computer. Not so fast as to be amazing, but fast enough on a damp, leafy and stony road. I had so much fun that I didn't even notice my pump jumping out of my back pocket. Gary reckoned it went so far he nearly caught it. I only learned about my loss as the boys caught me just before the first timing checkpoint, and I wasn't going back up!

After a quick half-banana it was back on the bike and chain ganging again but after the short stretch of A25 at Wotton the boys had made me dip well into my reserves and I couldn't stay with them on the ups. I hung on the back until the second A25 stretch outside Shere where I retired from the attack. We were all totally aiming for a Gold standard finish, but I didn't want to hold them back as I was clearly toiling and they were going strong. Gary kindly lent me his pump as I'd lost mine, a kindness that cost him some time later on as it transpired.

From there I effectively rode on my own, just doing everything I could to keep my average speed up at 17 or higher. Although I was tired on the hills my love of downhills saw my speed range regularly from 7mph up hill to 25+ on the downs, just keeping me around the 17 average mark. I did discover that Eccles cakes are hard to digest when you're trying to pedal hard. By Shere I was struggling riding on my own and resigned myself to missing gold standard, but every time I came across others on the hills I managed to overtake them. Even though I wasn't a match for Gary and Sean I was clearly strong enough to hold my own. Things were looking more promising again after I drafted a couple of guys going at pace from the Chilworth railway crossing, but I lost touch with them at Shalford as I couldn't hold the speed any longer.

Then I made the route mistake that cost me my gold finish - not that I'm competitive or anything but I was furious with myself. I missed the right turn at the mini-roundabout before Bramley as I was head down and cranking. I was two miles down the A281 before I realised I'd lost all markers and riders. I turned around and found the turning with no problem, the sign being quite visible when you were looking. I rode the rest half depressed and half angry but pushing myself, using the discomfort as a punishment for such a stupid mistake. I entered the Dunsfold entry road with an average of 17.1 mph and determined to give it one last ditch attempt - the up slope saw me dropping to 15mph but with a final effort through the gate I crossed the line with exactly 17.0mph average. I ended up getting a Silver standard time.

Post race fatigue saw me sitting gently propped in the corner of the living room for the rest of the day. Apart from slightly tender ITBs I'm totally fine today, no quad tiredness at all. As a runner I'm used to going for 1.5 hours max on 99% of runs, so this 4 hour cycle thing is making me use up all my muscle glycogen in a way I'm not used to. My new book on bike racing says that I'll adapt as I train so I'm looking forward to finding my feet in the 2010 race season after a winter of training rides.

Dunsfold Sportive Coming

2009-10-07T20:38:00.002+01:00

I have continued my cycle craze and entered my first Sportive. Despite having ridden on and off road since I was ickle, this will be my first organised cycling event other than the London to Brighton ride for the British Heart Foundation (where I met my wife). I've now ridden with the Redhill Cycle Club twice, and found them to be very friendly and welcoming. I'm only an application in the post away from joining properly. I have found that the cycling and running complement each other really well, at least to the extent that running keeps the cardio fitness up and enables me to keep on pushing when my calves and achilles are tender after another ten mile barefoot (VFF) run.

As a runner I normally run for around one and a half hours, up to two. I do plan on getting fit to run an ultra marathon, but so far I haven't put the time in. By the end of a two hour run I'm normally physically tired, unable to hold really good form and gently hurting all over, some places more than others. The bike is tiring in a completely different way. I start out with strength and pace from all the running that I do, and being lower impact I don't get sore in the same way. What happens instead is that I drain all the energy out of my muscles - legs mainly. I ride hard until I just get to the point where I can't push hard any more. No pain, just no strength. I need to work on my endurance.

I've entered the Dunsfold Sportive mid-distance, covering 58 miles and going up and down the North Downs a couple of times. Not particularly fearsome but tiring enough. I'm going to be riding with a group of Redhill CC riders and hope that I acquit myself adequately. My main fear is bonking mid-ride and having a road-based epic. I will just pace myself and see how I get on. I'm used to pacing myself on a run but on the bike I keep cranking until I basically can't. The question is whether I can get the stopping point to happen after 58 miles!

Miles of Fun on wheels and foot

2009-09-21T19:24:00.003+01:00

I've managed another week of training and I'm still not ill or injured, so I'm pretty pleased. I'm having a recovery day today. I am enjoying the ache in my quads that mark a few days of proper brutal speed and hill work and not feeling guilty about putting my feet up.

I rode my Scott Addict to work in London last Friday, 22 miles each way. I got there in an hour and ten minutes, and back in an hour and some more. The return journey was slowed by heavier traffic and more up hill than the route in, but I completely caned it at every opportunity. In the past I've had some scrapes with blind car drivers and psychotic bus drivers but this time the greatest source of ill-vented rage went to some other cycle riding numpties. Upright bikes and helmets pushed to the back of head, slow as a snail but they just ride straight through red traffic lights. Its shameful that they are allowed to ride, which they barely seem able to anyway - maybe they didn't stop because if they did they wouldn't have the strength to get going again? It makes me want to swear again just thinking of them. The real surprise of the ride home was being waved on through gaps twice by drivers, once by a car driver - pleasant treat - and once by a bus - nothing short of a miracle.

On Saturday I went on an open ride with Redhill CC. This was great fun, it was so good to be able to ride with a set of fellow cyclists rather than setting a lone trail. We went all over the back roads of Surrey and despite having lived in the area for a good 25 of my 40 years I frequently found myself merrily following back roads I don't think that I've ever seen before. If I'd been out on my own I'd have probably have done a dull route on A roads. Instead we slogged up and ragged down some beautiful country lanes. The group were a really friendly set of people too, I'm looking forward to joining the club and getting some good hard training in. We covered 42 miles over the morning and pushed some of the hills pretty hard. I know that I worked hard because my legs tell me so.

On Sunday I decided that I probably ought not overdo the cycling, so I went out for a run in the evening. It took my legs 15 or 20 minutes to loosen up, but once they did I was flying. I went out in the VFF again, trainers suck. I nearly got in trouble as I said that I'd be out for an hour to an hour and a half but was nearly two! I just wanted to keep on running and running. I even managed to run up some of the slopes on the North Downs above Reigate that I've had to walk in the past. The running and cycling training is definately paying dividends.

I haven't found an even to enter yet, but I can feel a race coming on. Running I'm very familiar with, but I've never competatively raced any of my bikes, so maybe a bike race needs to feature soon. I'm going to get hill blasting to build leg strength.

