Josh Stevenson Barefoot Running Blog

Let the training start again

2010-08-02T15:56:00.000-07:00

My toe is finially starting to come good so it will be back out training Monday. One of the biggest things i have learnt from years of racing and training is to allow lots of time for you body to heal when broken. To many people rush back to training and racing after an injury or broken bone. This includes starting back into your training slowly and building up to were you left off. Following is my first weeks program

Monday run 5km barefoot flat run
Wednesday 8km flat run Five fingers
Thursday 5km flat run barefoot
Saturday 8km Flat run five fingers
Sunday re look at how the week has gone and set the following weeks program

How often do i hurt my feet while running barefoot

2010-07-23T14:45:00.000-07:00

I often get ask do i hurt my feet or get injured while barefoot running. The answer is simple hardly ever, after running barefoot for over 2 years now the worst thing that has happened to me is stepping in dog shit and the odd blister in the early days. Theses blisters came from not taking my time when i was transitioning from shoes to barefoot and running in hot weather. So in short i have had no injury's from running barefoot however i have had several injures frow walking around the house in barefeet. Case in point i recently completed the marathon and had taken 2 weeks to recover. I was just about to get back out running when i broke my toe making my sons bed. I have injured my feet around the garden or house4 of 5 times a year. So my suggestion to those of you who are running barefoot is dont worry to much about the running part be more concerned when you are in barefeet around the house or garden thats when the risk of injure is high.

Next Challenge

2010-07-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

I have committed to my next challenge to run from the West Coast to the East coast of the South Island, totally off road (traverse the South Island) February 2011. It will be either barefoot or in Fivefingers

I will keep you posted, let the adventure and training begin

Posted comment

2010-07-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

My applogies to who ever it was that posted a comment on my blog as i accidently rejected it. Sorry about this i thought i accepted it. Please re post your comment.

Cheers Josh

SBS Christchurch Marathon race report

2010-06-10T20:45:00.000-07:00

SBS Christchurch marathon barefoot race report

The week leading up to the race I looked at the weather forecast and it was for fine conditions with no
rain, perfect conditions for barefoot running. Did my last 2 training runs barefoot for the week and was
all set to achieve my goal. Then on Friday night before the race I checked the weather and yes it had
changed. Rain, rain and more rain with a little cold southerly wind thrown into the mix. My worst
nightmare come true. Running 42kms in the rain barefoot on tar seal was a going to be a challenge let
alone my goal of completing the marathon under 4hrs.

Race day dawned and sure enough it was raining cats and dogs. Gear packed, gobbled down the usual
race day breakfast off porridge, porridge and more porridge, and departed for the Town hall (start area
of the race). The entrance area of the town hall was packed with people all getting ready for the race.
Twenty-five minutes to race start the music was pumping and all the competitors were being called to
the start area. Time to lose the shoes and go and line up on the start line. Its a strange feeling to be the
only person amongst thousands of people not to be wearing shoes. Fifteen mins to go and I am lined up
in a sea of people. They were everywhere and there I stood with my ice breaker beanie on, ice breaker
top, water proof jacket leggings and no shoes (I must have looked like a right plonker). People started
to notice that I had no shoes and I answered the normal questions of “Where are your shoes? You’re
not going to do it barefoot?” followed by “Oh my god you’re not doing the marathon barefoot!”.

With the music pumping and the atmosphere electric the count down started 3 2 1 go we were off and
racing…. well, waiting 2 odd minutes for the few thousand people in front of us to get going. The start
line was area was of concern to me as this was where my bare feet were most likely to get trampled on.
Seeing the start I was away and focused at the task ahead and my race plan to ease into it. Running well
I started to pass people and found my rhythm and found that my feet were fine and the cold not to be
much of a issue. It is amazing peoples reaction to being passed by a person running barefoot. They
don’t like it. Often I would pass someone only to find them to come sprinting back to pass me. I would
have a little chuckle to myself and focus on the task ahead. All was going well and I was on target to
achieve my goal of a sub 4 hour run.

