Most of the readers of this blog have probably attended an “Expo” preceeding a race. Typically, Expos are held in a large room where vendors of various kinds of running-related wares display their products, hoping to make sales or at least gather leads for future sales. Usually the larger the race the larger the Expo. I recently ran the Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half Marathon. There were 21,000 runners. The Expo was held in the Philadelphia Convention Center. It was huge.

Running Expos are very similar to trade shows in other industries. Over the years my job has required me to participate in numerous capacities at trade shows in my field (transportation technology). I’ve setup and broken down booths, staffed booths, or just attended in order to learn about the latest “stuff”. Typically vendors have something to giveaway, or a contest, or some other gimmick designed to make sales, develop leads, or just make a “splash”.  Giveaways can be just about anything from pens to stuffed animals to USB sticks to coasters to mugs.

When my kids were younger they liked it when I went to a trade show because I typically came home with various giveaway items.  After awhile my wife and I dubbed these items “treasures” because they had nominal value but made great little gifts/toys for the children.

So where am I going with this you ask.

Recently, there was a small Expo (and a lot more) in conjunction with the NYC Barefoot Run.  The Expo was held at the South Street Seaport.  There were vendors of minimalist shoes (note I didn’t say “barefoot running shoes”;  the subject of a coming rant) and toe socks.  There were authors of many of the popular books on barefoot running, including McDougall, Howell, Barefoot Ken Bob, and Michael Sandler.  There were even vendors for wine and beer.  I said hello to the authors and grabbed a few items like refrigerator magnets, etc.  I entered a contest or two.  But the table that I really wanted to visit was the Merrell table.  The reason was that I have been reading about one of the shoes in their upcoming new lineup, the Road Glove.  I’ve read some really good reviews about this model but I didn’t know when they were going to be available.  I was hoping it was soon because I’m looking for something to wear this Winter when barefooting isn’t possible.

Unfortunately the Road Glove won’t be out until Spring.  So unless a pair drops out of the sky I’m out of luck.

But all was not lost.  The nice lady at the Merrell table was giving out free “running metronomes”.  The purpose of the metronomes  is to give an audible beat at a selectable rate, or cadence.  Much of the literature about running form suggests that running at a fairly high cadence, around 180, improves running efficiency and makes it easier to run “lightly”.

I’ve used a number of cadence tools over the last couple years.  I have a couple of iPhone apps that play songs from my iTunes music collection that have a beat close to 180.  This is nice but it requires that I take my iPhone and earphones on the road.  The Merrell metronome is MUCH simpler.

Once you turn the metronome on you can select the cadence you desire.  The sound is a chirp, the volume of which can be controlled.

There is also a phone jack so you can practice stealth cadence listening. 

The bottom of the unit is a clip making it easy to attach to the collar of your shirt, close to your ear.

And if all of this isn’t enough, this little diddy has another feature that I now put to good use.  It has a “beat” function.  This function changes the chirp sound after a selectable number of counts.  I use this feature to practice my breathing cadence.  I usually breath with a 3-2 pattern, three strides inhale, two strides exhale.  Thus, I set the beat to 5 and then I know that I should start the breathing cycle whenever the special chirp comes around.  I’ve taken this little “treasure” out on all my runs since the NYC event and I really like it a lot.  I’ve been much more successful at maintaining a constant cadence and breathing pattern.  Not surprisingly, on a 5-miler earlier this week all 5 mile splits were within 2 seconds of each other.

I haven’t been happier about something free in quite a while.  Thank you Merrell!

So while I’m still going to be looking for a shoe to try during the Winter months here in the Northeast at least I’ll have a good way to keep whatever shoe I find moving at the correct cadence.

Includes a Doc who is BFR favorable and does it himself.

http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2011/jun/21/barefoot-running-39545-vi-29790/

So I haven’t posted in over 2 months. So I didn’t follow through on some promised content. So I’m a miserable failure. Go ahead, say it, you’re a miserable failure! Well, here are four, um, reasons why:

1 – Huaraches

I’ve been perfecting my tying technique. This is more art than science and I want to get it just right. Like fine wine, it takes time and patience.