Training Hard, Fast and Fit

2009-09-16T23:15:00.007+01:00

I'm now training fit for a second whole week without niggles and feeling really strong. Which is nice. The picture illustrates how I feel about life, but it isn't me. If it was I'd have won five stages of the Tour de France. But I didn't.

All the time that I spent barefoot, or VFF, running I was improving and strengthening, but I never managed to get rid of those final niggles in my heals. My calves are getting nicely cut and my feet have a shape and strength that I'm not sure they've ever had before. Stuff I used to whine to my karate sensei I couldn't do with my feet I can now do easily - shame its 15 years later! Despite that, and improved cardio-vascular fitness, I could never quite get my ankles and heals to properly stop hurting. Even after relatively short runs (only 3 or 4 miles) I'd have niggly heals. On waking and getting up in the morning I'd have stiff ankles that would take a few minutes to loosen off.

Then I got my Scott Addict (R3 - I'm not completely minted, or pro) and my training life is complete. I have a Bianchi L470 Mega Pro hard-tail mountain bike for trail time, but that is for fun blasting and ragging round the hills. Sometimes when riding on the road over to the trails I get overtaken by roadies and it makes me sad when the buzz of rubber stops me catching them up. Its an odd bike to have - not in a bad way, but it has made me a bike outcast - roadies ignore me 'cos I'm on a mountain bike and mountain bikers look at it and ask about the "road bike with fat tyres". Whatever.

Anyway, the Scott is like a missile and it makes me want to ride hard. Probably quite slowly by clubman standards, but still hard for me. I've managed to slip out on it a few times, in addition to my Brighton trip (mentioned last entry), and it just makes me smile every time. I do need a speedometer on it though so I can try to be more consistent with my pace. At the moment I crank until my legs and lungs can take no more, then slow terribly, and start again once I've recovered. It's so light and direct that you just have to put the hammer down at every opportunity. Bizarely climbing is my favourite. I just drop the gears, get the cadence up and go for it - my old Claud Butler used to feel as if it was being twisted in the middle but the Scott just shoots forward.

Going up isn't the only fun that you can have though. Cruising down the A23 from Redhill to Horley its possible pretty much to keep pace with the cars (except in Salfords, I haven't cracked 50 mph on the flat yet) - especially if you slipstream them, a bit of fun in a Russian Roulette kind of way. Its some kind of fun to feel a car coming up on your shoulder before standing on the pedals and riding off in front again. Keeps drivers on their toes to be out accelerated by a bike. The only time I had trouble was with a short-sighted t*ss*r pulling out who despite looking me in the eyes seemed unable to believe that I was really there. A very loud and inventive tourette's outburst seemed to get his brakes back on.

The point of the waxing lyrical, or maybe just prosaically, about the Scott is that it seems to have melted the rubbish out of my ankles. Ten hours of medium to hard effort on the bike seems to have got the ankles flexing, but in a less/not really very load bearing way. So now I'm smiling as I walk down the road not only from the endorphins from yesterdays workout, but also 'cos the perma-pain has gone gone gone.

Until I next do something stupid like tray-surf the stairs. Now there's an idea.

More blog change and more sport

2009-09-06T17:32:00.006+01:00

I've changed this blog title again, and widened the topics that I plan to talk about. I still run and plan on running in VFF over a trail ultra in 2010, but I've just had another of my periodic sports flips and have just got a new bike. Not just any old bike though - a Scott Addict R3. The picture is nice but cannot do justice to the pure lightness, majesty and shocking power of this bike. I read the reviews of this and other bikes on BikeRadar, and saw things like "rides like its on rails" and "absorbs road shock" and "very stiff and very quick" and thought why not give it a go? I got the bike shop near my office to get one in for me with plans to test it against the Trek Madone 5.2 Pro. I also read reviews of Cervelo, Pinarello, Felt, Bianchi, Kona, Cannondale, Quintana Roo amongst others, but decided to go for whole package value rather than the exotic just for the sake of it. I didn't want a bike with anything less than Ultegra from Shimano.

As it happened the Madone test didn't work out because the carbon saddle post kept jamming on the carbon downtube extension that it sits on so I couldn't get the height right for a test-ride. I test rode an aluminium framed Trek to get the height set and then the Scott integrated seat post was cut to height. It didn't really matter that I had to commit to purchase the frame/bike before it was cut as I knew that I had to have the Scott from the moment that I picked it up (it weights about 17lbs all up - with pedals added). I only managed a quick ride around the block before getting on the train for home (I ran out of time to ride home), but once on the Scott but I knew that it was the right decision and it made me smile insanely.

I didn't get the use it the next day, because life happens and I had other commitments - taking my daughter and several of her friends to a restaurant for her 12th birthday seemed more important than going for a ride.

But over the weekend I've spent over 7 hours on the Scott. I just want to keep riding it is so pleasurable. The only thing that makes me stop is my own weakness. On Saturday I rode from home over Box Hill to Bookham where I picked up 4.5kg of cake materials for my wife. Then I cycled back with them in my rucksack. I might have made it OK except that I'd not had lunch and took no food, so coming back up the Box Hill zig-zags I bonked badly and rode like one of those old people with a steel upright frame and a big wicker basket. There's nothing wrong with that of course, but it doesn't seem right on a carbon-race frame.

I limped to the sweet shop next to Cycles Dauphin and was so tired I didn't even do more than look through their window. Though to be honest there wasn't anything other than carbon lust to draw me in, I've just bought all the bike that I need for the moment. A Redbull and a Mars bar saw my blood sugar rise to an acceptable level and I managed the rest of the ride home with a little more pace and pride - 30 miles and empty tank. I've not ridden that hard in a while. I do have a beautiful Bianchi hard-tail mountain bike but my hill top bimbles over the summer have never been so draining - on the trails I'm happy to potter along until I hit a tempting singletrack section, but on the roads I just get the blood up and try to crank it all the time. I slept well last night.

Today, however, rather than feel pleased with myself and relaxing I had planned to cycle to Brighton - a 35 miles each way and Ditchling Beacon as my point of crossing the South Downs. What an awesome ride, and what an awesome bike. I really pushed myself, but was more considered and took food today. In times gone past they said that a good sword was not only beautiful but that it had a personality of its own and made a special connection with its owner. I reckon that my Scott is the modern bike equivalent of a really excellent sword. It's incredible, feeling almost 'invisible' it is so steady, stable and light, but responds to increased power with a hum and a grace - you can feel the immediate and complete power transfer whenever you step on the pedals (Look Keo Carbons I chose to complement the bike).

