Last Friday I went on my longest “barefoot” run yet. I made it almost 4 miles. I took a couple of walking breaks, and my feet were plenty sore by the time I got home, but I made it. I’m now no longer worried about running the Jingle Bell Run in December. Now I just need to work on my technique and my speed.

“Barefoot” running is slow. You’re taking very short strides, since your foot is supposed to land directly underneath your center of gravity, so you need to work on cadence more than anything. Supposedly the ideal cadence is 90 (which is actually 180 steps per minute). Right now my comfort level is about 155. You are supposed to increase your cadence at the same rate as your mileage – no more than 10% per week. But I”m still working on being able to comfortably run around the lake regularly, so I’m going to work on that before I really focus on cadence. I hope to be working on my cadence by the end of the month.

Since it gets dark so early now, I don’t have a lot of time to regularly run, so I’m trying to bring the VFF’s to work every day and go for a 30 minute walk each day that it isn’t pouring out. So far so good and the daily walks will also help me drop a few pounds, which will make the running that much easier.