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Showing posts from April, 2011

A Shoe Shirt and Bare Feet

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Oh the irony of the shoe shirt. My barefoot run to the gym yesterday was less than stellar. Every once in a while I have one of those runs where nothing seems to go right. I can't find my rhythm, I step on every sharp and jabby thing all in the wrong spots, I lose my mojo. I was totally distracted yesterday. It happens. That run was the exact opposite of my previous run. Now, THAT was a stellar run. The kind that almost had me convinced that I had achieved running evolution. Well, apparently not. Yesterday's little jaunt to the gym was littered with swear words and bruises. Maybe it was the Puma shirt. My feet were punishing me for wearing a shoe shirt. I should have known better. Speaking of punishment. My workovers have been going really well. Last night's menu was totally doable without much suffering at all and this morning's workover was more of the same. Most of the time, though, I suffer, I sweat, I swear and I grunt. Yeah. That's a bit embarrassing. Th

A Pump Track Easter Celebration

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"The Property " I had no idea my Vans could be some seriously comfortable minimal running shoes until I had to do an impromptu trail run through our property in search of some lost dogs. Luckily they weren't our lost dogs. And luckily they were eventually found hours later ripe of skunk. And luckily, still, it wasn't our family that had to drive home with the windows down and the stink permeating every one of our pores. Nope. We stayed put at our little place in Pine Grove, California while our poor friends had to endure about an hour and a half of foul smelling pooches in an enclosed vehicle. Our friend's dogs happened to wander off while we were in the midst of our Easter/Spring celebration at our property in the local foothills. This home, which used to be my grandmother's, is now host to tree climbing, dirt digging, egg hunting, dog searching, summer pump track parties. When we come up here its all about the bikes, though. If you don't know what a

A Good Run. A Good Soak.

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I can kick, and stretch, and kick! What could be better than hot bath blogging? Awwwwyeah. After my run workout this morning and my evening workover, I'm ready for some chill time. The only thing that's missing is my beer. (Input sad face here) But this hot bath more than makes up for it. My glutes are still a little sore from Saturday's workover and my arms are shot from tonight's punishment, so this little soak totally hits the spot. I mentioned my run workout this morning. I happened to run my fastest mile since beginning my barefoot journey. It also happened to be in my VFFs, which was amazing since I've had nothing but trouble since starting to use them. I found it key, though, to do a warm-up completely barefoot first. Just to get my form locked in and get into my "light and smooth" rhythm. I tend to run harder in my VFFs because I can. I did two 1 mile repeats and because of the circumstances (my little Jack Ass Movie prodigies were up to no go

Bonafide Badass

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Girly guns. If you ever ran into me on the street, you would look at me and probably think I'm a little on the short side. Maybe even petite. And after talking with me a while, you might even say to yourself "she's a sweet girl." Let me just put this out there right now... I hate that. When I was in high school people always called me cute. They said I was sweet and cute. Now, I'm not knocking sweet and cute, but when you've been sweet and cute for as long as I have, at some point you just want to be badass. Just to mess everyone up. You know? They look at you and see sweet and cute and totally don't expect badass. I know badass isn't feminine, but it's way more fun! And when I say badass, I mean a force to be reckoned with if the occasion arises. I'm not going to see you on the street, start bitch slapping you and then go all ninja. That would be a bit socially awkward for both of us. I'm just saying, its nice to have a little badass

DAY 35 - Running Barefoot on Trails Again - Yippee!!

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Barefoot jumps with style! Who needs a bike? Got my barefoot trail running fiyah fix on today! My husband and I dropped off the kids at our local KidsPark and went for a barefoot trail run. I laughed so hard on this run. This was a chill run. No pushing it. Just having fun. We explored and goofed off. I had the best time ever. We've had an unusual amount of rain lately. It left these trails washed out and obscenely muddy in some places. So in addition to the regular horse poop hazards and poison oak, there were also post holes, decomposed granite washouts, and water ponds. Yeah. Lots of water ponds. I probably should have wore my swimsuit. There were lots of fun muddy spots to squish through as well. And the best part? The secret jumps the fringe mountain bikers left behind. I couldn't resist. I had to run a woop. Oh yeah. BMXers watch out. This girl's got some serious style! Did I mention we had fun? We totally did. We weren't even a half a mile into our run

DAY 34 - Tabata Run and a Gym Workover

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Tabata run on grass. Finally a decent sprint! I finally changed the lightbulb in my brain. Yeah. The one that popped right about the time I started the Paleo thing. Well, actually, I can't blame it on Paleo anymore since my memory and concentration issues have pretty much subsided now that I'm over two months in, but I was starting to question my sanity there for a while. Its all good now. And my brilliant self finally discovered how to get my interval training in without wrecking my heel or knee. I can't tell you how happy this makes me! I'm back to Fiyah! Most of you already know when it comes to barefoot running... I like it rough. I've always stuck to the chip and seal or concrete because historically uneven trails or running on sand or grass inevitably lead to my knee or heel pain. I figured tearing up my feet was less price to pay compared to a swollen knee or a sore heel. Superficial wounds just seem easier to take for me. My thought was that my plantar