I've not ridden on a road bike for over 5 years since my old bike's gears started slipping badly and I put it in the shed without getting it looked over - I just couldn't get the gears to stop skipping and I'm not normally rubbish at maintenance so figured new chain or new chainrings were required. I also found that I could get a very annoying amount of flex out of the frame and was forever cursing the grinding of chain on front mech as the bottom bracket moved out of line. However, the Scott has no such structural weakness and seems immune to twisting no matter what - which adds to the power straight into the road feeling. You'd think that a bike so stiff would offer a harsh ride, but no once more; its as plush as they come and I've just ridden around 100 miles over the weekend and feel just fine - if anything it is a smoother ride than my old flexi frame, its all in the design I suppose.

All in all the Scott Addict R3 rules and I'll be mainly riding it lots.

Skimming into rehab

2009-08-23T18:26:00.004+01:00

I've been on holiday for the last couple of weeks and although I planned to run daily I only got out a couple of times before I injured myself again. This injury is not from running though, oh no. Unlike most of my recent injuries, which have been through stupid (or exciting depending on mine or my wife's perspective) running related accidents going barefoot on trails at night. This time we were holidaying by the coast (at Lyme Regis, UK) and I decided that skimboarding needed to be tried. It looked really easy and if little kids can do it (one could) then how hard can it be?

On a cheap unwaxed kid's board, with no skill at all, it is very hard I can officially tell you. All was going well for a while - I was jumping on and falling off really quickly. Then I got tired, someone's nan stepped in my way, and in order to avoid granicide I decked hard onto my ankle. I've managed to bruise my right bigtoe and sprain my anterior ankle ligaments. The good thing is that now my right big toe is as stiff as my left one, so I feel balanced out. The bad thing is that although I can walk OK I don't have the ankle strength to run yet, so more time reading running magazines again.

On the upside, Bristol Boarders had both Running Times and Trail Runner in, so I've got some good reading to inspire me. Still thinking about being fast again. Contemplating entering the London to Brighton 56mile ultra. Not sure how much pain I can take while still smiling. Maybe I'll be finding out?

Just Getting the Miles In

2009-08-05T22:25:00.002+01:00

I've mused and criticised and theorised in this blog, but over the last few days I've just been out running. After a run of an hour and a half on Saturday and another of around 45 minutes on Sunday I went for a shorter run on Monday. I nearly posted immediately as I was so elated at feeling fit and strong. I still feel as if I am improving my times as I run in VFF/ barefoot. Although the run made me feel great I was dissapointed by the time. I have run the route in 26 minutes in the past, but this time, despite feeling reasonably strong it still took 31 minutes. My three year break from regular running is exacting its toll. I'll keep on with it and test myself again in another month or so.

I took a break yesterday, partly because I couldn't get out conveniently, and partly just to take a break. As I'm just getting into a groove of running without some mishap taking me out for weeks I've been running carefully and steadily. So far so good. Tonight was just a great time, me, a full moon, empty roads and after an initial tendon niggle a really smooth run in VFF. All the effort to retrain my running form seems to be coming together.

I have to admit that having dabbled with running completely barefoot I'm finding the local roads and trails horrible in the dark - which it is by the time that I can get out. I used a head torch a few times, and that was OK for slow steady runs, but I seem to have mislaid it now (its a Petzl Zipka which has a cord band so rolls up to the size of a table tennis ball). Having bruised my soles on unanticipated rocks and roots (at least no more toe stubbing) I did my Saturday run in trainers. When I got my Mizuno Wave 8's I thought that they were quite light. It's funny how perceptions change, they now seem unbearably chunky and I had visions of hacking the heals off during most of the run (I haven't, I just haven't run in them again). I might get some racing flats as the thing I did like about the trainers was being able to run without wincing - though of course that comfort is at the expense of concentration on the trail conditions.

Running philosophy and freedom

2009-08-02T22:49:00.003+01:00

I've been selectively reading more on training ideas, trying to get to the bottom of my own struggle between freedom and rules. I'm only looking at the ethos driving the advice - whether overt or implicit - rather than the quality of the advice itself. It is fascinating going back to basic training advice in the popular running press after reading "Born to Run" (link here to Barefoot Ted's review rather than Amazon this time) as the kind of people discussed in that book seem to be the polar opposite of the audience that standard magazines, like Runners World appear to be pitching to. I will admit that not all magazines are equal; a friend recently told me about Trail Runner, which seems to be targeted at what I will call "lifestyle athletes" rather than "sports fitness people". Unfortunately TR is a US publication and not easy to find here in the UK, but the website holds lots of great information. There also seem to be some really good Ultra-running websites too, but I've not looked at many of those.

The kind of people who are prepared to run in all weathers on trails and roads, for miles and for hours, I think of as lifestyle runners. They have made running a part of their identity and this means that they seem generally to have a can-do attitude to running, and they may pay attention to all the advice that seems to be bombarding us from all directions, but ultimately they run for the sheer experience of it. They are intrisically motivated - that is, they are motiviated from within to run just because it feels like human nature. There is a freedom and lack of constraint in running, you don't need rules, you just need to get on a do it.

In contrast the sports industry seems to be catering to a different kind of runner, the fitness sports type. As a general stereotype they are less personally driven to run, and more doing it because they know that it will make them fitter or thinner, or whatever external goal they are seeking. This is the group that needs to given motivating tips and mottos, who are advised to eat and sleep and think and run in a precise, planned and safe way, to 'optimize their time'. This 'time efficiency' seems to be the underlying philosophy of the mainstream - not running efficiency, though of course techniques for that need to be planned too, but training efficiency. I recently read an article about 'junk miles'. These are miles of running that have no training purpose - they are not building a particular skill or strength base and therefore are worthless. I think that is garbage.

There are many training ‘systems’ – Pose, chi, MovNat, Lydiard's and many others to numerous to find and list. The intention of these is undoubtably good, and they will have positive results to show for themselves (though as they are not being truly evaluated they will never post the success figures alongside the "also tried it and found it useless" ones). I think the issue for me is that every one of these systems to help people improve impose a sense of system and order, sometimes with arbitrary rules. I read an article recently that told me if I wasn't "periodising" my training, setting long term goals and developing rigorous plans at the macro, meso and micro-cycle levels I wasn't training properly. I need goals apparently, and to strive for constant (and fast) improvement. It didn't tell me what to put in these periods but rest was necessary at all levels apparently. If I don't do this my running will suffer and I'll probably be a worse person.

