The barefoot Kid

Just when I thought today's only activity would be a dull trainer spin, in comes The Kid (aka Mrs Longshanks), announcing "I want to go for a barefoot run with you, Dad".......so off we went, down beside the river at dusk on the smooth path.......

Well, it's all true, what they say about kids being natural runners - her barefooting style is perfect, smooth, relaxed, light and fluid and she breezed through a gentle 4 km with only a couple of stops, a couple of spiky stones and a whole big bunch of chatter. She even has the loose relaxed arms of a seasoned marathoner. Beautiful to watch. Few things could ever make me happier.

Welcome to the Dark Side.......

Feet

I had an hour tonight to marvel at feet. I started gently and ran the 12km Causeway loop barefoot for the first time. 6 months ago, I couldn't walk across a carpark barefoot, and I've not gotten "tough" feet at all. It's all technique, and tonight helps to validate that some of it is sinking in.

Soft landings, high cadence, taking the impact through the midfoot and the bent knee - it really is close to effortless (mostly, I just got hungry!). One of the most fascinating and beguiling things about barefoot running is the complete counter-intuitiveness of it. Most assumptions I (an ordinary person) would make about it are dead wrong, and happily, I'm proving them to myself.

Lunch.

 

 

 

No blistering, though my soles have that weird tingly feeling that will likely last till tomorrow, and all heaviness has gone from my legs after yesterday.

Now could I do four of these in a row?

Hilly Hundred

The long ride renaissance continues - I wanted to try the Roley hills ride again, this time taking it right up to the hundred and giving it a bit of a squeeze on the way. 102.5km, 4:01:26, average 25.4km/h with a top of 69km/h (I was a bit gutless on the descent, this time.) Climb on this one (thanks to IW's Garmin last time) is about 1000m.

The hills, without the prospect of any rests (last time IW was doing a slow grind session in the saddle and I was pinging off), were pigs. The big Kalamunda hill (at 18km - about 2km long) is just plain nasty. This is how you know it's coming :

Surprise!

A chap came out of his driveway while I took this photo and said "singlespeed, huh?" I said "yeeesss", to which he replied "Have Fun!" and walked quickly inside.
I think he was dialling an ambulance.

After the pig, the ride is relatively gentle rollers (relatively, I said). The singlespeed makes this fairly hard work, because I've got to power up, or fall off, and spin furiously down, to maintain some useful speed. Gotta get gears....
The road surface is pretty coarse in places, but all flat with reasonable shoulders / traffic visibility. I only had on bag of rubbish thrown at me today - from a ute - surprise surprise..... I was target practice for a bogan.

The reward of this course comes from country like this:

Canning Mills Road

And also from the sensational descent back through Kalamunda. Tip for young players (me) : toss down an espresso hammer gel about 5 minutes before the descent. By the time you've hit the flats at the bottom, you'll have the heartrate of a hummingbird.
My new favourite thing : If they served these in cafe's, I'd be there....

Recovery from this ride has been OK, so far. A litre of water, 2 big glasses of V8 original, half a packet of plain rice crackers and a beer (they just went together so well!) and a chocolate cookie. Quads are sore, but I'll so how they go tomorrow. Fuel on the road was : 3 litres water total trip, with an electrolyte tablet at start, 30km and halfway; banana at 30km, chocolate / peanut butter slice at 20km, halfway and 70km, hammer gel at 75km.  A month ago, I would have done the whole thing on a litre of water......

The next challenge is the 250km out past Toodyay - probably to be tackled a bit at a time. I figure if I slip in one of these rides every other week, in place of my long run, I can keep up the endurance fitness and enjoy more of this.

