This evening, I ran just over a mile (2.24km to be precise) in my Vibram FiveFingers (VFF's). Here are my impressions.
1. I became immediately lighter on my feet.
This was not surprising given I knew there would be zero cushioning between me and the ground. What did surprise me though was I had less of a tendency to bounce up and down.
2. My average pace increased.
I was surprised by this. It definitely seemed to me like I was moving faster even though I was deliberately trying to go easy. Runkeeper confirmed that this particular run was the one with my fastest ever average pace of 5:35/km. My guess is that energy that is normally wasted compressing normal shoe cushioning and bouncing around was more efficiently channelled into moving me forwards.
3. I was more aware of the road surface.
Despite the several millimetres of rubber between my foot and the ground, I was much more aware of the road surface than I imagined I would be. When I ran over a twig, I certainly knew about it! Even though I've run that stretch of road dozens of times, I was shocked to discover a dip in the road I'd never noticed before. It was only slight but felt like a chasm. Perhaps it had been absorbed by the cushioning in my ordinary shoes?
4. My ankles seemed to be working harder to stabilise my feet.
I was expecting to feel some new strains but the ankle was not where I thought they'd be. Vibrams provide no ankle support whatsoever. Therefore, the surrounding muscles were forced to hold my feet in the proper position. I was expecting strain on the heel, toes or the foot muscles. My Brooks GTS Adrenalines must provide more ankle support than I realised! I'll have to allow my ankles to strengthen before logging serious mileage in the Vibrams.
5. (Update 27/1/12) My core was more engaged.
I only realised this morning that my core was probably more engaged than usual during last nights run owing to a mild abdominal tightness when I woke up! Not sure if this is related to the Vibrams or if it's just a gradual improvement in my running form with greater experience. Thought I'd mention it though.
Those were my first thoughts. Next week I'll see if I can add another kilometre to the distance and see how I get on.
Today I was invited into the Duolingo private beta. I can now crack on with a couple of the intellectual goals from The List. Today I start to learn German!
For more info, see the videos below:
The TED talk that brought Duolingo to my attention.
A more succinct description (for those short on time).
Me approaching a checkpoint. South Stack lighthouse visible in the background. The wind almost tore off my race number from my leg!
Today I completed my very first 10K race. It was also my very first trail race!
It involved dragging my backside up to the highest point of the island I grew up on. To say it was hard work would be an understatement! The climbs were steep, so steep even the serious fell-runners power-walked up them! The downhills were treacherous to say the least with loose rocks, mud, exposed roots, etc. And the wind. My God, the wind! I got properly sandblasted by the spray from the Irish Sea as well as nearly blown off my feet on occasion. To get a sense of it take a look at this screenshot from my RunKeeper page:
My actual time was 1:45:21 (I forgot to deactivate the auto pause feature!)
The views though were spectacular! I lived on Anglesey for 18 years and never ventured up Holyhead Mountain before. It goes to show how little some of us know about our immediate surroundings. Certainly food for thought.
My finishing time was 1:45:21. I'm happy with that given that 2/3 of the course had me climbing from sea level to nearly 200m and that I had to seriously apply the brakes on many of the downhills! Not sure of my overall position, I'll learn that on Monday when all the results are collated. Do I care?...
Not especially, I'm just glad to have completed it!
My finishing time
All the commemorative paraphernalia, my race number, a red wristband, the slip with my time, a commemorative dog-tag and I even got the t-shirt!
My finisher's dog-tag
As arduous as I've made it sound, it was certainly good fun! Would I do it again?...
In a heartbeat!
Update23/1/12 17:56:
The official results are in. I was 129th out of 146 runners.
I've drawn a measure of inspiration from this video:
In addition to any other challenge I set myself, I've decided I'll do eleven 30 day challenges, one each month for the remainder of this year.