As an example of why this focus could be a problem for the very activity it seeks to help I will consider MovNat, an excellent philosophy focusing on general adaptive fitness, not just running. It's all on the website and I encourage you to have a read if you are interested. I'd love to have a go at one of his courses, Erwan le Corre has developed the MovNat Natural Movement Coaching System® as an update and extension of the older Methode Naturelle coaching system. I’ve heard people call it a natural version of parkour, but it seems more. Though I’m only going on what I’ve read, it involves the combined training of walking, running, jumping, balancing, moving on all fours, climbing, lifting, carrying, throwing, catching, swimming and defending.

It all starts well, Erwan’s MovNat system adds to previous natural movement coaching systems, developing:
Movement principles and drills – identifying key components of actions so they can be drilled. This avoids time wasted learning by trail and error and speeds-up efficiency gains through improving motor-circuit development.
Quality of movement before volume or intensity. A lack of initial emphasis on proper techniques leads to problems through the assimilation of inefficient movement patterns.
Levels of practice enabling incremental progress and injury prevention: defined by limits in difficulty at each level, in terms of technique, distance, height, weight, time etc.

So far so good - teach people the basics in a controlled way and let them get on and develop them. Sounds excellent, and it builds with :
Techniques first, then combinations. There are essential techniques in each natural movement that are fundamental to the beginner and from which many movement variations derive.
“Combo” training: practicing putting different skills together.

Lastly, however;
Specialization cycles: only at higher levels of practice (thus introducing 'levels' of ability that someone else needs to assess for you). Well-rounded natural athletes that have already reached an advanced level of skills and conditioning should frequently manage relatively specialized training cycles in order to make even more progress. Here I hope Erwan remains more relaxed as it seems to be taking a slightly more proscriptive turn - he could just mean that people will need to take the time to remain skilled in a variety of skills, or he could be proposing detailed charts that you must follow or you'll fail. There is to be a book in due course, so I'll look out with interest.

However, while sytems are useful, they tend to become rule bound and constraining rather than fun. And in writing this I think I've worked out my dilemma - I'm going to continue to ignore the rules and guidance and just go and have fun. I'm going to run free, and I'll vary it and cross-train. But I'm not making plans and I'll take my chances with my development rate.

Useless Training Science

2009-07-30T17:48:00.008+01:00

Great news for runners – arm swinging is important, so do run like normal and don’t strap your arms to your sides! Some researchers have really done some research to find out why people swing their arms when walking, and they conclude that “arm swinging is an integral part of the energy economy of human gait” (http://www.physorg.com/news168027773.html, or http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jul/29/science-walking-secrets-swing ). Normal arm swinging when walking is metabolically more efficient than not swinging them or moving same side arms and legs together. So now you know that when you don’t walk or run like a dork you are also being most efficient.

I’ve had another early morning run now. I am feeling really strong now so I decided to boldly barefoot further – twice as far as yesterday. I ran the route that I took when I blistered my entire mid-foot and heal and took the skin off my big toes, so I was quite nervous about the state of my feet after 7 or 8 miles off road. As a testament to how much my feet have toughened since, over about 3 months of being much more careful, they are fine, not a blister in sight. I do think that I went maybe a couple of miles too far though and my feet are sensitive. I’m still trying to decide whether my soles are singing of the joys of freedom, or whether they are protesting about being shot-blasted with ball bearings.

My ability to understand what my soles are telling me has definitely improved. In the early days, especially when I shredded my feet, everything felt like pain. I couldn’t tell the difference between sensitivity to stones and my soles blistering. Now I can tell the difference between surfaces, and stony paths are not the worst! Rough tarmac is the worst as the stones they use to give grip seem to be bonded to the road sharp points up! I walked those stretches to avoid any further injuries.

I think in the interests of increasing my mileage I might start to mix shoes back into my training as my soles feel bruised after two days of mid-distance (5 to 10 mile) runs barefoot. VFF do solve the stone and root sensitivity issue, but when it’s been wet they really do get unpleasant quite quickly when they are soaked and muddy. I’ve looked at the inov-8 X-talon 212s now and they look great – very light and not much heal to them. The only downside is that they are £75 and the studs are of a grippy rubber so probably won’t like road running much. Inov-8 do seem to do smoother sole trail “flats”, the f-lite 230 and 230pk (parkour) but I haven’t seen these to try out yet. Maybe I’ll try out Anton Krupicka’s trainer heal chopping technique before spending even more money on shoes.

Just Running

2009-07-28T21:59:00.004+01:00

This morning I forced myself to get out of bed early and go for a run. It seemed like a good idea when I set the alarm clock the evening before, but I didn't think much of it as I tried to lift the duvet - it was so heavy and it tried to smother me and make me stay asleep. But I beat it in the end and slipped into the slightly less than delightful cool British summer morning. On with shorts (it would be rude not to - at least where I live) and t-shirt, but not shoes. This was a calculated gamble as my VFF are wet, muddy and not smelling so great after Sunday's run in the damp. I know that people discuss how to put VFF on, but there is an extra element of horror involved in dirty wet ones. So I had two choices - put on my old (worn three times in anger) Mizuno trainers, or run barefooted. Not really a choice is it? Naturally I slipped out the door sans shoes.

I could tell you that as I ran I pondered;

the merits of training regimes and quality nutrition,
Barefoot Ken Bob's advice to run gently, not to try to go as hard as you do in shoes
what Gordon Pirie said about barefooting,
what Lydiard said about training,
the quality of existence, or
the unbearable lightness of being.

But if I did I would not be telling you the truth. What I though instead was, damn that tiny pebble was sharp, ow I wish I'd paid attention to that bramble, wow I didn't even feel that glass, damn this grass feels good. It was sunny, the world was mine. I saw no one. I soaked up the experience. Then I went home and as the expresso pot heated on the hob I contemplated the quality of existence and the unbearable lightness of being.

and it was good.

Knees

2009-07-27T21:52:00.004+01:00

A friend asked me "what about knees?" in response to a previous post, so I said that knee's are cool in barefoot running because the style you adopt has lower force loading than shoe-wearing runners. I've read a few articles, but can't do lots better than the explanation in "Barefoot Running: A Natural Step For The Endurance Athlete? by Dennis G. Driscoll, Head XC Coach, Natick (MA) High School". Discussing biomechanical analysis Driscoll says "One study noted a compensation in the form of higher knee flexion velocity immediately after contact which reduced impact loading by lowering the effective mass of the barefoot runner's support leg". In another article on the angular stiffness of knees and ankles in barefoot and "shod" running by Coyles, Lake and Lees (2001) they say that in barefoot running the knee flexes more and is less stiff than the ankle, the reverse of the effect when wearing shoes. Amongst other biomechanical things this will mean that the shock loading on the knee is less when barefoot.