I am gritty with sweat-salt and dust, I have a shocking shorts tan-line, my bumhole is in the back of my neck and I stink. It's a good day.

wheels weekend

Big run in Kings Park Saturday, while the kid was at singing / dancing class - this is turning into a bit of weekly torture in the heat, bu the trail variation is good fun. Getting to know the park layout better, so there's a few sections that are just plain old grind, then others that allow a bit of "Yippee" - flat out blast - usually with the legs flinging about just to stay upright. The combination of the sand slog and the bursts of quick-step make for a good tough session.

After the customary hot chips at Matilda Bay when class gets out, we fell in the water several times off the end of the marina pontoon. This kept the kid laughing and softened my calves, which were a bit unhappy with my running style.

Matilda Bay - Hot chips with salt water

As an aside.......things I've decided I dislike:

1. $10 minimum charges to pay by card in a shop. I don't carry cash, and being screwed by stores too tight to offer a decent service ticks me right off. If there was any option - I'd always go elsewhere.
2. kicking a big jellyfish while swimming. A truly odd and disconcerting sensation, particularly when it coincides with a big string of seaweed coiling around one's neck....... eek!

Big night out at a Western Austrlaian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) performance with the kid - wow! Our neighbour plays viola and helps us get in cheap. Took a walk during the last informal piece and found a spot in the choir stalls to watch from the orchestra's point of view - good fun.

Today is fuelling up - we both needed a big breakfast - cleaning around the house and prepping for a ride up the hills this afternoon. I'll take the fixie up Kalamunda hill to Roleystone again and run around the river loop on the way back to bring the total up to the century. No doubt there'll be a report later.....

(really I'm trying to emulate IW - who powered through 141 MILES today in pouring rain.......sheesh...)

say ahhh...

Today there is an inspection going on in my townhouse, since I am clearly, after a year of bi-monthly inspections, still intent on destroying my rental property.
Now I don't mind an occaisional inspection and I've happily drained the toilet bowls to scrub the gunk left from the previous tenant - it's the attitude of the notifications and feedback afterward that frustrate me - an adversarial mix of "musts" and "if nots" that gets me.

The fact that this is the common style of communication perhaps indicates that trashing the joint and skipping out on the rent is the norm......

...or maybe they're out to get me.....

After Dinner / Before Dinner

Last night, dangerously soon after a big dinner, I went out for a gentle run. I ran to the 5km turnaround and felt OK, so I went to the 12k turnaround. At the 20km turnaround, I figured it was time to not be silly. 1:36:04 ended up being a good night out, though my calves are rubbish today - wanted to put in a squirt home (since I've been falling into the start fast / die home trap), so I must've ended up rolling up onto my toes a bit too much.

Happily, I found the "float" sensation again between 12 and 15km - like being pulled up by the head and using the feet simply to paddle some forward motion rather than carry weight - really amazing. I had alternating patches of weightlessness and heaviness - about 200m weightless and 100m heavy. This seems to be happening just as I start to get tired and at about a 70% speed. Not able yet to control the sensation, but it'll sure be fun to continue working on it.

Had a solid day at work today, though one dumb moment will cost me a few hours tomorrow - a moment of inattention while molding saw me crash the tiny core pin inside the mold and crush it, so now I have to re-make it. Tiny and detailed (and steel), so slow to make, but good therapy.

Took a gentle spin around the river tonight on the bike to ease my calves out. Storms building over the east hills provided a great light show, and I was able to continue my infatuation with the panorama feature on the phone...

Perth city from South Perth

Was planning to take a short barefoot run immediately after the ride tonight, but it started getting too late for dinner and a few bits of work. In triathlon-world a ride/run combination like this is called a "brick" - perhaps because it feels like passing one - one day I'll be organised enough to experience one.

A huge pasta/veges/salami/ham/olives/sundried tomato/bok choy dinner has me feeling sleepy already, so, with some accounts still be done tonight...........

Quiet

After a fortnight of minute-by-minute scheduling of workouts, social engagements, kid activities and work, IW has flown home and with the Kid at Mum's, the house is eerily quiet.

