My very own BFR Fiyah! T-Shirt! I finally got my BFR Fiyah! t-shirt this week! Spreadshirt.com did an amazing job. The quality and fit of the shirt rocks and the Flex Print printing is really cool. I bought the Women's Slim Fit Cotton Tee in a medium size. Its a very soft cotton and not scratchy at all. I'm really happy with the results and it has washed well so far. I will definitely be printing more designs through them in the future. Did another short barefoot run today which ended up being close to 4 miles. It was cold and overcast, but man, it felt good. After the initial shock of the cold, my feet eventually adjust. They go from stinging to tingling. Its an indescribable feeling. Like running on blunt pins and needles. Ok. So maybe that doesn't sound cool, but for me its heaven. Like I can feel every single nerve receptor. I run on pavement and asphalt mostly. I know there are people who hate that stuff, but I'm starting to really enjoy it. Yeah. I'm a g...

Foggy morning run I've been jonesin' for a barefoot run like a crack addict pines for his next fix. I've been a good girl, though. I took a good three weeks off to let my knee and heel sort themselves out. This morning I did a mobility WOD, a few yoga stretches, and rolled the shit out of myself before heading out to do a scaled back, easy run of about 3 miles. The wet fog and cold did little to stop me. It felt like heaven. My feet were happy. So my goal this morning was not only to get my barefoot running fix, but to try to pay close attention to what I'm doing that might make me have these recurring issues. I'll be meeting with Seth soon (dude is going to whip my sorry ass into shape) and I thought it might be helpful information to have on hand for him. He mentioned that I might be landing too far out in front which could cause some of my knee issues. I think he's right. I tend to open up my stride as I get further into my run and I think its worse in m...

The random return mail - my journal I hate getting those stupid chain emails in my inbox. You know. The ones that threaten you and your dog with fifty years of bad luck if you don't forward it to thirty of your closest friends? I have a wicked quick delete finger when it comes to stuff like that. And now that I'm blogging and reading other people's blogs, I'm slowly discovering that blogs are not immune to the likes of the chain letter.  I was recently "tagged" on a fellow blogger's blog to reveal seven random things about myself. I'm thinking... "Shit. I think I've revealed more than the average person in some recent posts" and we're not talking my favorite vacation or the kind of car I drive. No. Of course not. That's what I get for drinking and blogging. Hey. At least I'm honest. Well, my blog isn't really about random stuff unless its random stuff that I step on while I'm running barefoot. So I considered w...

So there were 17 of you who were down for a free shirt giveaway and it looks like lucky number 6 got it thanks to this totally random number generator . Congrats Chris! I've already shot you an email so I can hook you up. Keep your eyes peeled for that. And yes. It was an excellent ploy, wasn't it? If you were a loser this time, hang tight. I plan on doing another giveaway if I can finagle a free shirt out of Spreadshirt.com. I was impressed with their quality of shirts (I made one for my son's birthday) and they have options to print vector formats with different techniques like flex printing. But now I'm just going all geeky designer on y'all. Suffice it to say they have a variety of options with printing, which is good. And if you're wondering how you can get your hands on a BFR Fiyah! shirt now, I've set up shop over at Spreadshirt ( Zaps Threads ). As of right now, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my very own BFR Fiyah! in red. As for my bare...

BFR Fiyah! Here it is. In all its glory. The official BFR Fiyah! Tee. If you want one, you now have the chance to get one for free! CustomizedGirl.com has been gracious enough to allow me to do this giveaway so here's what you have to do... 1. Comment on this post and be sure to include your name and email so I can contact you and hook you up.  2. Also include the style you want in your comment. The image posted here is of the Women's Junior Fit Tee but there is also a Men's Crew Neck Tee as well as a Women's Misses Relaxed Fit Tee . I will get the rest of the information I need from the lucky winner who I will pick on January 23rd.   Now. A little bit of random info about the shirt... The inspiration for this design is obvious. Barefoot fire! My new found passion! The style is sort of tattoo-based, keeping with a simplistic 2 color approach and minimal typography. The non-conventional typography fits right in with the whole BFR ideal. Hey! We're not...