At the 19 kilometre mark I started to feel a hot spot on my right forefoot and knew there was a blister
on the way. This was my concern with running in the rain on tar seal with the skin on feet being wet for
such a prolonged time, that the thick skin on my feet would rub between the two major layers of skin.
There was not much I could do about it but to keep running and focus on maintaining good running
technique. As I approached the end of the first lap (start finish line out side the town hall) I knew in my
heart that I should be calling it a day at the 21km mark. As I looked up at the race clock which was
reading 1hr 48mins I was at a conflict with in myself about what to do. Do I stop or do I continue, what
damage could I do, am I being soft, is it all just in my mind? These were just some of the things that
were running through my mind, then I focused on one of my core beliefs “If I start a race I finish it”.
Anyway I was now on the smooth part of the course (nice smooth tar seal). Brilliant. Up went the
pace and I was back on track. Rounding the turn and heading for home it was a great feeling to know
that there was only 12km to go and the realisation that I was going to achieve my goal.

What amazed me more was all the reactions of the officials and spectators. They were amazed that I
was still going and that I was still running. Around the last turn and two kilometres to go. Brilliant, and
up the tempo goes and back to that nice tar seal. Round the park, down the home straight, there is the
finish line. Bloody brilliant! Crossing the line in 3hrs 58 minutes and 13 seconds.

As I crossed the finish line I was left with a interesting thought “ What are our physical and mental
limits and why don’t we use our abilities to capacity any more?”

Entry Confirmed for SBS Marathon

2010-05-31T14:59:00.000-07:00

I was waiting to see what the weather forcast was going to be before i confirmed that i will be doing the Christchurch Marathon Barefoot. As the Christchurch marathon has a histroy of bad cold wet weather on race day. So its down to the last couple of runs and i am set, well to be honest as set as i am ever going to be.

Last couple of weeks training

2010-05-31T00:16:00.000-07:00

Well the last couple off weeks of training have been going well and i have found the right balance focusing on quality rather than mileage. The hardest part was training in the cold and rain in barefeet it must be a strange site to see a someone with a hat on, leggings, jacket and gloves running with no shoes in the rain.

Finding the right balance

2010-05-03T04:09:00.000-07:00

This weeks training is about finding the right balance , let me explain. My focus for the Christchurch marathon is not to just complete it but to finish the race in a set time that i have as a goal. So in training i have been working on increasing speed when running barefoot on the road which has been working well. In doing this i have found that my feet are going through a different stage of conditioning than i have experienced before. The balance i am trying to achieve is giving my feet enough conditioning to achieve my goal without pushing it to far until my feet are ready (If you can follow that). So this week i am going to mix my training up and use my five fingers more, by doing this i will allow my feet a bit of time to recover after every speed session.

This week training diary

Monday 14km 80% flat run road barefoot completed
Tuesday 10km 70% hills/flat run barefoot completed
Wednesday Rest
Thursday 10km flat run barefoot completed
Friday rest completed
Saturday 18km flat run Barefoot completed
Sunday 6km flat run barefoot completed

Last couple of weeks training

2010-04-27T00:19:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks of training i have been focusing on increasing speed. I have set a goal (time in which i wish to achieve) for the SBS Christchurch Marathon and am currently working on achieveing it. To be honest it has been one step forward and two back over the last couple of weeks with a few challenging issues. All my training now is road running in barefeet, as i have increased the speed in which i am running i have encountered a few issues. One of those issues was i got carried away and increased the speed and totally forgot about technique and ended up with sore feet for a couple of days. After much trial and error i feel i am now getting on top of the problems and find myself running faster using the correct technique. And off course the other big challenge is the weather is getting colder, which makes it harder to leave a warm house to go for a run barefoot.

This weeks training plan is as follows

Monday 12km hill run road 80% barefoot completed
Tuesday 12km Flat run road 70% barefoot completed
Wednesday 12km flat run road 70% barefoot completed
Thursday 10km hill run 70% five fingers rest sick
Friday 8km flat run road 70% barefoot rest sick
Saturday 18km hills/flat run road 80% barefoot rest sick
Sunday 12km flat run road 70% completed

Next Challenge

2010-04-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

Next Challenge SBS Christchurch Marathon Barefoot

After a bit of a rest from Motatapu it is time to start training for the next challenge the SBS Christchurch marathon barefoot (I was keen to do the North face 100 but missed out). What will be intresting and challenging will be the fact that the Christchurch marathon is all on road and in the middle of winter.