In the "Additional Implications" section of Driscoll's article he says "The barefoot runner can expect reduced knee injury frequency" . Before we all get too excited, however, there is evidence that while there is little/no evidence for the performance or injury protection value of shoes, the barefoot case is not so clear-cut either. I've just found the barefoot forum on Runners World (.com) and its a great resource. The "Comment on Barefoot Running" by Caroline Burge is a warning to caution. She points out that while some of the barefoot claims do actually have real evidence (yay!), most of the studies that they are reported in are not especially high quality in scientific research methodology terms (boo - more research required as they say).

I'll let Barefoot Ken Bob have the last say on the matter in this random treatise, because I like his style and because he talks sense. In his post on knees, calves and gentle running he says pretty much all you need to know without commissioning a randomised controlled trial study - you need to feel the balance and run smoothly and softly, letting your heals touch down and keeping cadence (foot rate) high. Once you've read his advise check out the following vids for graphic examples:

So, whatever Carole Burge says, I reckon the evidence is stacked in favour of the shoeless, even if it does not come with premium science research. I've seen the comment elsewhere, but who will fund a randomised controlled research trial costing hundreds of thousands of pounds, if not into the millions, when you can guarantee no revenue to be gained from your investment? Hum.

Just to round of with proper anecdote I can tell you that I had a two hour VFF and barefoot run with a friend last night - alright Rob? - and my knees were totally fine. It was the gravel trail on my soles that got me back into the VFFs. Achillies tendons are sensitive today, but the rest of me has never felt better (except when I was fifteen possibly, but relatively never better).

Keep running and keep smiling.

Confusing Passion with Procedures

2009-07-26T17:08:00.003+01:00

This post is about what I don't like about ChiRunning. I really want to like it, I understand the tai chi philosophy of energy use, even if I don't buy chi as a mysterious energy force. Much of what Danny Dreyer does is clearly motivated by the best of intentions, and his system clearly does work for some people. Despite all of that I'm still not sure about it. Reading the website you cannot really get an idea of what its all about, so I spent £9 on the book. It must be said I was underwhelmed and felt that I'd been fleeced.

Dryer starts out with some fine observations, that kids runs naturally and effortlessly, and that we often appear to lose that ability as we age. My first irritation is his rationalisation for why. All the arguments seem fundamentally right at their core, but are compressed and simplified just too far to be compelling any more. Adults have lots of stresses and responsibilities that mean they lose touch with their childish freedom - true, but there are also societal pressures (certainly in the West) that emphasise not running and all sorts of other equally valid reasons why people don't progress directly from child-like activity through into adulthood.

Dryer has clearly worked with and coached many people - he says he has and I have no reason to doubt him at all, so I'll grant he has much more direct experience of helping others than me. However, he concludes from his experience that - he emphasises this point - running does not hurt your body, its the way you do it. Well, OK, another gross simplification. I've run most of my life and lost the childishness through coaching and the club focus on winning over enjoyment (fun was for the rubbish runners at the back of the pack, serious runners don't mess about). I've never found that running hurt, but it does make you very tired and you do pick up niggles and pulls, especially if you run a lot - discomfort is not pain. A system that guarantees running without injury just seems unrealistic to me.

He also treats the current running "paradigm" too simplistically in order to make his point and emphasise his difference. I totally agree with him that "power" this and "power" that is overemphasised in all sorts of Western sport, even in yoga now, but I reject his assertion that "power running" is solely about leg strength and that his system uniquely adds balance to this distorted approach. Dreyers approach has much merit, but the difference is not that black and white.

At heart, Dreyer's method conjours with the mystery of "chi" and the awesome power of his tai chi master, but the techniques are all captured at Running Barefoot or in McDougall's "Born to Run" without the chi stuff. They come down to relax, slow down your haste to progress, work out what feels best, go easy, run smooth, speed will come as ability and efficiency develop.

Throughout his book, Dreyer illustrates his 'techniques' with anecdotal comments from people who have told him how great the ideas are. This makes it all look sound, but is actually selective use of evidence. He doesn't comment on how many people told him his training is fun but made no difference - self-selection of evidence in action. His technique, that I paid money to discover, is basically land midfoot, lean in so your foot strikes under you rather than in front, keep your back straight and breath deep.

I cannot fault anything that he advises people to do, and I'm certain that people have improved under his assistance. What pains me is that he has taken a free human human activity, reduced it to a set of rules and techniques, over claimed to make it sound cooler, thrown in some trendy mysticism to make it sound different, and then charged to tell you what you already know. It's the running equivalent of a self-help book - you can't knock the advice but you feel somehow cheated because you've heard it all before and you've just been suckered into paying again.

I'm going to go out for a run tonight, and I'll do many of the things that he advises. But not because he advises it. I don't reckon my chi will be improved from centring and flowing and eating my greens, and I don't reckon that I'll always run without effort or without injury. But I will enjoy it, and I will smile, and I promise not to write a book about my self-invented training technique that you can all benefit from if you pay me cash.

I've picked on ChiRunning here because I bought the book and felt cheated. I think exactly the same about POSE too, but having read the website I thought "keep that, I'm not paying". I would point out that I spent the same amount on "Born to Run" and enjoyed it and extracted much more helpful information that even had research behind it to show why it was useful.

Running Shoes - the might of marketing

2009-07-23T19:06:00.003+01:00

I know that I've bought the whole running barefoot thing, so I'm not impartial, but even so monthly periodicals keep the orthodox faith while the counter-movement builds its evidence base. Reading this month's Running Fitness (a UK running magazine aimed at the same market as Runner's World) you would not know that there is a barefoot revolution. To be fair they do mention barefooting here and there and have done so over a number of issues, but the larger weight is in favour of the non-evidence based need for shoes to protect us. According to Running Fitness and World we need protecting not only from our own lack of perfect gait (thus we run ourselves to a destruction that only £90 shoes can save us from) but we also need to be protected from the unbelieveably hard surfaces that we have covered the world in.

So, this month we get told "proper fitting and functioning footwear is the key ingredient to ensure enjoyable, injury free running" (August 2009, Running Fitness, p58). Apparently not only are shoes essential, but they are insufficient on their own - orthotics are needed to tailor shoes to our own specific needs. The only question is whether to buy £30 off the peg ones or £250 specially designed ones. They do make a good sounding claim - "Running footwear can have a positive effect on leg alignment. However, to improve the function or posture of the foot you may need to include an ortotic device". Is this evidence based? No, it's a quote from an orthotic prescribing individual podiatrist with a business to keep afloat in the recession.

