Motivated

"We avoid risks in life, so we can make it safely to death."

Nice

Tryfan

Last Saturday, a few of the lads from the station and I decided it would be a lovely experience to climb Tryfan in Snowdonia. All I can say is DAMN, that was fun!

I will upload photos soon, when I have my camera to hand.

3 Weeks In (Almost)

I am absolutely LOVING this whole new approach to exercise, and life in general.

I feel a heck of a lot better than I have in an awful long time. It now feels weird to wear normal shoes. If I'm not prancing around barefoot or in my Vibrams, I feel all alien. ALIEN!

They are holding up very well, although a LITTLE bit of bonding has come loose on the left foot. But I'll just glue that back together again.

I've used them for the gym, cycling, wandering around, martial arts, skipping, conditioning AND EVEN RUNNING of all things. My feet occasionally feel sore, and my calf muscles have sent me a letter apologising for anything they might have done to offend me.

This is likely due to the fact that I'm training pretty much every day again, in one way or another, after a depressing little lull. It's back in bitches XD

Looking at the other side of the spectrum towards diet, I have suddenly become influenced with the Paleo way of looking at things. Except I'm not examining cave man drawings to see what I should have for supper, I've just taken a few of their ideals and it seems to be working lovely.

For anyone new to the idea of Paleo diet, I'll do an exceptionally quick summary. It's basically eating what our great ancestors would have eaten thousands of years ago, before agriculture.

Try and imagine a diet built on hunting and gathering, and you have the Paleo.

Instead, I've taken this approach and adapted it to myself a tad. That doesn't mean I'm running around clobbering cats and squirrals, but I am approaching the super market in the sense of everything I need can be found in a couple of aisles.

If it's in the fresh produce, raw meats and fish aisle, then it's ending up on my plate. Couple that with oats, seeds, nuts and whole milk and you have a winning combination.

In other words, no more breads, processed monosudobudoglutaminamate-E9000, refined sugars, packaged, boxed, tinned or crud.

To say the least....

It is FANTASTIC!

Shelved

Right, Vibrams are nicely tucked away for a couple days. I have been working my arse off today. Tomorrow won't be much different, except in trainers, of course. I finish work at 3pm, so the gym is getting hit again before grappling.

But before then, if my body agrees of course, I'll be down the station with skipping rope in one hand, and some ill intentions in the other.

If it doesn't agree, I might need to rest up, because Saturday morning, 8am, I'm climbing a mountain in Wales. Hmmmm, common sense would dictate that I do rest up so I am more than ready for what lies ahead, but we've never had a great on going relationship. He never returns my calls.

Heck of a Morning

Woke up at 5am for a short mile in the vibrams, which was positively uplifting! Followed this at 9am with some skipping in the back of the bay (again in the vibrams) coupled with some reverse crunches and press ups for just over half an hour. Finally, out into the yard for 3 x 5 minute rounds of 30 seconds skipping (in trainers) and 30 seconds battling ropes.

Calf muscles are a tad sore to say the least, and I've now put my feet on mandatory rest away from any barefoot activities. But, they're not out of the woods completely. It's hurricane night =]

Sooooo, How Did It Gooooo?

I tried out the old gym in the Vibrams, and I don't think I could do weights in trainers again. It felt so much better doing squats for example with them on, just feeling closer to the ground and more stable with improved balance.

The only thing I did notice is I couldn't run as fast on the treadmill for my hurricane whilst wearing them. Even at 14.5km/h seemed rather difficult, and I start there. Hmmmm maybe I need to play around with that and figure out why.

Other than that I have been doing strictly 2 days on, 1 day off, to try and get my feet accustomed to feeling barefoot. It has actually been working, with my feet getting adequate rest to recover. My mileage is still around 0.5 miles, although sometimes I will jog to work, rest, then jog home, which would equal about 0.9 - 1.0 miles.

For anyone who stumbles upon this, self control is crucial. It is difficult, but it is for your own benefit. The best piece of advice is listen to your body completely, with any bit of pain being addressed from the out set. That is why, even without perhaps feeling any uncomfortable twinges in my feet, I stick to the 2 on 1 off to try and make sure I limit any chance of injury.

Today, training wise, I had a nice jog to and from work, and then some skipping to try and build up my calf strength. They are continuing to ache, but not as bad as when I first started. Although, since then, my diet has changed with a lot more protein and good fats. Maybe that has been helping.

In regards to the ACTUAL shoes themselves, they are immensely comfortable, and are holding up well =] The only issue I am currently noticing is that the tread is maybe wearing down quicker than I am used to. Considering the mileage, they are showing obvious signs of wear. I will keep tabs on this as it progresses.

Anyway, that's enough of an update from me. Train hard!