After the race

2010-03-30T03:47:00.000-07:00

The old feet took a couple of days to fully recover to a point were i could go running bare foot again the body took another day to catch up. In the last couple of weeks i have just been chilling out and doing the odd run. Next week sees the start of training for the next mission which was ment to be the North face 100 but i missed out on the race as it was sold out, but hay thats life so on wards to the next challenge.

Motatapu Race report

2010-03-14T17:27:00.000-07:00

Motatapu Race report

Firstly a big thanks to the following

Icebreaker NZ for providing the entry and a great top to run in

Five fingers Australia and New Zealand www.fivefingers.co.nz
for there on going support in supplying five fingers.

Woke up on Saturday morning at 5am to the sound of my alarm and to the reality that race day was here. To be honest I was feeling pretty good about the day ahead compared to the previous 5 days where I had a few doubts and was wondering what the hell I was doing entering my first marathon with no shoes. The weather forecast was for southerly winds overcast with the chance of rain, and they were correct.
After downing a can of cream rice it was off to catch the bus to the start of the run, the race organisers had put buses on for all competitors to catch to the start area. After a short bus ride along a gravel road we arrived in darkness to the start area where we were given our race number and timing transponder.

As the start of the race approached it was time to lose the shoes and my warm clothing. It’s a unique experience taking your shoes off before an off road marathon and putting them into your bag to be transported to the finish line. As you can imagine there were a few people looking at me strangely. With my bag thrown into the trailer it was off to the start line and race briefing. At the briefing we were advised that we had to do an extra short 1.8km loop on a gravel road (with a river crossing) before heading out on the course proper, this was due to improvements made to the track which had shorten the course by 1.8km. Now for any of you that have not run barefoot, running on a gravel road barefoot is challenging and one of the hardest terrains to run on. With that in mind I thought it’s only a couple of kilometres I just guts it out and we will be away.

After answering dozens of questions “where are you shoes ” “you’re not doing it in bare feet?” the race was under way. It was the most relaxed start to a race I have ever had. I started near the back of the field and just eased into it. To my amazement I was holding my own on the gravel road and started to pass people. Through the first river crossing and the feet went a bit numb as you would expect for an alpine river. I continued to run strong and started to work my way through the field. As I passed people you could here remarks like “that’s just wrong” “hey he has no shoes on” etc.

By the end of the first few kilometres I had found my stride and I was away, I wasn’t sure if this was due to the fact that my feet were numb or I had I actually done enough training leading up to the race. Which ever way, I thought I would make the most of it and get through this first section of gravel road. After a few more river crossings and few hills I came across the first check point 10 kilometres in. As I looked at my watch I realised that I was averaging 5 - 6 minute kilometres and was a bit shocked.

I have 2 rules when I race barefoot. 1) Don’t stop moving forward and 2) I don’t allow my self to look at the soles of my feet (unless there is something seriously wrong). As I keep running I start to wonder how long before this gravel road turns into a nice grass farm track. I arrive at check point to and still feeling strong and find my self still running on a gravel road. With running barefoot on a gravel road you have to plan every step so in doing so you don’t have the time to look around. Let alone look for the signs placed every 2 kilometres that tell you how far to go. I found my first sign for the day that said 22 kilometres to go. I look at my watch and I was still averaging 5 - 6 minute kilometres an hour. I still couldn’t figure out whether this was down to my feet being numb or the training that I had done. Every time my feet would just start to warm up I would be faced with another alpine river crossing. When my feet did warm up I did notice that my right foot was starting to show the early signs of possible blistering and was getting a bit sore, I wasn’t a 100 % sure if this was correct or was my feet responding to the cold. It was at this point I hit a low patch and started to question myself and my ability to finish. Making things even harder I was still on this never ending gravel road. At this point I gave myself some treats and focused on one step at a time and not stopping. I found that would pass people on the up hills only to be passed going down hill, as you have to slow down and take it a bit easy on the down hill sections. 16 kilometres to go and it hits me that I can finish this, the people around me were all very supportive and I even still managed to pass a few. Then I came across it yes the grass track wahoo I was off with a new found strength and started passing people again. This was short lived as the grass track only lasted about 2 kilometres. 14 kilometres to go and into the down hill section which I was not looking forward to. At this point I was down to a snail pace and back on this never ending gravel road. All round me people started to show signs of hurting and this included me. There is only one way out and that was on my bare feet and not any other means. 8 kilometres to go and flying past a small group of us came the first mountain bikers who had started 3 hours after us. Normally this would not have bothered me but when you are running barefoot down hill on a rough narrow 4wd gravel road and getting passed by mountain bikes at great speed it is a little un nerving to say the least. 4 kilometres to go and its never ending still going down hill and the feet are starting to feel the pain and my consternation on every foot step is starting to grow. There is nothing like a few wrong steps to get your mind back on track and you head back in the game.

