Why I can't do barefoot on my trails . . .

This is the nasty stuff I pick out of my shoes from the trails I run and why I have to limit my barefoot running to safer surfaces.

Harry

Friday, Sept. 16th . . . 800+ miles and recovery time . . .

[CLICK TO ENLARGE]

So this is what racing shoes look like after 800 miles. In this case, it's the Nike Zoom Streak XC's. It goes to show the shoe stores lie when they tell you racing shoes are only good for 200-300 miles. These shoes continue to perform even better as they get older and look how flexible they become.

I used these today on my 40 min. recovery run and I race often in these bad boys.

Harry

Thursday, Sept. 15th . . . easy goes it . . .

A light rain last night provided nice soft dirt trails for my 50 min. run this morning. Perfect conditions . . . about 50F with a light cool breeze. Can't ask for more.

Harry

Wednesday, Sept. 14th . . . easy going on the trails . . .

A nice easy 50 min. trail run. A beautiful morning with fog lifting from the lake as I circled it. It's definitely fall as it was about 50F when I headed out. I'm a wimp and at this point, I'll have to start wearing light running gloves. When it drops another 10F, I'll be in running pants.

Harry

Tuesday, Sept. 13th . . . some pace today

I could feel my muscles tuning over the past few days for a faster run and today was the day. A solid 10k pace road run . . .

5 miles in 32 minuues (6:20 pace).

Running in a pair of racing shoes with about 800 miles on them and they feel better than when they were new.

Harry

Monday, Sept. 12th . . . back on the trails . . .

Quick 40 min. recovery run. Wanted to take it easy after 3 days of treadmill running. It felt great to be back on the trails. I feel another fast run coming in the next 2-3 days. I know that because I can feel my muscles tightening (also referred to as "muscle tuning") which means a race pace running is on the horizon but I'll let my body tell me which day.

Harry

Sunday, Sept. 11th . . . treadmill days coming to an end . . .

55 min. treadmill run . . . last day on the treadmill. Can't wait to the back to the trails.

Friday, Sept. 9th . . . ah, the treadmill

Regulated to the treadmill. Did a fartlex to my iPod music including 5k @ 6:45 pace and 5x1 min. at 5:35 pace. Good overall workout. Just one more day on the treadmill, then back to the trails I love.

Harry

Thursday, Sept. 8th . . . easy run

Just running by feel. 45 min. easy run. I'm sensing a pretty fast sub 6:00 pace workout around the corner. I can feel my leg muscles starting to tune for a race pace effort in the next 2-3 days.

Harry

Wednesday, Sept. 7th . . . just a good run . . .

One of those perfect easy runs. Just floated along for 50 min. and everything was working right.

Harry

Tuesday, Sept. 6th . . . back at it . . .

I dropped off my daughter for morning tennis and was about to head out the door for my run while she plays as I regularly due when someone asked me to play tennis. I don't play often anymore but I grew up playing competitively so I said what the heck, I'll treat it as a cross training day and I played 1 hr. of tennis.

When I got home I still couldn't resist running, so I knocked off a 50 min. run with about 2k at 10k pace. I feel great.

Taking yesterday off was a great decision. Well, an easy decision since I listened to my body. If you "truly" listen to your body, injuries will be few and far between.

Harry

Monday, Sept. 5th . . . the body says, "not today"

Per messages from my body, today is a rest day. I'm feeling the impact from Saturday's 70 min. of continuous mountain hills and Sunday's 1 hr run. I could have run today but it's not worth it . . . risk outweighs the gains today. I'll hit it tomorrow.

Harry

Saturday, Sept. 3rd . . . hills with no mercy . . .

One of my favorite and most challenging runs. 8 miles of continuous hills and even the flat parts (2-4% grade) are uphill from 5,200-6,000 ft. (several 10% grades). Hills provide the perfect opportunity to work on form and technique. It's mentally challenging to look ahead and all you see is hills as far the eyes can see :) but I love this run.

Harry

Friday, Sept. 2nd . . . didn't even feel like a workout

Cut this run short because I like to end some runs feeling very strong. I had a lot left but I'll save it for another day. Very satisfying to get to the point where a 40 min. easy run doesn't even feel like I worked out.

Harry

Thursday, Sept. 1st . . . nice and easy

45 min. nice easy trail run. Just simplicity but that's the beauty in it :)

Harry