Acceleration = Change in Velocity/Time

Stephen Hawking was once told by his publisher that each equation he included in his book "A Brief History of Time" would halve his sales.

I wonder if the same holds true for blog posts?

This post, titled with a sketchily remembered equation from my GCSE physics, is an amalgamation of my recent running achievements and other developments.

New FiveFingers

After retiring my normal running shoes, all I had remaining were my FiveFingers KSO's and Adidas Kanadia TR4 trail shoes.
The KSO's are good, they got me on the road to minimalist running, but they do have a flaw. They have terrible grip in wet conditions. I've come close to snapping an ankle on occasion! As for the Kanadia's, I don't won to wear them out on the roads. What I needed was a middle way, a hybrid between my KSO's and Kanadia's. Turns out that Vibram have such a thing:

Behold the TrekSport!

The FiveFingers TrekSport is almost identical to the KSO but has tread on the sole to improve grip. The rubber is 1mm thicker than on the KSO so there is a slight reduction in sensation from the ground. In practice, this has not been a major issue. I have run on road, trail and cross country in these and I love them! No nearly broken ankle so far either!

parkrun

Since achieving my first sub-25:00 parkrun the other week, I've continued to make steady progress.
At Braunstone on 4/8/12, I ran a 24:14! That was delightful but paled into insignificance compared to this week's run at Conkers:

Yes, you read that correctly!

23:47!!! God only knows how I managed that! The folks at Conkers parkrun have captured me on film once again, check out my sprint finish:

I'm briefly visible at 8:32-8:34 wearing my blue sleeveless t-shirt.

After recovering from that, I found that Adidas, sponsors of both parkrun and Team GB, were giving every parkrunner a free Team GB replica wristband to celebrate the Olympics.

Not bad for a freebie!

All in all then, not a bad couple of weeks at parkrun! Unfortunately, work gets in the way next week. Although a break to recover and consolidate my gains is probably no bad thing!

Hermitage 10K 2012

Finally, the other day on a whim, I decided to enter a local 10K race. I chose the Hermitage 10K near Coalville.

It was my third 10K race this year and the first I've run in Vibram FiveFingers.

Thanks to all the running I've been doing lately, I managed to achieve my goal of a sub-1 hour race! That's another item I can cross off The List! Unfortunately, due to a glitch, official times won't be posted until at least tomorrow. However, I clocked it with my Garmin at 53:14.2, which (if accurate) betters my previous performance by 14 minutes!

Approaching the finish (Photo credit www.runner-photos.co.uk)

As is customary, I was the recipient of yet another t-shirt, a relatively plain white technical shirt. Should come in useful for training runs.

Next big race is the Great North Run.

Sub-25:00 5K ≠ Impossible [UPDATED]

A momentous day!

I have finally, after 8 months & 23 days of parkrunning, crossed the 25:00 barrier!

Not quite a true reflection of my performance!

At the end, I forced myself to sprint up the hill to the finish line, at which point I promptly fell into a heap on the cool grass. A number of seconds passed as my heart rate fell. I sat up, looked at my Garmin and was horrified. I'd forgotten to stop the timer!!! When I pushed the start/stop button, it read 24:58.66.

How long had I been laying on the grass? At most, I reckoned thirty seconds. I had no choice but to await the official results. The only certainty was that I had succeeded in running a sub-25:00 5K!

Then it came:

Lies!!!

Not possible. I started my timer exactly when the race started, I was late stopping it by several seconds. I beat 25:00! This was only the second time the volunteer at the finish line has been in charge of timing. My best explanation for the discrepancy is that the timer was started several seconds before the race start was actually announced.

I'm claiming today as having achieved my goal of a sub-25:00 5K because I know that is what I did today.

I will erase all doubt at my next parkrun!

UPDATE 29/7/12:


Vindication! The glitch was noticed and rectified. New official time = 24:28!!

Grabbed off the parkrun website

My First 'Barefoot' parkrun.

As promised, today I ran my first parkrun in Vibram FifeFingers (VFF's) 'barefoot' shoes.

Unfortunately, due to flooding after Friday's monsoon conditions, my usual parkrun at Braunstone Park was cancelled.

Instead of backing out of the challenge, I decided to visit one of the other parkrun venues within a 50 mile radius of my home. I chose Conkers parkrun because they insisted on their Facebook page that they would run. This is the first time I've visited another parkrun venue and I must say Conkers was very well-run and welcoming indeed.