Heading for home and the last challenge for my feet which I was made aware of by the race director before I entered. Six long cold river crossings with sharp stones and rocks and 25 odd minutes later and numb feet I came across a race official who kindly advised me 4 - 5 minutes to go. Then I rounded the next corner and hello it’s the finish line with two people in front of me I put the hammer down and sprinted past them for the finish line. Completing my first marathon in 5hrs 22mins without shoes to my amazement. If I would have know what the course was going to be like before the race I would have told you that it was impossible to run it barefoot, some times its best not to know what your in for.

In finishing I found myself left with an amazement of what the human feet can do and left asking myself how far can you run barefoot of road.

Misson completed

2010-03-14T03:20:00.000-07:00

Well completed Motatapu of road marathon barefoot in 5hrs 22mins. Feet held up well considering the course was more challenging than i expected. A big thanks to my sponsors five fingers and ice breaker for arranging my entry. I will post a full race report in the next couple of days.

Training completed

2010-03-10T02:53:00.000-08:00

Well training completed

Today was my last training run before the race now its a waiting game. Now is the hard part were you mind starts to ask those little questions like am i ready, can i do this, have i done enough training, are my feet hard enough, why the hell am i doing this. Its that fealing of being nervious before your first ever race the fear of failure, for me i thrive on it and it makes me feal alive and challange (and crapping myself). For me i find music levels me out and helps me focus on the task ahead, i spend a lot of time in the week leading up to the race going through every possible thing that could happen or go wrong in the race. I find this gets me mently prepared for the race and the challanges ahead.

The other big task is packing gear for all options and conditions this includes a customised firstaid kit which has a few bits and pieces to help me fix my feet (hold them togeather)if required.

The week before the rcae

2010-03-08T14:00:00.001-08:00

Well a week to go and just doing some lite training as listed below
Monday 6km flat bare foot
Wednesday 10km flat barefoot

The big focus this week is on my feet, harding up any soft bits and soften any hard bits. Other than that its all good to go, even the weather is on my side for Saturday.

1 week to go to Motatapu 42km off road marathon

2010-03-05T14:02:00.000-08:00

Well 1 week to go
Training has been going well and i am on my last hard week which has been as follows
mon run barefoot off road 12km
tues run five fingers 10km off road
wed run hills barefoot 8km
thurs run bare foot 6km rough terrian
friday 10km barefoot run road flat
Sat 26km hills off road five fingers
Sun rest

My feet have held up well the biggest issue i have been faced with is stopping them from splitting. Other than the spliting issue my bare foot running has gone from strengeth to strength i will post a break down of my thoughts after running bare for the last 18 odd months.

Holiday Training

2010-01-11T14:15:00.000-08:00

Holiday time and family time is the hardest time to get any training done, so i just went with the flow and focused on quality instead of milage. most of my traing was 15km to 20km runs on off road terrain from country gravel roads to tracks up on the prot hills. There was one training session where i want to see how my feet would handle hot conditions off road. The tempature was approx 30 degrees and i was running on clay tracks on the hills. I found for the first 30mins of running everthing was fine after that i could feel the heat i pushed on and found that at the 1 hour point i had a hot spot on the front pad of my left foot.My right foot was fine, i completed my run total of 1hr 30mins and end up with a blister on front left pad of my foot. I put this down to running style mostly and wil focus on how i can fix this problem. Now that the holidays are over i can get back to my normal training.