Are you ready for a free shirt? I finalized my design this past week and am confident to say that I am ready to reveal my BFR Tshirt design to the masses. Yeah. All twenty-five of you! I put the finishing touches on the design last Tuesday night and then followed up with a mid-week getaway with my husband up the hill for two solid days of skiing, drinking, and celebrating. It was a belated anniversary celebration since our actual anniversary was spent eating hamburgers at Mary's Hamburger Shack with two kids in tow on the way to a camping trip. The camping trip was piggy-backed onto a trail race I had signed up for called Run on the Sly, however I wasn't able to run due to some hip issues that I had been suffering from. (see my Sept blog post Need a Naked Fix . ) So although camping with my family was good times, I was not able to run the race AND I had compromised my anniversary. Nice, huh?  Then life took over from there. Things got much too busy to make up for it. Sc...

My pole dancing class - a great core workout! Just a warning. This blog post may not be suitable for younger viewers. Now that I said that, I'm pretty sure that if you're young (and especially male) you will probably keep reading because we all know that the "warning" is really just an opportunity for the young and impressionable to do what they do best - defy the rules. So if you're an innocent minor and you happen upon this particular blog post, don't come whining to me that I didn't warn you cuz I just did. Now that that's out of the way, I have recently been intrigued by something I came across in some of the online running forums. There was a recent post in one of the forums by a young woman who happened to be having multiple orgasms while running on a treadmill. Now, you can imagine my interest! I'm all... hell yeah! I gotta google this shit out!! I was highly skeptical of course. It was cross-posted by a guy and it seriously didn't...

A sad swollen heel. WTF??? Lately, I've been blogging like I'm a crackhead. Well, today is no exception. Remember that slight tightness in my heel I had on my last short run? Yeah. The two mile EASY run? The one without the knee pain? Well somehow I ended up with a swollen heel from that. It was a good thing that run was just a short one.  I noticed this last night as I was getting into bed. All day I had noticed a slight soreness on the back of my heel. It felt almost like a bruise on the bone. You know. Like when you're carrying your kids scooter and it swings around and thwacks you on the back of your heel. Yeah. I do that a lot. I love my kids, but I hate carrying their stuff. I noticed I was limping slightly when we went out to dinner. I was starting to get a little suspicious. But, alas, this "bruise" had degenerated into something else by the time I got in bed last night.  What is it lately with me and injuries? This doesn't bode well for my...

My happy knee Did I tell you how much I love body art? Piercings, tattoos, mehndi, paint, markers... anything that uses the human body as a blank canvas in which to express ideas. If my left knee could express it's feelings it would say "thank you" with a big ol' grin.  I ditched the fingers and did a very short run completely barefoot today. Only about two miles. It wasn't much, but I didn't even get a subtle twinge of the swelling and discomfort I've been dealing with lately. So I considered this run a success, albeit a small one. The back of my heel started feeling a bit tight and sore towards the 1.5 mile mark which really wasn't a big deal. I hadn't planned on going far anyway. So that never amounted to much either. I think I can confidently say without a shadow of a doubt that running completely barefoot (and when I say barefoot I really mean sans ANY shoe - I know there's a camp of people who would call VFFs barefoot) creates much...

Beer break on the mountain I did something yesterday that would probably make the barefoot lifestyle purists cringe and tisk. I stuffed my feet into a couple of inflexible, thick-soled foot coffins then clipped and bound those into the bindings attached to my other passion - a couple of all-mountain Rossignal skis. Then I spent a day on the mountain with my oldest son supporting his beginning forays into some seriously sick shredding experiences. I got back into my skiing several years ago. Almost exactly when I reignited my passion for running. At that time I was no stranger to pain especially after running more than two miles or spending an entire day on the slopes. My neuroma would inevitably flare up and my feet would ache horribly. Sometimes it felt like tiny knives slicing my toes. My feet would always be in excruciating pain. That's just my feet. I won't go into my knee issues. I'm still assessing how things are progressing so far with my barefoot running and...

My BFR Christmas Present My head has finally stopped throbbing and I've medicated my hedonistic New Year's hangover with an extra large cup of very black coffee. Luckily I'm not feeling as rough as I should. I self-indulged last night with a disproportionate amount of toasting and polishing off the shots. I'm lucky to have evaded the porcelain bowl ritual this morning. But, I have more than just the New Year to celebrate. My kids will be back to school next week and I will finally be able to get some much needed "me" time. I have to say, though, that this holiday has been the most relaxing and non-stressful one in years. My youngest is not getting sick as much. We had one holiday where we were in and out of the ER and hospital the entire week of Christmas. That year I reassessed the importance of the holidays and have been taking the "minimalist" approach to gift-giving ever since.  Instead of frantically running around trying to find that p...