2 – New Minimalist Shoe Designs

It seems the major shoe manufacturers have been jumping on the minimalist bandwagon. Well, at least to some extent. So I’ve been researching. reading reviews. Trying some for myself. I’ve got to figure out what I’m going to wear when it gets really cold, when I just can’t handle an unshod
run. This takes time as well.

3 – Blogs

I’ve been too busy reading other blogs. It seems the quantity and quality of running blogs, and particularly barefoot/minimalist running blogs, have been increasing rapidly. It seems every time I sit down to write, I look around at the blogs I read and discover another new one. I go read all of that content and never get to mine. I learn a lot from these other sites though. So I blame these other runner-bloggers for my failure. They
have gained and kept my interest. Here is a sampling of the culprits:

Barefoot Josh (This guy is wacky and entertaining)

Running and Rambling (This is the Go-To place for reviews on shoes and other running stuff. You can learn a lot here)

Runner Dude (One of the best out there. Great interviews and other info)

Maine Runner (Great looking blog. Lots of good graphics of his runs. I’m jealous of the surroundings!)

Freyed Laces (A lady “Ironman”. Great site)

Abby Normally (Love the title. Can’t be anything wrong with a runner that’s passionate about Theology and Philosphy)

Barefoot Fresca (This lady’s blog is getting better and better)

Barefoot Running University (Jason is one of my barefoot running heros…… except for the kilt part…)

Two Feet Two Wheels (Someday I want to meet Richard. Cool guy!)

Trail to Wellness (Ewa is a really strong woman and great blogger)

Runto the Border (A Canadian living in Kansas City. What more can you say?)

Barefoot Journey (Alan is an inspiration to me. I’m glad he’s back)

If you’re not familiar with any of these sites I urge you to try them out. But I warn you, it might be addicting. You might end up being a deadbeat like me.

4 – Daydreams

Every time I sit down to write I end up dreaming about running through the Copper Canyon.

Or finishing my first barefoot marathon.

Or running in a kilt.

(all three of which are probably equally unlikely)

So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

But in reality, while I have been busy with a large, highly visible project at work and with other distractions, I have no good excuses. And its time to fix it. So I’m “re-launching” Downtown Runner this week. I’m planning some things I hope will make a contribution to the runningblogosphere and provide a smile or two. Along the way I’ll continue to share my love of running and barefooting. So those of you that have stuck with me through my absence, thank you. I will try to do better!
(and tell a friend)

In the first two parts of this series, a covered how I thought I was prepared for a May 2nd half marathon, and then how I broke a bone in my foot while running a 5K on April 17th.  So now I’m sporting a new minimalist shoe.

I took a week off work so I could start healing and not have to deal with my long commute from Northern New Jersey to lower Manhattan.   That was a good thing for my foot, but at the other end of my body the games began.  Here’s just a sample of what was going on there:

• Am I too old for this “barefooting” stuff?
• Am I too heavy?  Do I put too much stress on my feet because of my weight?  (My BMI is right at the top end of the normal scale)
• Did I do too much too soon?  Should I have done more speed work?  Core workouts?
• Do I have a bone density problem?  More Calcium?  Vitamin D?  Sunlight?
• Should I give up on barefooting/minimalist running and get some conventional shoes?
• Should I take running a marathon off my “bucket list”?

The list could go on and on.  I can’t help it.  By training I am an engineer.  Its in my nature to want everything to work as designed.  And when it doesn’t work you have to figure out why.  And change it so it works better next time.  Or sometimes face the reality that the design isn’t appropriate, or the parts are too old and worn, or the device is being used incorrectly.

So I’ve analyzed it and analyzed it.  Some of my mental questions are easily answered.  I don’t have a bone density problem.  I eat a well balanced diet.  I take Vitamin D supplements daily and while I don’t get tons of direct sun I do get out often.

I’m not too old.  I know a lot of runners older than I that run more, faster, and BF/minimalist.

While I should and do plan to lose some of these extra pounds I don’t think that is the main cause of the problem.   Once again, I know lots of runners with higher BMI than I.