February
Take one photo every day. [FAILED]
March
Try the paleo diet for a month. (See Steve Kamb's Nerd Fitness article on the subject). [FAILED]
April
Do 15 minutes of yoga every day throughout April (I'll be using Wii Fit Plus for this one). [FAILED]
May
Walk 10,000 steps every day throughout May. (I'll track this with my FitBit). [FAILED]
June
Drink eight 375ml glasses of water every day in June. [FAILED]
July
Get up no later than 06:00 every day in July (except when on night shifts). [FAILED]
August Practice piano for half an hour every day. (Using Garageband lessons). [ABANDONED]
September Avoid buying lunch throughout September. [ABANDONED]
October Avoid coffee throughout October. (This one will certainly be difficult for me). [ABANDONED]
November Write a 50,000 word novel as part of nanowrimo. The daily target is 1,667 words. All I need now is an idea and an outline but I've got ten months to figure that out! [ABANDONED]
December TBD [ABANDONED]
I'll post progress reports for each month's challenge. If I find any of the habits beneficial, I'll keep them up. I'm also open to suggestions for future 30 day challenges.
UPDATE: I've abandoned my 30 Day Challenges. See the July 3rd post.
Has fear ever stopped you from doing something you wanted?
I regret to say that several times in the past, I've allowed fear to paralyse me. Recently I've been thinking about fear and I want to share my conclusions.
What is fear for?
The one thing every animal on earth understands is fear. It is fundamental to our survival. It allows us to recognise threats. When it strikes, there are only two things you're able to do. Fight, or flee.
If fear is so great, what's the problem?
The main problem with fear, is that sometimes, fear lies. Sometimes it tells us that we are in danger when in fact no real danger exists.
Fear is learned.
One thing that's interesting about fear is that we're born fearless. I once saw a BBC documentary about phobias. In it, they put a baby in a room with a python. The baby, instead of being scared, tried to grab and eat the python. Only when the baby's mother reacted to the python with fear did the baby show any sign of apprehension.
We learn other fears too. Most insidious of all the fears we learn is the fear of failure. Ironically, we learn this fear from school. We learn that we must always give the right answer, that mistakes are bad, that we must never, ever fail.
Its this fear of failure that seeps into our souls and crops up whenever we face the unfamiliar. As with all fears, all that can be done when it strikes is to either fight or flee. Too often, we flee.
To illustrate how daft the fear of failure is, I give the example of a baby learning to walk.
When a baby learns to walk, they're not very steady, wobble around, trip over their own feet and fall down more often than not. This is good, because each stumble teaches the baby what not to do. Next time they get up they're a little less wobbly and walk a little further. They learn from every fall.
Imagine if the baby was scared of falling. He now has two options. Try to walk (fight), or stick to crawling (flee). Falling would petty much be inevitable so which option do you think the baby would choose?... That baby would never ever walk.
I've spent the morning planning how I might make progress on achieving some of the goals on my list in 2012.
Some I will tackle in due time. For example, in under 2 weeks I'll be running a 10k trail race. I've also applied for a place in the Great North Run in September which, if I'm accepted, takes care of the half-marathon goal.
Others will take some plotting.
Money is a little tight at present so until I learn to travel hack, my global exploration will have to wait.
A simple one to get started on is my barefoot running goal. Chris McDougall makes a good case for it in his book 'Born to Run'. I've even invested in a pair of Vibram FiveFingers!
My VFF KSO'S
I hereby resolve to do one training run per week in my Vibram's. Eventually, once my feet have toughened-up, I'll do a parkrun in them then who knows?...
Imagine my surprise when, this very afternoon, I found an opportunity to complete one of my 'Beyond Insane' goals. When I was walking home from the coffee shop, I saw a van advertising a SCUBA diving school not 3 miles away from my home! I've looked at their website and found that they offer a taster session as well as a reasonably-priced certification course. I might make this a gift to myself after payday in a couple of weeks!!
Finally, I'll try to dig out the photographic & video proof of my two completed 'Beyond Insane' goals from my parents attic when I'm next there.