This weeks training update

2009-12-20T13:17:00.000-08:00

This week training was focused on increasing the kms and conditioning of the feet.

Monday bloody cold weather for summer with wind and rain 12km flat run in the flows feet kept nice and warm.
Wednesday Bare foot run road 8km ran at 70% of max heart rate flat run road and off road
Friday 6km barefoot run off road rough terrian
Sunday 15km run off road rough terrian hills/track in my Flows

All in all body and feet feeling good

Five Finger Flows

2009-12-13T11:43:00.000-08:00

Just got my new five fingers flows and went out yesterday for a run in them. Following are the flows specs:

2mm Neoprene upper – keeping the cold out
Non-marking, razor siped Vibram GM-50 rubber soles – superior grip and extra protection 2mm EVA anti microbial footbed – added insulation
Weight 6.6 oz. I am looking at taking the flows through the mountain run section of the coast to coast in training run and to see how they go. In my run i found the kept my feet warm and they were great to run in, the only down side was they were a bit harder to get on.

Icebreaker

2009-12-11T14:07:00.000-08:00

A big thanks to Lisa from Ice Breaker for sponsoring my entry into the Icebreaker moatapu off road marathon. www.icebreaker.com

Last 2 weeks of Training

2009-12-11T13:51:00.000-08:00

Back into it and i have to say i love running barefoot. I am now focusing on my first race for this season which is the Motatapu off road marathon which i intend to do bare foot.

Training Diary

Tuesday 1st Dec 6km run barefoot flat/roads easy run
Thursday 2nd December 10km run vibram shoes hills/flat off road easy
Sunday 6th December 8km flat run vibram shoes/flat steady
The first week back was just about getting back into it and easing into it.

Monday 7th Dec off road run 15km vibram shoes hills steady pace
Wednesday 9th Dec road run barefoot steady pace
Saturday 15km vibram hills/flat run vibram shoes easy pace

Body feals good and ready to up the kms next week

Training on Hold

2009-11-20T13:09:00.001-08:00

Well just as i was about to start cranking into the training again i had a miss hap and sliced my toes open. Yep thats right i was not paying attention when stepping outside and stepped the wrong way on a concrete step and slipped and cut the under side of my toes open. So no running for the last 3-4 weeks while they have been healing.

Barefoot Article

2009-10-21T00:26:00.000-07:00

Follow the latest barefoot story online

Reader response has been awesome.Story online:http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/lifetravel/stories/DN-nh_barefoot_1020gd.ART0.State.Edition1.2f04605.htmlAccompanying blog post:http://runnerish.blogspot.com/(For those of you who appear in this blog post: Let me know if you'd rather me remove or cut back the interview outtakes that I included).This is how the story looked in the paper:http://www.scribd.com/doc/21354295/The-Dallas-Morning-News-Fitness

Time to crank into training

2009-10-21T00:21:00.000-07:00

Well after having a couple of months just taking it easy its come time to start training for my next big barefoot challenge. So of for a gentle 8km run in my five fingers good i love my five fingers.

Vibram Five Fingers shoe review

2009-09-27T03:09:00.000-07:00

I do like to test a product and put the Vibram five fingers KSOs through their paces. To be honest when I got them i looked at the shoes and i had a few doubts to say the least. However I casted them aside and put them through the works. I have run approx 50kms in the KSOs in the following environments:Forrest running off road tracks river beds and roads I found them to be great.

I was concern about rubbing and chaffing between the toes but it was not an issue at all. I found that the shoes offered protection of the sole of the foot with out interfering with the natural bio mechanics off running barefoot. When running off road I was able to step on all sorts of things I would not dream off in bear feet.

2009-09-27T00:48:00.000-07:00

Enjoying the moment after becoming the first person to complete the Coast to Coast barefoot.

http://www.3news.co.nz/Runner-tackles-Coast-to-Coast-barefoot/tabid/367/articleID/91555/cat/645/Default.aspx

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/1402740