So what happened?  Well, of course, there is no way to know exactly.  It could just be a freak accident, one in a million. It also could have been something that was slowly happening over time, although the doc said the x-ray didn’t show any evidence of that.

I believe that Barefoot Josh hit it on the head in his comment on Part II when he said:

“Maybe in your excitement, you pushed off a bunch to generate more speed. I do that too when in vffs.”

I hadn’t done a lot of speed work prior to the race, mostly because I didn’t expect to be running very fast in the planned half marathon.   So perhaps in my exuberance I pushed off just a little too hard early in the 5K.  Maybe there was a really small stress fracture developing and I pushed it over the edge.  Then, by pushing to finish, including a sprint to the finish, I probably made the break worse.

So what do I do now?  Well, first, I’ve got to stop the head games.  I can’t change my situation.  Have to heal first.  No amount of thinking/analyzing/worrying/fearing is going to change it.  I happened.

But I do have to figure out what to do different/better.  In Part IV I’ll go over what I’m planning.

Anyone in the audience had a SF?  If so, does any of this sound familiar?  What did you do when you started back?

Image by selected pixels via Flickr

It’s been a little rough weather-wise the last few weeks here in the Northeast.  First we had a couple of big snowstorms.  Now I love snow.  Always have, always will.  I love looking at it fall, and the way it covers everything.  I even enjoy shoveling it.

But I have to admit that at this point in my barefoot running “career” I’m not quite ready for a lot of running in my favorite white stuff.  Maybe that will change over time.  But for now, when the ground is frozen and/or snow covered, its either my Vibrams or the dreadmill.

Then over the weekend we had an intense rain/wind storm.

Some wind gusts were clocked at over 70 miles per hour.  On Sunday morning we awoke to a scene out of a disaster movie.

Every block had major storm damage, from downed trees, to downed powerlines, to damage from debris being blown against buildings.

Most of the town was without power until today.  We were very fortunate to have had power for most of that period.  But our cable, internet, and phone service was out until this morning.

I stayed home from work on Monday because it was difficult to get to the city around the damage.  Then, since I didn’t get my long run in during the weekend, I got up early and did 8.6 miles at 5 am before work.  But I couldn’t go barefoot because with the power out in most locations and debris was everywhere so I didn’t want to take any chances.

So when I returned to work today and it turned out to be sunny with temperatures in the 60′s, you KNOW where I spent my lunch hour.  And the BEST part?  The ground (pavement, concrete, and pavers) along the waterfront was WARM!  So I kicked off my Vibrams and did a quick 4 mile run.  Oh what a feeling!  The feedback from the warm ground is so refreshing and freeing.  Even though this was sort of a recovery run I felt like I could have gone another 4 miles easily.  But my boss might not have taken that as a good excuse for being late.  So I enjoyed the 4 miles while they lasted.  Then I slipped on my Injinji recovery sock and my “work” pair of Five Fingers and headed back to the office.

I am SOO looking forward to Spring.  My first race (River Edge Run 5K) is in mid-April.  Right now I’m trying to decide whether to make it my first truly barefoot race or play it safe and wear the KSOs.

Warm Ground Rocks!

Downtown Runner

(Your Mileage May Vary)

I’m a big fan of National Geographic magazine.  In addition to being a runner, I love photography.  NG has some of the best photography on the planet.  So I was flipping through the pages of my latest yellow volume of photo goodness and came across something that might very well change my life, my running life even.  I give you the Gravity Defyer Shoe!

What a revelation!  These babies are the answer to every runner’s problems.  Check this out:

After reading about these shoes I’m wondering why I am messing around with this barefooting and minimalist stuff.  Why should I work so hard to learn how to run properly and build up the muscles in my ankles and calves when I can just utilize a set of three springs to do the work for me?  Combine that with the 7 Reasons and 6 MORE Reasons we shouldn’t run barefoot and I think its time I drop $120 for a pair of these revolutionary, smart, patented, GUARANTEED, shoes.  After all, the ad also says that this footwear:

• Relieves all pain
• Eases joint & spine pressure
• Reduces fatigue and tiredness
• Make you more active
• Gives you more energy
• Makes you appear taller
• Makes you jump higher, walk and run faster
• Have instant comfort
• Will cool your feet & reduce foot odor
• Elevate your performance

Did you get that?  All pain gone!  More energy!  Yep, time to drop both pairs of Five Fingers in the garbage.  I’m so excited!!!