This tack carries on to page 72, reviewing racing shoes - "lighter shoes may seem 'faster' but ... if they lack enough protection that will inevitably slow you down". They do not need to cite evidence for this, it is a universal truth. This month's magazine is not unusual, and if I could be bothered I'd dig out lots of similar mainstream quotes. Quite simply, runners might die without well designed shoes and additional cost inserts that evil manufacturers don't put in themselves despite all the other design nonsence that they do.

So, the shoe industry needs no evidence. My wife recently told a work colleague who also runs that I ran barefoot and he genuinely couldn't believe the insane risk I was taking. Now compare this with real science - for instance in the British Journal of Sports Medicine a meta-analysis of studies has shown that there is no evidence of any benefit of wedge healed training shoes for either injury protection or performance gains. The study concludes that the recommendation of cushioned heals and pronation control is not evidence based. Science. Not not what the industry wants you to think.

There are increasing numbers of coaches and even podiatrists speaking out about the deadening effects of shoes - the gait change (heal striking) and loss of proprioception (lack of feel) that shoes cause. Yet despite the conclusive evidence of nonsense and a growing undercurrent against it, the industry is still in denial. Nike Frees, designed to mimic "natural" running, are just more flexible wedge heals. Even Newton do a spiel on barefooting to sell - a shoe.

Is the revolution real, or will shoe manufacturers and their marketing outlets remain in control the mass conciousness?

Attitude and Philosophy of working out

2009-07-22T22:28:00.004+01:00

I’m not sure that I’ve had as much fun running over the last thirty years as I’m having now. I’ve totally thrown out my former ‘beat others or run as fast as possible against the clock’ mindset and got into a new ‘seek efficiency and enjoy myself’ sort of groove. Having said that, last night towards the end of an hour run I found that I was naturally picking up my pace again, but the subjective feel of running fast now is completely different from how it used to be.

Being naturally competitive I’ve spent most of my running career pushing myself to be faster. Through club runs and my own time I always had the mental pressure on, trying to beat club-mates or my own times. For a long time this seemed to be a winning(ish) strategy and I got close enough to the top of the pile of totally average runners, without really threatening proper good runners. Every so often I’d get to a point where I had to work harder to progress, so I’d swap to something else like climbing or swimming or cycling or karate or ice skating. Life is too varied, short and exciting to be mono about any single discipline – that’s why I’m mediocre at many things and champion of none. I reckon that I’m physically capable of high performance but psychologically unable to make the commitment – I saw a neat site where David James talks about general and specific athleticism. I like to think that I tend towards the former, but I get demotivated when I make comparisons of my performance against people pursuing the latter.

Climbing shows the impact of my old attitude in a very neat example – I’d get so determined that I was going to climb harder than ever that I’d muscle my way through easy/medium problems with determination over skill. As a result my forearms would get pumped in about 20 minutes flat and I’d climb progressively worse and worse and hate myself for it. Maybe a few more pull-ups would make a difference? Or an extra weights session. What I didn’t do was spend enough time just messing about, getting stronger and getting a more refined feel for the rock at the same time.

This picture isn't me.

So, I’m convinced about barefoot running and now I’m getting interested in ‘natural’ training philosophies. There seem to be a number out there, I’ve come across MovNat and seen references to others that I have not pursued yet. What I wonder though, is whether they really add anything other than a lifestyle approach and a prettier environment to training? I do think that they add an element of quality too, but I’ve not seen anything other than anecdote. Lots of 'urbanised' sports have a 'natural' analogue. For example, mountain biking is like road biking only slower for the same effort and with greater need for handling finesse and balls of steel. Outdoors climbing is considered by some to be ‘real’ while gym climbing is looked down upon as the poorer second. Who likes treadmill running more than trail running. And so on.

‘Natural’ environments tend to add sensory experience and depth of skill requirement to otherwise simple actions. One main argument against gym exercises is that they breakdown complex ‘real’ movements into simple isolated components that enable specific muscles to be grown (unless you are a hard gainer like me and you work out really hard and watch your body remain exactly as before). Gym workouts are thought of as ‘artificial’ and not good analogues for ‘real world’ challenges. I think that there is a balance to be had, but I’ll leave finding that for another time. It almost doesn't matter as the 'natural' or 'wild' philosophy is generally much cooler and more fun than sterile 'sport' versions of activity.

There are other interesting sports ideas too, some backed by science, that are also making me pause and reassess my training techniques. For example, there are new research findings about stretching that seem to make intuitive sense if you think ‘naturally’ but which seem revolutionary if you think that sports are something ‘different’ from normal life. In the August 2009 Running Fitness magazine a research snippet (not tracked down the actual articles) indicates that there is evidence that increased flexibility is correlated with reduced running performance at every speed, or conversely, reduced flexibility is associated with increased running efficiency at all speeds. How can that be? The explanation seems to be that tight muscles reduce energy requirements by making use of the greater elastic storage potential that lovely loose stretched out ones lack.

So I'll keep on trail running and gate vaulting. If I can get other stuff into the run without inducing head injury I'll let you know.

Endorphin Glow

2009-07-19T19:56:00.004+01:00

I've just completed my first run in two weeks and it felt awesome. I ran around 8 miles in a combination of trusty VFF and barefoot. I started off in VFF on the initial road section of my run as I've done sandpapering my soles in the past and I'm not taking any more time off in bandages! I ran along the trail that I broke my left big toe on, and I couldn't believe how massive the offending root looked in daylight. Then, once I was safely off road, I took the VFF off and put them into a waist pack, much to the amusement of a couple walking towards me. I smiled at them and they smiled back, and it all seemed completely normal. I then ran the next six miles on trails - some horribly rocky - all barefoot.

I was pleased to find that running barefoot on stony paths now feels like it used to when I first started out in VFF, so my feet are definately toughening up. I stopped to check the state of my feet a couple of times, I've spent too long injured and limping to risk foot injury again. I watched my footing and the obstacles on the trail like I've never concentrated before and I was pretty pleased with myself for getting through a run without any niggles or further injuries. I got my back straight and head up and focused on picking my feet up. Before long I found that I was almost floating over the rocks and roots that previously feltl like they were trying to repeatedly stab and trip me.

In addition to finding that I could run barefoot OK on trails I hadn't before, I also felt that I had unstoppable leg strength. I found several times that I was running up things that I normally struggle on, but still felt strong. Flu has many downsides, but letting the body rest seems to be one of the vanishing few upsides. On my way back home I met a friendly cyclist at the foot of Reigate Hill who nodded at me in an amicable way. Being competitive I took this to be a friendly challenge and instead of contouring round the hill on a path as I'd planned I decided to follow him up the hill. He was a proper cyclist on a ti ride and he rode away from me, but not so fast that I felt bad. I reckon he gained no more than 15 vertical meters over a 150m vertical climb (the climb wasn't vertical, that's the vertical distance I'm talking about). After that I had a 1.5 mile downhill run all the way home.