5 Point Palm Exploding Calf Technique

This is currently how they feel. Ouch.

Day 2 of Vibrams and DAYUM my calf muscles ache. I decided to have a soft run to work ( 0.5 miles ) and then a soft run home at the end of the day, and both legs ache.

This was duly followed by my regular Wednesday trip to grappling, and I thought I'd travel in the VFFs to get my feet used to them. Couple of issues with this...

1. It was raining, and cold, equaling cold and wet feet.

2. The first bit of self consciousness when I went around Asda afterwards. Although this I am sure will fade with prolonged use.

So, how do I feel after a day of barefooting around? The soles of my feet ache, such as my heel and the balls of my feet, which means it's a good time to rest them from running. But, despite the pain, the feedback through the Vibrams feels ab-so-lute-ly fantastic.

Tomorrow, the gym ;)

Bare Foot: Introduction

Anyone who knows me pretty well will surely know how... odd... I am when it comes to my feet. Not saying that I have some perverted fetish towards them (and there is nothing wrong with that if you do), but I am rarely found in shoes. Around the home, outside on the drive way, driving my car (in the summer mostly), and sometimes even turning in to the station, my feet live the hippy life style. Obviously this does not include the 5 hours a week of grappling where they get as much use as my hands, but that's something else entirely.

This lifestyle has left my feet rather healthy, or at least, above average. My arches are quite high, I have never had athletes foot, and despite the occasional fall up/down the stairs, I have quite good balance. Unbeknownst to me, they were also the cause of some of my most aggravating injuries.

When it comes to running, I went with the herd and bought the big old boot like trainer. With the massive cushioning, I thought I was doing my feet a favour. This was until I was introduced to the idea of barefoot running by Martin Rooney, kind of a hero of mine.

He wrote a very interesting article on the importance of our feet and it got me thinking, should it be something I should try?

Funny enough, when the above picture was taken I was at a fitness exhibit, and one of the companies on show was called Vibram. They were selling the craziest looking shoes, but this was before any seed regarding barefoot had been planted, so it was filed away at the back as a bit of a novelty.

Fast forward a few months and I have fallen in love with the idea of barefoot running (and thus, forefoot running). It makes sense in my head, so I wanted to see if the science matched the experience. I have started running forefoot (albeit in my trainers) and it has given me incredible results. My pace matched the quickest I have ever accomplished, and this is after 8 months of no running. I also decided to forego the ice bath (a prerequisite before) to see how I would feel the day after. Despite some calf soreness, there was absolutely no knee or lower back pain. Fantastic!

So, here we are, deeper down the rabbit hole. Obviously going straight outside and running without shoes would be ludicrous. There are so many stories of people who have jumped on this band wagon and gone sprinting down the road to find they have stress fractures in their feet. Not to mention all the grit, glass and debris that would suddenly be inserted into your soles. Instead, I am going to treat this as if I have never run before. Ignoring any current cardio or endurance, I am a "new" runner. With that in mind...

Damn, they are pretty. I am rather alone in my impression of them, hearing from my beloved Helen that they are "fugly", among other things. But to me they are fantastic. As a bridge from shod running to barefoot, I couldn't have asked for anything better. The Vibram FiveFingers Bikila LS.

First Impressions:

Putting them on for the first time was an odd sensation to the say the least. All the years of wearing shoes have left my toes rather bunched up, and these really do separate them. When it comes to fitting, Vibram do it by 1/8s of an inch, so you need to be really sure of your foot size, or get properly fitted in person. I went for a size 42, which just so happens to be perfect.

Once you have lined up your toes and gotten over the strange sensation, they are immensely comfortable. These are shoes that are fit for running in, yet are as comfortable as slippers.

The Run:

Obviously I cannot offer much of a review just yet. They need a lot more time for me to understand how hard wearing they are etc, so I will just let you know about my first run.

The conditions outside were wet (not raining), and approx. 10°C. Not yet owning any toe socks, my feet went commando in the VFFs. They were surprisingly warm given the mild temperatures. I thought a relaxed run around the neighborhood would be best, so I settled on a mere 0.6 miles.

Even though I was running on concrete, my feet had enough cushioning to not feel battered. I automatically started forefoot running (the natural human way of running) and noticed the spring coming from my achilles tendon and calf muscle. It was effortless. Despite already running forefoot in trainers, the minimalist approach of the Vibrams meant I had tremendous feedback. It was euphoric. I could feel my muscles and feet working. I cannot describe the feeling apart from being astonishing.

0.6 miles down and all I could feel was a bit of soreness from my arches and my calf muscles. This was to be expected of course, I am a "new" runner :P

Conclusion:
I am very excited to see where this takes me. I will add more and more updates the more I do, but for now, I am an absolute convert, a bare foot runner.