The running world is abuzz today with the news that the journal Nature is publishing the results of research that compared the foot strike of runners in a variety of situations, including barefoot, in Vibram Five Fingers, and with conventional running shoes.  Their conclusions are very favorable for those of us that maintain that barefooting is the most natural way to run and that doing so reduces stresses on the knees and other body parts.

The primary Harvard professor involved with the research is Dr. Daniel Lieberman.  Here is a GREAT video summarizing Dr. Leiberman’s studies.

Let me know what you think in the comments. Are you convinced?

I haven’t posted in a while because I was on a business trip most of last week.  Hopefully now that I’m back I’ll be more regular.  But I can report on the one run that I was able to squeeze in while traveling.

I love to run in new places.  And since most of my travel is business-related, I’m often couped up in meetings and work long days, so a little fresh air is a welcome change if I can fit it in.   I always take my Garmin 305 watch with me so I can record not only the distance, speed, and heart rate but also where I ran (geographically).  Its fun to look back at the maps of previous runs in places I may never go again.  Even though I’m a “techie” kind of guy I’m still amazed at what can be done with GPS.

This trip was to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I had been there a few times ago but it was many years ago.  It was good to visit the southwest again, enjoy some real New Mexican food (the Mexican food in NY and NJ is nothing like what you get in the southwest, no matter how hard they try), and meet some new people, including some runners.  I even met an attorney-runner who is planning to run the New Jersey marathon in May.  I am planning to run the half marathon at the same event.

Photo by Occam (flickr.com/photos/occam)

What I had forgotten, though, was that Albuquerque is in the “high desert”.  The officially listed altitude for the city is 5,280 feet, one mile.  I didn’t even think about this until I was getting dressed to hit the road in my Vibram Five Fingers.  I haven’t run at altitude often so I wondered how it would go.

Click for Larger View

The run was great.  It was almost dusk when I started out.  Mid 40′sF.  I wore just shorts and a long sleeve shirt for the first time in a couple months.  Pushed the start button on the Garmin and headed out.  It was “rush hour” and there were a lot of traffic lights so I had to stop often to wait to cross the suburban streets.  Because of the stopping I don’t think I could really feel the difference in altitude.  By the time my body started to slow down because of oxygen debt I would have to stop.  My average pace ended up being around 11 minutes a mile which is about 2 minutes slower than my normal everyday pace, so it makes sense that I didn’t feel the effects of the higher plain.

I was glad that I had my Vibrams on because the shoulders of the roads and sidewalks had a lot of pebbles.  I thought it kind of ironic that I would find it easier to run barefoot on the streets of NYC than out in the suburbs of New Mexico.

The only problem I had was that I forgot the name of one of the streets where I had planned to turn.  So I got a little lost.  But never fear, GPS is here!  I hit the “go home” function on my watch and soon I was back on the path back to the hotel (albeit not the path I had planned).

I got back in time to shower, slip my other pair of VFFs on (I have a pair that I keep nice so I can wear it to and from work, after hours, etc.) and met my colleagues to go out to a great restaurant called “El Pinto” for a fantastic meal.

A good time was had by all.

So the winds were by no means calm but they were much better than the weekend. It was sunny and around 30F. So I decided to go out instead of settling for the dreaded treadmill. And I’m so glad I did. I had just the right amount of gear on so that it was comfortably cool.

I ran what I call my 3 Bridges Run. I start in front of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and head northeast along the sidewalk/boardwalk. I run along the East River and then turn around at some point, depending on how far I want the run to go (and how much time left in my lunch hour…).