Now I've eaten mushroom and pea risotto made using all fresh ingredients and wholegrain rice, and washed it down with a smashing cool lager. Nice. I'm going to spend the rest of the evening chilling it out with my family. Katie also went for a long run this morning so we can both lie around in post run mellowness together, in mutual understanding of limb weight.

This is what life is all about.

Tired and Frustrated

2009-07-17T21:22:00.002+01:00

Its all very well blogging about running, but I need to get out and do some of it. I've just had a dose of this season's flu bug - fever and mad temperature fluctuations with every muscle in my body aching individually. The only good thing about it was getting to lie in bed for about 18 hours straight, spoilt by being only barely concious for most of it. I've not been able to run for two weeks now, and as my health is picking back up I'm starting to feel frayed from lack of exercise.

I'm hoping to get out tomorrow, but I'm nervous about how strong my system really is because I've really felt battered. My last run, the night before the flu really hit, I had a semi-night run on the local trails. It was completely brilliant, my style feeling really fluid for once and I found that I'd been able to run clean up some hills that I usually struggle up. Now I'll have to refind that feeling again. I'm still determined to run an ultramarathon this year, but as I am not doing any anywhere enough miles and haven't entered an event I probably need to get a bit more organised about it all.

What is training?

2009-07-16T23:08:00.004+01:00

I've been thinking about what training is, which sounds really silly, but it is perplexing me. I've been a runner since I was a little kid - by 10 I was running with an athletics club, and with the odd period of semi-retirement I've run for the competition or the pleasure ever since. I have a short attention span and a love of shiny new toys so I've climbed, cycled, scuba-dived and all sorts of other stuff too. If its active then I probably like it. Except racquet sports.

Now, I reckon that I've missed a trick with running efficiency, as I've said previously. With a VO2 Max over 70 in my hayday I had the aerobic capacity to be really good, but I never made it past strong mediocre. I wish someone had put me through a gait analysis because I reckon running heal first in big fat shoes will not have helped. The few times I've really excelled and felt like I was flying was in track spikes or once when I tried Nike Mayflies in one of their event trials .

I recognise that there will be other factors, like not putting in enough miles, or not having the right attitude to make it happen. But I know that I've lacked that personal guidance that points things out. When I fenced we watched films of top swordsmen, but I never did the same for running - ultimately my bad, but it set me thinking. How do you learn the basics when you are not quite getting it? In my defence, apart from being thick, I didn't know what I was doing wrong to know how or what to ask for help with.

Now I've got into barefoot running, I read BFT and BF Ken Bob's sites, about running easy and smooth and so on. I've also wondered how this relates to Tim Noakes bible of knowledge, the "Lore of Running" now in Volume 4. Then there is the veritable Gordon Pirie, who basically said 'get out and run'. So basically it is clear that distance runners are the most efficient runners and they do it by adding so many miles that thier bodies learn to move efficiently. So that seems clear - relax, get out in your own time, run far, run relaxed and the benefits will come. I like that ethos.

BUT - then I come across a variety of learn effiency fast and never get injured again sites - also with strong followings, these include POSE for the technological believer, CHI for the spiritual runner and even MovNat for the animal runner (in a good way). Now I REALLY like the MovNat philosophy, and I know that BFT is a friend of Erwan, the head guy, so he must be cool too, but there is no way that I can afford the time and expense required to be taught how to move in an idyllic setting. I'd take my family, but the bank manager says no.

So what to do in cold Britain? I like what I've seen on the MovNat website, of breaking down aparently complex skills into simple components and drilling them like you do in martial arts training, so that they are second nature. This seems like good sense, and natural. I'm less convinced by Pose and Chi - I'm sure that they work, I've not tried either so I'm not running them down, but I don't like the concept underpinning Pose, and Chi seems to be lots of puff around basically running barefoot style with some energy flow talk on top. I don't have an answer, I'll just keep having to following these guys who are pushing at the forefront of change and thinking what it means for my own development.

I just feel a tension between running natural, unfettered and free, and needing to teach people methods for how to do it. How did that come about?

Run into the hills, and don't stop till you have to.

Relearning to Run - Barefooting

2009-07-15T13:34:00.000+01:00

Despite having run in minimalist shoes, or occasionally without shoes, for nearly a year, but I have only just started to really run differently. Almost straight away I stopped landing on my heal, that happens automatically when you don't have big rubber cushions strapped on. I was surprised otherwise at how incredibly resilient my learned patterns of movement are. Despite reading the Running Barefoot guidance I still felt as if I ran in much the same way, only landing midfoot rather than heal first. I still pushed really hard, and with stiff shoulders, and had a tendency to overstride as I picked up pace, or got tired. Strangely, I relearned most when I decided not to run hard but just to go for a relaxed hour out.

The best way to run, at least my current favourite, is towards dusk and into the dark. Off road. With a head torch. Everyone I've mentioned this to - and it is not many - think that this is insane. However, I have found that it gives several benefits that have helped me to relearn the feeling of running where daylight runs have not. Firstly, as the light fades you have to pay attention to where you are going much more carefully - I have the broken toe that hammered that lesson home hard. Secondly, you have to run slower because you are looking out and its dark, and thirdly, when it starts to get really dark all you see is a circle of world from the headtorch that you are running into, you can't see yourself so you start to notice and rely on kinaesthetics - your sense of body position.

Its quite addictive running in the dark in the hills on a warm summers evening. I'm sure that there are many ultra-runners and late night runners who know what I mean. It's not the same on the roads though, as street lights mean you lose the sense of body movement and full concentration. The flatter surfaces of roads lighten the mental attention load as you can generally assume flat featureless ground (plus or minus the odd kerb and pothole). This might sound great, but I find the full concentration lets me unhook from thinking about daily life for a bit. I love my job, but sometimes it is good to stop contingency planning and resource allocation!

Running, retraining and reading

2009-07-14T11:59:00.000+01:00

There is surprisingly little published material on barefoot running, and what there is seems to fall into one of two camps - either evolutionary accounts of ability or health/ medical accounts comparing physiological measures of efficiency when in shoes or without. Although these literatures do not appear to come together all that frequently, they do make a compelling case in favour of running without shoes.

