Friday, October 27, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Bupa Great South Run
After seeing this I thought I'd write my own little bit on running. In particular, last weekend's Bupa Great South Run in Portsmouth. It's a 10 mile road run around the Southsea area on the south coast of England, taking in the entire seafront itself as well as Old Portsmouth.
This year is the second year I've done it (1hr 26 first time round, 1hr 21 this) and the first time I've done it barefoot.
Oh yes. Barefoot.
Why? Well that's not really a question that has a one line answer but here goes nuthin' :)
I've always felt more comfortable barefoot - well, yes, most people do (probably), but I mean when training. Be it a Circuits class, teaching or running. Admittedly I'd not done a huge amount of road running barefoot - mostly up to 4 miles and more recently up to about 7 miles. So far I'd really enjoyed it and the odd time it rained I'd even enjoyed being a child and splashing through the puddles :P
But 10 miles? Hmm. Well, why not I thought! I'd given myself an aim - run at least once a week, starting small (a mile, maybe more) on grass and then grass/concrete and finally just concrete. Of course, life does get in the way and that never really happened. Through June I did manage some grass running and had moved on to concrete (Southsea seafront) throughout the warmer months but in hindsight, you can never do too much!
To be blunt though, the last three weeks were really the only time I put foot to concrete and went out running. Thankfully, years of training that way have kept my feet strong enough not to worry about blisters and cycling 10/15 miles a day had kept my legs and back in trim.
On the day it rained. Really, properly, torrentially, threw it down. This was new - I like running in the rain, it's cooling and once you're wet, you're wet - but I'd been pretty lucky with my barefoot running in that I'd had the odd shower, run through the odd puddle and it'd been windy, but never like that! Over the course of 10 miles I was worried that my skin would soften too much and cause me problems - well, it didn't happen. Not even slightly! Bit of a bonus that.
Would I do it again? Yup! I'll be doing it next year - hoping to better my time and I'll be training harder and longer and putting in some half-marathon distances in as well as I'd really like to do a full marathon barefoot (crazy is as crazy does).
One thing I like to mention is that we weren't born with shoes - nor did we evolve initially with them, and there have been many runners like myself (and I'm no natural runner, believe me) so it's not that weird. Modern lifestyles and made us softer, less tolerant of nature and I'm not subscribing to it. :)
Oh, and I would do your research before casting off your shoes - there's nothing worse that getting hurt trying something new! ;)
This year is the second year I've done it (1hr 26 first time round, 1hr 21 this) and the first time I've done it barefoot.
Oh yes. Barefoot.
Why? Well that's not really a question that has a one line answer but here goes nuthin' :)
I've always felt more comfortable barefoot - well, yes, most people do (probably), but I mean when training. Be it a Circuits class, teaching or running. Admittedly I'd not done a huge amount of road running barefoot - mostly up to 4 miles and more recently up to about 7 miles. So far I'd really enjoyed it and the odd time it rained I'd even enjoyed being a child and splashing through the puddles :P
But 10 miles? Hmm. Well, why not I thought! I'd given myself an aim - run at least once a week, starting small (a mile, maybe more) on grass and then grass/concrete and finally just concrete. Of course, life does get in the way and that never really happened. Through June I did manage some grass running and had moved on to concrete (Southsea seafront) throughout the warmer months but in hindsight, you can never do too much!
To be blunt though, the last three weeks were really the only time I put foot to concrete and went out running. Thankfully, years of training that way have kept my feet strong enough not to worry about blisters and cycling 10/15 miles a day had kept my legs and back in trim.
On the day it rained. Really, properly, torrentially, threw it down. This was new - I like running in the rain, it's cooling and once you're wet, you're wet - but I'd been pretty lucky with my barefoot running in that I'd had the odd shower, run through the odd puddle and it'd been windy, but never like that! Over the course of 10 miles I was worried that my skin would soften too much and cause me problems - well, it didn't happen. Not even slightly! Bit of a bonus that.
Would I do it again? Yup! I'll be doing it next year - hoping to better my time and I'll be training harder and longer and putting in some half-marathon distances in as well as I'd really like to do a full marathon barefoot (crazy is as crazy does).
One thing I like to mention is that we weren't born with shoes - nor did we evolve initially with them, and there have been many runners like myself (and I'm no natural runner, believe me) so it's not that weird. Modern lifestyles and made us softer, less tolerant of nature and I'm not subscribing to it. :)
Oh, and I would do your research before casting off your shoes - there's nothing worse that getting hurt trying something new! ;)
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
WoW:BC delayed
If, and only if, the above line makes sense can you read the following. Go nuts. See you in January ;)
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