3 Bridges Run Map - Click for a Larger, Clearer View

Since I had my new trusty point and shoot with me (thanks to my Santa-wife) I can show you the bridges:

The Brooklyn Bridge

Under the Brooklyn Bridge

The Manhattan Bridge

Under the Manhattan Bridge

The Williamsburg Bridge

Under the Williamsburg Bridge

So I continued past the third bridge up to Houston Street which is about 2.5 miles and then turned around.  Then on the way back I realized that with the sun shining it might just be warm enough for barefooting.  So I stopped about a mile from “home” and “shed my shod”.  I finished the run barefoot.  It was definitely chilly but as usual barefooting felt so great.  And of course the looks on the faces of the people all bundled up in their winter jackets, earmuffs, and Ugg boots were priceless.  I’m not very good with my camera shooting video (while I run) (yet) but here is a short clip from the barefoot portion of the run.

OK, so if you saw my post from yesterday, and experienced your first glimpse of the, uh, unusual shoes I wear to run in, then I congratulate you on your return.  After all, some people wouldn’t blame you for quickly closing your browser and never looking back.

I have to admit that my shoes, which are made by a company called Vibram, are different.  I’ll be talking about these shoes more in the days to come but for now I want to talk about how people react to them.

You see, if I could get away with it I would wear these shoes everywhere.  They are the best shoes I’ve every worn.  I haven’t worn my regular running shoes in about 4 months and I haven’t worn any of my other casual shoes either.  I do have to wear dress shoes on certain days at my job.  But they actually recently changed the dress code so that on most days the guys are allowed to wear “sneakers”.  I have decided that my Vibrams qualify as sneakers.

So my Vibrams get a lot exposure to people that have never seen a pair before.  Since I commute to Manhattan everyday from the suburbs, they are seen by people on the bus, in the Port Authority Bus Terminal, on the subway platform, on the subway train, on the street, and in and around my office building.

Now I’ve long ago past the point where I care too much about what people think of me.  I’m pretty comfortable in my skin, settled with what I think, what I wear, and how I act, etc.  And that’s exactly why it is so fun to wear these shoes in all of these places.  I’ve pretty much come to the place where I almost forget that I’m wearing them until I notice that someone is staring at my feet, or they come up to me and ask me about them.

Here’s just a sampling of reactions and conversations that have occurred since I started going minimalist:

• A lady on the elevator at my office:  “Do your toes really go in those fingers”?
• A street vendor outside the gym where I go at lunch to change and shower, after watching me stand on the step adjusting my MP3 player and running watch:  “Me encanta tu tenis.”  (I had to look it up later)
• Two NYPD officers on the subway.  I overheard them talking about the shoes for a few minutes before one of them approached me to ask me if they could see the soles of the Vibrams.  The other one said she was going to buy a pair for her mother…..
• A guy in the Bus Terminal, who caught up to me to say he owned a pair but wanted to know what it felt like to wear them in public.  Evidently he was too embarrassed.
• A little old lady on the elevator:  “Don’t you think you should get some socks that match your outfit?”

Of course, I also get the obvious questions like “Are they comfortable?”  (yes), “Are thy warm?” (yes, especially when I wear socks too), and “Where did you get those?” (online direct from Vibram).  And quite a few women have said that they are cute.  But I’m sure that was just because they didn’t know what else to say.  No one in their right mind would call these cute.  Unusual, yes.  Unique, yes.  Eclectic, maybe.  But not cute.  Just ask my son.  He just sighs every time I walk into the room.  He just doesn’t understand.  Hardly anybody does.

So thinking about this topic has given me an idea.  I’m going to put up a list in one of my sidebars of reactions/comments/questions that Vibram wearers have witnessed.  So all of you barefoot/minimalist runners out there who have Vibrams I want to hear from you.  In the comments (or on the Contact page), describe a scene in which your Vibrams were praised/questioned/laughed at, etc.  Anything that is interesting, funny, embarrassing, you name it.  I’ll put them in a list, along with links to any relevant blogs that submitters author.  Maybe I’ll have a monthly or yearly “Vibram Hall of No Shame” or something like that.  We’ll see where it goes.