Barefoot Runner

It's a glorious day in the south of the UK today. It's dry and sunny with a slight cool breeze blowing. I'd planned on going for a long run later today once the roads had warmed up a bit, but when I saw how gorgeous it was outside, I couldn't hold myself back and headed out a little earlier than planned.

What a fantastic run. I'd originally planned on only running about 8km, but before I knew it I'd already clocked up 6km and was about 4km from home. I could probably have carried on further, but given 8km was my previous longest barefoot run, I thought it best to head back home.

When I got home, I sync'd up my Garmin Forerunner 405CX (note to self, I really should write about my new toy some time) with Garmin Connect (leaves a lot to be desired, but it happens automatically) and my FetchEveryone account. Whilst checking my log on FetchEveryone I noticed I'd managed to tick off two of my goals this week:

• 20km per week in training completely barefoot
• 10km long training run

I'm quite chuffed with this and believe it's all down to switching to ONLY running barefoot since the beginning of February. This has definitely allowed me to run further and with more ease than when switching between Vibrams and barefoot.

Oh yes, on a side note: if you want to check your barefoot form, head down to Thames Valley Park. The grassy bit along the Thames where they do the Reading Park Run (on my todo list) is very wet and soggy in places. You'll very easily be able to tell if your pushing off or landing incorrectly as your feet slip and slosh through all the mud . On the plus side, I think it's quite a magical feeling feeling the mud squelch between my toes.

As suspected last week, I didn't manage to get in the barefoot miles this week that I got in last week. I did try once, but the route I took turned out to be a lot tougher on the feet than expected, especially the chestnut and other tree debris in the early and latter parts of the route. The early morning cold doesn't make things any easier either, though my feet did warm up quite quickly.

One plus side of last week is I felt fantastic after every run, so kept on running. As a result I quite happily ticked through 20km (over 22km in fact) without any complaints. Other than the 4.96km done barefoot, the rest were all done in my Vibrams.

I think next week I'll do a bit of out-and-back on the smoother sections of the routes round work to get more barefoot time in. What will be interesting is seeing how I cope with the cold in the early mornings. The clocks have gone back today, so in theory it should be lighter and thus slightly warmer, though winter is fast approaching. Who knows, I may have to move the barefoot runs to the afternoon. We'll see.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to say that today I ticked off the "10km per week in training completely barefoot" goal I set for myself, and I'm quite proud of myself.

I've had a great week of barefoot running this thanks to some great autumnal weather and being on the early shift. Being on the early shift means I have to go for my runs later in the day, when it's warmer, from home rather than bright and early from work, when it's cold.

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I've put together a table of goals I plan to achieve in my quest to be a barefoot runner. After all, everyone accomplishes more if they've actually got something to strive for.

I've started off really simple with some easily attainable goals so I don't get demotivated too easily.

I will however be adding to the list of goals as I progress to keep myself motivated, or if I start knocking them off too quickly.