To give a couple of examples, in 1999 Dr William A. Rossi published a paper in Podiatry Management entitled "Why shoes make "normal" gait impossible: how flaws in footwear affect this complex human function". In this paper he makes a thorough assessment of exactly how modern healed shoes (yes, men's shoes too) act to distort the natural posture of the body. A seemingly small difference at the heal actually serves to change not only the foot mechanics but the entire muscular loading on the body trying to keep upright. Not only do you lose sensation and spring at the foot, but you add distortion to your back and/or upper legs trying to keep your balance. Rossi concludes that the only way to retain a natural gait is to return to barefoot walking. The evidence in Rossi's paper also indicates why so many people say that back pains go when they move to barefoot walking or running.

At the anthropological end of the evidence spectrum the most persuasive and prolific writer I have come across is Daniel Lieberman, at Harvard. He has written several papers with Dennis Bramble and others, such as "The Evolution of Marathon Running" (Sports Med 2007: 37(4-5) 288-290) and "The evolution of endurance running and the tyranny of ethnography: a reply to Pickering and Bunn" (Journal of Human Evolution 53 (2007) 434-437). These papers, and many more cited in them, cover the sort of ground that Christopher McDougal sets out in "Born to Run", but in much more detail and mentioning even more evidence.

It is very clear that key parts of the industry are responding to this growing evidence base - the Nike Free is a trainer, still with a built-up heal, but with more flex in the forefoot, and there are lots of other shoes, like the Vibram FiveFinger or Feelmax shoes that have no heal or internal support so that the sole has some protection but the natural foot movement is not otherwise altered. However, these appear to be little more than nods of recognition rather than a full scale shift in the trend of trainer design. Most of the mainstream running magazines are carrying on with featured stablisation and cusioning shoes as if nothing has happened. Looking at the skeptical responses of some online posts about the "dangers of urban runing" with razors, glass, needles and ninja dog poo round every corner its a wonder we even go out.

It seems ironic that it is the hardest outdoors running pursuits, in the hardest conditions - fell running and orienteering in the UK, and mountain/trail running in the US and elsewhere, where dedicated shoes (Inov-8, Walsh etc) have narrower and lower heals to avoid the ankle turning that wide heals can lead to. I've even seen reference to Anton Krupicka cutting the heal down on standard trainers for use in trail ultraruns. Full respect - I've set myself a goal of running an ultra this year, but haven't gone much over ten miles in training so far.

Read the arguments - where is it all going?

2009-07-13T08:00:00.000+01:00

I quickly found that lots of other people had taken the barefoot journey years ahead of me, and that there are loads of cool groups and resources all over the internet, and paper publications too. The more I look into it and think about it the more I'm convinced that this is not a new movement - it is an old movement getting emboldened by the increasing evidence that much of the established "truth" circulated by the footwear, podiatry and linked training industries is just plain wrong.

Christopher McDougall seems to have very neatly tied up all the key themes in his book "Born to Run". This books seems to have set the general tone for current thinking on barefoot running, giving people the information to enable them to reject the marketing junk from the shoe companies. Even RW (UK) recently ran a small advertorial that ostensibly espoused barefooting before returning to the more normal position of 'but most people need to have their toes strapped to a solid plate to avoid sucumming to their biomechanical imperfections'.

Biomechanical imperfection seems to be one of the podiary businesses rallying cries in the face of increasingly direct questioning on the need for fat shoes and acute ankle injury. I've read current posts (can't find citations now, so I'll have to stick with hearsay for the minute) by podiatrists suggesting that only people with 'perfect' gait can run barefoot. This seems to go unchallenged - possibly as it is too ridiculous to really argue back against - but what can this 'perfect' gait look like - and does it only work on 'perfect ground'?

I suppose the greatest dissappointment for me is not that such arguments fall into general currency, there is clearly an invested interest in keeping people certain that their delicate feet need serious pretection from the harsh ground. The real disappointment is that the majority buy it without question - and I include myself here. When I was a student - a good 15 years back now - I was a regular on a running forum that talked about running style. I ran in the 'classic' Nike Pegasus and my interpretation of Noakes advice to improve speed by increasing stride length (and turn-over) was to significantly increase my leg swing. This only permitted me to land on my heal, and so convinced was I by my marginal gains in speed that I ignored people who said things like "man is a forefoot striker" as rambling idiots.

I then spent a large chunk of my competitive running career getting so far, but never really realising the potential I thought I had. I saw people who I knew had weaker legs and less cardiovascular fitness beat me in races, but I just didn't get the whole running efficiency thing at all. I had a coach who said things like "keep your shoulders relaxed" but I never saw how much influence my running leg style had on my overall movement style.

Having quit competitive running in a great big unfulfilled-potential sulk, I seem to have inadvertently completely retrained myself to run. I've not run in trainers for over 6 months now, and use VFF Sprints as my running shoes of choice in all conditions, on an off road. They are a revelation - but not for the faint-hearted or bad-tempered in slippery mud conditions. I read all sorts of sports science articles about "unshod" performance gains, and Danny Dreyer's Chi Running (which made cross, but that's another story), and went out slow, focusing on smoothness - taking advice from Barefoot Ken Bob and McDougal.

I can only say that running has got easier. I can't tell if I've got faster yet, as I've not put myself to a serious test. I did run a 10K in 42mins with a broken toe - you have to be careful when the light is fading on them hill runs I can tell you - but that's a few minutes off my track PB, so I'll have to go for a retest when I've got full strength back again.

Barefoot Running Project in Progress

2009-07-11T00:03:00.000+01:00

I have joined the swelling numbers of people who are going barefoot - well minimalist shoes (VFF) mostly, as it makes running feel so much better than when I used to wear great big lumps of plastic.

The story started for me last year, in the summer of 2008, when I read a walking magazine (Trail or TGO, I can't remember which) that had reviews of minimalist shoes for hillwalking. I cannot even remember the other two shoes, but that was where I first decided I had to have a pair of Vibram FiveFingers. Barefoot Ted's reviews tipped me over the edge and got my money spent on Amazon. When my wife first saw them I was ordered to walk at ten paces behind, and on no account to go into town when people might see me.

I was so excited I walked when I would otherwise have driven, and took a series of exciting shots of my own feet. Almost a year later I have made every basic mistake in barefooting. Very early on I got too excited to quickly and went for a 9 mile run shoeless one morning. I thought that my feet felt a little sensitive after half an hour or so, but as I was running on mixed surfaces I thought no more about it - the damp grass was fantastic. It was only as I trailed foot prints of blood across the hall carpet that I realised I might have been a little silly.

I learned a lot about surgical dressings and walking really slowly on my heals after that. Two months lost. But no regrets - when the screaming pain died down anyway.