Update 23/1/12 18:57
Photographic and video proof of my skydive and bungy jump can be found on my 'Achievements' page.
2012 is upon us so the time has come to reflect on 2011 and look forward to the year ahead.
Travel
(Red = Planes, Green = Trains, Blue = Automobiles)
View 2011 - Year in Travel in a larger map
Iceland
In February, I visited Iceland with my schoolmate Dan. Our mission, to see and photograph the aurora borealis.
We succeeded:
Aurora Borealis over Hella, Iceland. February 2011
Our first night it was raining and on the third night there was a blizzard. Conditions on the second night, as you can see, were perfect!
It was an amazing sight. The lights seem to build up gradually and appear to come up from the ground rather than descend from above as I would have expected. When they first appeared, I thought I was imagining things, it was that subtle. Eventually they built up to the impressive sight I've managed to catch on film.
I prepared in advance by studying advice on websites written by aurora photographers. Still, it took me several attempts to get a decent photograph. I had to take a 30 second exposure with my DSLR to get this picture.
In the daytime, we explored south west Iceland. Here are some of the highlights:
Strokkur Geyser, Geysir, Iceland. February 2011
Me, wrapped up warm in front of Gullfoss, a spectacular waterfall
The black sand beach at Vik
Florence, Italy
In May, I caught up with Toby, another old schoolfriend of mine who returned from a 2 year contract in the Cayman Islands. He settled in London but I have an irrational dislike of London so we decided to visit Florence for a weekend instead. The highlights:
Me (failing to smile because I dislike posing for photos), beside the river Arno in front of the Ponte Vecchio
A glimpse of the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore
United Kingdom
2011 had me traipsing up and down the country as usual. The usual meeting friends, family, sitting exams, going to work...
Health & Fitness
2011 saw me make strides in this area of my life also. As I mentioned previously, work over my first year in the East Midlands almost killed me. I didn't have 6kg to lose!! So, I took steps. I bought a Withings WiScale to track my weight and resolved to eat better. Progress was made, and I've even exceeded my baseline weight of 69kg! Proof below:
My weight since April 2011
I also took up running. For support, I joined my local running club (Rutland Running & Triathlon Club). With their help I went from wheezing my way through a few hundred metres to being able to run 30+ minutes comfortably. An old uni friend of mine, Drew, introduced me to parkrun in late October. Its a free, timed 5k run every Saturday held in parks all over the country. My first couple of efforts were less-than-stellar. I stuck at it and managed 5 parkruns in late 2011 each time bettering my previous performances.
Me setting a parkrun 5Km PB in November
In April, as well as my scale, I bought a FitBit pedometer to track my steps. I remembered to wear it more often than not. By September, I'd walked 750 miles with it!
My 750 mile FitBit badge!
Finally, in September, I bought a bike. I was inspired in part by my new bosses who are all keen cyclists and do long-distance charity rides every summer and my mate Drew's triathlon preparations. Also, I live in an area with ample cycle routes so it felt right to get back into cycling. Having tried a dozen bikes in the local bike shop, I opted for the Giant Defy 4.
My shiny new bike!
It goes scarily fast and I'm still getting used to the clipless pedals and cycle shoes! There's a local cycling club that I plan to join in the springtime of 2012 when my schedule thins out a little. I've also planned to try a sprint triathlon in August.
Work
Work was OK in 2011. Got promoted in August. Made sure to take all the leave I was entitled to so I didn't burn out like in 2009-10!! Passed an important exam in February, failed another in September. That's all I'll say about work.
Life
Thanks to the running club, I now know more local people. I've let go of a lot of old baggage this year and my uni friends were surprised by my energy when I met up with them in Glasgow! I'm healthier than I've ever been in my life before! Definite progress.
When 2010 ended, I was on a downer. At the end of 2011, I'm on a high and can't wait to challenge myself in 2012. I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions, they just don't stick. Instead, I'm going to try to build on my momentum and see where it takes me.
