Running in the heat

New job, new city, new running schedule
38 Degres 30'
42 Degres 36'
Back to shoes, not knee pain but knee feeling and no shoes in belgium.
3 more in Belgium, 45, 50, 55.
Now back to the heat, 1h02' at 8am. Not so hot, but already heat.
Now with shoes, better knee, but more general less precise feeling, more disperse. Unclear.

Back to one hour. Feel very good in the legs, in the body in general.
What I will do now is to alternate 1/2h bf with 1h shod.
Knee problem probably due to cut Achilles tendon.
Just ran 30' bf. Feels great.
Went twice to 1h shod, then 30' bf, everyday.
1h shod again. Ok. So far, so good, but beginning to feel the knees. Not sure what to do at that stage. Knee is still not OK, and clearly feeling worst after running bf. In addition, I just started again to play in-line roller hockey. Thus, I will keep the running low for a while.

The dildo works (at least that's what she sais)!

So, after five sessions of dildoing, I can say that my knee is much better.

Apparently, my muscles were too stiff and needed some relaxing and to recover their tonus, responsiveness. Interestingly, this explanation given to my by the practitioner is completely different from the one provided by the doctor, which was that I was getting old and my knee lubricant had lost its fluidity, was becoming more solid.
Whoever is right, I don't care. What I can say is that knee and muscles are much better now. Interestingly, my dildo practitioner also said, that in order to prevent this type of problem, I should stretch more. That is indeed true. I had considerably reduced and even stopped stretching in the last year. I did that because it kind of didn't feel good any more. Now, I can stretch much better. So did I stop because I was stiff or what I stiff because I stopped stretching, I don't know, but it indeed seems to be related.

What I can not believe is that I lost more than a year and 2 half marathon, at least 1 triathlon because of this. If I had gone to see this doctor last year, ...

But you know what it is, you always feel like it will go away alone, that you can do better by yourself, ....

Damn, we should all go to the doctor more often. In fact as soon as you feel something.

Anyway, as a dear friend of mine would say, a little dildoing from time to time can bring big satisfactions in life.

Don't be afraid, try it!

Something in my old knee

So this is it, apparently, according to the doctor, I am getting old. I mean, you know that for a while, I have had knee issues. I finally went to see a doctor, did an MRI, everything. the result is: Nothing. Nothing is wrong with my knee. According to the expert, I am just getting old, and sometimes, with age, the liquid there loose some water and becomes more less fluid, more crystalline and this should be the cause of my problem. He recommends taking it easy and some manipulation, massages and heating-vibrating dildo-looking thing. We will see what it does. First appointment in two weeks.

In the mean time, I have been taking it easy and back to shoes again. It is actually a lot better. I can still feel the knee but it is just a feeling now. In the last 3 weeks, I have been running 32' with shoes at an easy pace, then the directly following day, 27' barefoot at a very easy pace with my daughter (suddenly she want to run too, it was her first time, I went really easy), Next week 55' with shoes easy pace, and yesterday 55' bf at a mean pace. It was ok and the knee old, but muscles are painful today. It is amazing how quickly you loose it, I wasn't even pushing it much yesterday.

Anyway, this is just the situation now, let's see after the dildo-massage.

Keep on running.

Knee cap NMR today

Have not been writing much lately.
I do have a big problem with my knee cap.
Going to NMR today. Sorry about that.

Knee issue again

Back to shoes
1st point, I don't like it. I really miss my 5Fs. Really, you don't the difference if you haven't tried it. I really look forward to each time I go barefoot, not shoes.
On the other side, I still felt a problem on my knee, not so much while running barefoot, but after, specially the day after. So I went back to shoes to see if it makes a difference. And it seems that it does. It seems better now, but may be it is also due to the exercises of active stretching I did after running. I did the same thing with the Achilles tendon. Going up and down on the border of stairs. Feeling that the sensations were similar, I thought about doing similar active stretches with the knee. And it seems that it helps so far. I will see how it develop.
Because of this, I didn't register to the HD/2. Once again. But last year, I register and didn't run. This year, I hope my knee will be OK by then and I could probably find a spare ticket somewhere. If you have one too many, let me know.
Let's see how the knee develops.

Frozen toesII

Whaow, it is cold now in Germany. Snowing too. I just went out. Pretty happy about it. -1 Degrees inside the city, so probably -4/-5 outside of it, where I do most of my running. Completely snow covered floor. Was pretty slippery, and combined it with running on the snow-removed street. I had cold toes during the 5 first minutes, but it quickly warms up with the run.

Went for 16km in 76 minutes. I felt great, really great. I really need to insist on the fact that despite the few issues you might have red, I really enjoy running barefoot. But really really much. It is so much nicer than shod. I haven't run with shoes since 2-3 months and really don't have any will to do so. Even today, with frozen snow covered ground, I went out with my 5F's and felt good about it.

It also seems that the superstition is broken, since I don't feel anything bad after coming back to the blog. Let's hope this will last.

Anyway, even snow covered runs feel great. This week and the next will be work intensive for me, with little time to train, but after that, I will seriously train for the Heidelberg half-marathon. See you there?

Preparing HD half 2013

I have been quite silent in the last months. Kind of superstitiously afraid of posting here that I am fine. Anyway, I though it is time to break this stupid superstition and get on with it.

So, I am back to running at least 2 and sometime 3 times per week, barefoot only and back on hills. I even went back to do some interval trainings on the track. I still have some very faint feelings on both tendon and in the right knee, but nothing worth considering. It will soon be time to register to the HD 1/2 marathon. And to get ready for it.

I hope this year will be it. See you there?

Back to normal? Again? 1st year.

So, long time not written. I actually had some issues, with the Achille tendon and the corresponding knee, the right ones. Similar kind of feelings, not pain, but at certain movements, either a slight pain or a feeling of something there. I took it easy, meaning mainly went flat, massaged both regions and also went back to shoes from time to times. It looks over now. I barely fell the knee when I serach for it and overdo it on purpose.

Two weeks ago I was in Spain for Christmas. I ran every single day, always on 5F'ed, always on flat, alternating 45' and 1h. It felt really good.
Everything is so good that today, I even went back to hills around home. I was feeling very good, good pace and even scored a pretty good time.

So it looks like I am back on track again, I even felt the will to do some intervals next time. The only problem is that it starts being cold in Heidelberg, it even snowed tonight.

Will see how it goes.

Anyway, it is more than a year now that I started running barefoot, or more precisely with 5Fs minimalistic shoes and this blog at the same time. And I want to say that I do love it. It is much more enjoyable. I love running barefoot and hope that I won't have to go back to shoes. I only wish I could have read the kind of advices provided in this blog before I started. So don't forget, 7 mm sole minimum, take it easy, start slow and flat, if you think you are ready, wait another round and think again.

Best wishes and a lot of fun running barefoot.