It's been a great fortnight. I've learned a lot about nutrition (and the value of eating a lot) and how to better manage big training loads. I've also gotten plenty of sleep - a novelty - and the difference this makes, even more so than a full fuel tank, is awesome. Sure, I used to have my "catch-up night" when I got run down, but to have a solid 8 hours every night for an extended period is awesome.

I haven't blogged during this period about the training. There's been some crackers, and a re-awakening of how much I love long touring rides on the bike.

Two notable sessions were on new geography for me - the first a trail run on the first stages of the Bibbulmum track from Kalamunda (about 1:45:00 on a stinking hot afternoon) and the second a 93km ride up through the hills to Roleystone and return.
The Bibbulmum track is supposedly un-losable - marked every 20 metres and built for dummies. We lost trail after 40 minutes and meandered home through some real lumpy terrain courtesy of some (thankfully) very visible powerlines. Pattering through this sort of country is my idea of heaven, so I'll be finding my way up there again real soon (probably with a guide). A steady 30-40km out here would be a solid session - can it be done in Fingens?

The big ride was a bit of an unknown for me - I was astride the single-speed messenger bike (on a frame not even provided with water bottle lugs), heading out onto some big buggers of hills. The ups didn't worry me so much, but the descending on this machine was a concern. In the end, it was a good ride. IW suffered in the heat, but we made it through (I only lost her a teensy bit right at the end, but she found her way home...), finishing with a 74km/hr drop down through Kalamunda which got the heartrate up quite a bit.

In amongst these milestone sessions were lots of smaller runs, rides and even a beach swim at Cottesloe, amongst the sculpture exhibition. With the Kid in tow and Fish and Chips at sunset, the beach was a grand day out. Trips to the zoo and Fremantle, plus meeting up with old and new friends (and engaging in critical cultural exchanges like the Tim Tam Slam and Bogan Spotting) rounded out a bloody good fortnight.

So IW survived Australia with only one large mammal attack (a dog who found her tasty during the 250K ride out past Toodyay) and no painful encounters with invertebrate or plant species. Quite an achievement.

Thanks IW.

Advertising

If you want to find some one who's into cats, you'd advertise "I love cats", right?
Well, in the grand world that is the interweb, I bumped into a lady with a tagline that read "2 x ironmans, training for 800km ride". How is one not to be sold on that?

After a lot of sharing of remote training (and, I admit, a growing sense of awe at the staggering training load), that lady it now visiting Perth for some hot weather preparation for Ironman Texas in may.
Hence, there has been a much improved turnout from the home team for sessions:

• 12.5km Causeway loop VFF's and barefoot 1:06:00
• 73.5km Cottesloe / Freo / South Perth ride (with the fixie chasing the gears all the way!) 2:53:00
• and a stretchout 4.5km barefooter this morning to shake the bugs out before a hard 14km this evening with the club (Ironwoman - henceforth known as IW) peeled off a solid 1:10:00 on the bike while I slacked off.

So, apart from having a house full of a truly stunning piece of bicycle engineering, and being filled with every conceivable piece of running, cycling and swimming clothing, the kid and I are having a bunch of fun with our visitor.
We may even take the time away from sweating to be tourists....

Wanted: Discipline

No no! Not like that..  just the everyday "get things done" sort.
I've been patchy in every way recently, distracted and tired and becoming frustrated. With the sore achilles I lost the thread of the programmed training and I've quickly gotten out of the habit of planning ahead for days when the kid is on board. Hence, tonight I am falling asleep at the desk trying to catch up on the work left over from today, having not run today and now simply too buggered to climb on the trainer.

Mind you, when I do get out, it is feeling extraordinary - (which should be motivation enough, y'think?) - I ound the elusive "float" again on Monday night, with a gentle start winding up to a solid finish which must've been under 4min/km (must get a Garmin thingy). Noice.  Calves a little tender afterward, but nothing the next morning which would indicate anything actually damaged.

Time for bed. Sleep is the key....