So, how did I get on?

Before the race, a couple of runners commented on my VFF's. They were genuinely curious. Certainly a conversation starter which was good for me being billy-no-mates at a new venue!

The conditions were, in a word, muddy!

The state of my feet after the race. Fortunately, VFF's are washable!!

Despite having to leap over/run though/slalom around puddles, I felt good. When I turned the first corner, I was somewhat apprehensive about the hill I was faced with as I hadn't tackled significant inclines in VFF's before. I needn't have worried, the hill was surprisingly easy.

I've decided that my theory about wasting energy compressing padding in normal shoes must be right as the whole course felt significantly easier.

I didn't go out today chasing a PB. My aim was to be careful as the course was unfamiliar to me and this would be the furthest I'd ran in one go wearing VFF's.

So, the outcome?...

Fastest ever parkrun!

I clocked my time at 25:32. My official time was 25:31, 36th out of a field of 86. By far my fastest ever parkrun, 1:42 faster than my previous best! 

I felt strong at the end, so much so that I reckon had I been less conservative at the start (owing to an unfamiliar course) and hadn't had to weave around puddles, I'd have been several seconds faster. That sub-25:00 time is looking much more achievable!

My feet felt fine afterwards, no aches or pains at all. I have decided that all my future parkruns will be in VFF's. Also, I'll try out some of the other parkrun venues to add variety as my experience today was very positive.

Biting Off More Than You Can Chew

I fell off the wagon.

I allowed work to get in my way.

I abandoned my 30 Day Challenges.

I'm sorry :-(

I guess I got carried away and took on far too much too quickly. I'll revisit the 30 Day Challenges in the future but right now, I've got to focus on the challenges that are of greatest importance to me.

To that end, I'm going to focus on a running goal from The List.

In honour of the blog's title, the goal I've chosen to tackle is: "Log a cumulative mileage of > the circumference of Earth". The world will then indeed be mine!
According to Dailymile, I'm only 1/153th of the way there so I better step it up!

Great North Run 2012

Today I received word that I have a place in this years Great North Run!

This is the most iconic half-marathon in the country. Not a bad choice for my first.
So its off to Newcastle and South Shields for me come September. May God have mercy on my soul!!

My 2nd (and 3rd) Miles in Vibram FiveFingers

In future I may avoid using VFF's in freezing temperatures!!

Tonight was my second run in my Vibram FiveFingers KSO's. This time I pushed on extra kilometre. Here are my thoughts:

1. The ankles are getting stronger.
Last week, I felt my ankles were being strained stabilising my feet without the support of my normal running shoes. Tonight, they seemed to know what to do and only now, a couple of hours later, do my ankle muscles feel worked. It's the pleasant discomfort of a muscle worked-out as opposed to the agony of injury. (My shins are a little sore but that is mainly left over from a hill session with my running club on Tuesday).

2. I'm liking the extra awareness of the running surface.
To work in an extra kilometre, I detoured down a new road with some construction rubble strewn over it and a muddy patch of earth. You can instantly detect the change in terrain and the feet seem to reposition themselves of their own free will. I wonder if the same would be true for those times you catch your foot unexpectedly on a patch of mud or slush?

3. I continue to get faster.

Behold, RunKeeper's analysis of my run. My fastest average pace ever 

apparently.

Compared to last week, RunKeeper says I'm 7 seconds/km faster. I can't say with certainty the VFF's are making the difference because I've not done an easy run in my normal shoes yet to compare. However, based on my thought last week about the possibility of energy being wasted in compressing cushioning, I wouldn't be surprised if they were. Alternatively it could just be me getting fitter. We'll see.

4. You definitely know how your foot is landing.
Linked to more awareness of the road surface, is greater awareness of your foot position relative to the ground. In the VFF's I know I'm landing on my forefoot and pronating far less than I do in shoes. In my normal shoes I have no idea what my foot is doing.

5. VFF's may be a poor choice in cold weather.
It was zero Celsius outside tonight. When I got home, I couldn't feel my toes. Enough said.

Next week I'll try 4km (hopefully in warmer weather!). If that goes OK it'll be time to try a parkrun in the VFF's.

My First Mile in Vibram FiveFingers

Me in my Vibrams after running just over 2km

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.

Learning a New Language

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).

My First 10K (And My First Trail Race)

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!

Update 23/1/12 17:56:
The official results are in. I was 129th out of 146 runners.

Reviewing The List

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.