Just a yoga class for me this morning.  Okay, I may be on to something.  I realized today I'm not drinking enough water.  I had to take a Judgment to be signed in a small rural county a little over an hour from here.  We have a lake house there and I had hoped that we could visit my dad there, but that's a different story.  I could chatter on about my family all night and you kind people would fall asleep.  So I realized when I got back I hadn't drank any water, and at the same time, I realized my calves were tight and painful.  Could it be that simple?  We will find out now in between potty breaks.

Tet, you asked the other day what got into me about barefoot running.  Here's the article from our running club newsletter this month.  I know Camille and it inspired me (I would just post the link but the article's buried in the back, just like the one I wrote!):

Barefoot running during the summer

By Camille Herron

In last month's newsletter, I wrote about “doing the little things” to improve your racing performance. Well, one of these little things you can incorporate during the summer is running barefoot on grass to work on foot and lower leg strength, flexibility, and also act as therapy.

In the October Landrunners’ issue, I wrote about how back in December 2003, after enduring years of foot and leg injuries, I ditched my trainers and orthotics and started training from scratch in racing flats. By  a March 2004, when it began to warm up, I added in barefoot running. I started with 5 minutes of easy running, a few times a week, around the smooth infield grass of the track at our university. By that summer (after three to four months), I had worked up to doing the last 30 minutes of my easy runs, two to three times per week, barefoot on smooth park grass. I had sprained my ankle around this time from stepping in a hole (while in shoes) -- the barefoot running kept me running, by helping to reduce the swelling and inflammation and regain strength and stability in my ankle.

Mind you, I’m light, efficient, and don’t have significant contraindications for running barefoot —my goal was to simply work on strengthening my so-called flat, weak feet. It took a solid year to adapt. It’s advisable to talk to your sports medicine physician or podiatrist on whether you could benefit from some barefoot running. It would likely help to try and walk barefoot for a while before running barefoot.

Through experimentation the past nine years, I’ve figured out a lot of key components to getting the most

out of barefoot running:

Duration

— start with just a few minutes of easy running, and build up reasonably over time. The key is doing enough that it feels therapeutic but not too much (or too soon) that you end up sore and stiff. You have to think of it as strength training for your feet! I found that working up to 20-30 minutes at a time, two to three times per week, was enough to feel therapeutic.

Surface

—this is important! Go with grass, and the type of grass matters. I recommend natural, sod grass at a park, campus, soccer/intramural fields, or infield of a football field (but watch out for camber). Since we moved to Oklahoma City, convenience has been an

issue, as I have to drive to soccer fields to get the best grass, but it’s worth it, esp. when the body needs it. Undulation to the grass/sod is more stimulating to the feet. When we lived in Oregon, the sod under the grass was lumpy, and it hurt my feet at first -- they had to adapt. What I found over time was this “lumpiness” was actually more therapeutic for my feet, as it acted like a foot massage and likely made my feet stronger!

I don’t recommend artificial turf—there’s concrete underneath it, and it doesn’t have the same energy return or therapeutic effect as real grass. I don’t recommend golf course grass either (it’s somewhat artificial and less stimulating), although it’s better than nothing. An

artificial track stimulates the feet somewhat, but the surface is too rough for significant amounts of barefoot running, unless the skin is adapted.

Other barefoot enthusiasts have proven it’s possible to adapt the soles to concrete. A friend of mine said he prefers concrete over grass because you have to run with correct form. Sometimes I like to do brief walking/jogging on sidewalks/roads, while watching out for

debris. The one time I tried to actually run barefoot on concrete back in 2004, I did way too much (4 miles!) and ended up with some golf ball sized blisters on the soles of my feet. I also saw large broken glass on my run!

I’ve run barefoot on woodchip trails and walked barefoot on gravel—you learn to run relaxed, head to toe, and it can adapt the skin on the soles. It’s fun testing the feet on unique surfaces, but you have to be careful.

You have to watch out for occasional hazards —debris, glass, aerated grass, rocks, stickers, sticks, etc. Moreover, watch out for sprouting clovers, as bees like to swarm around the clover patches during midday!

Intensity/Type

Easy running or walking is the best way to start out. Then you can progress to doing drills and strides barefoot on grass. Over the years, I’ve done: one-leg balancing and jumping exercises, barefoot jump roping, and even barefoot hill running.

When Spring/Summer/Fall, when the weather is good and the grass is well-kept, is the best time to try to be consistent with the barefoot running, much like taking on a strength training program. These strength gains should carry over for months. Winter barefooting isn’t

impossible either in Oklahoma (even when it’s cold), but the yellow grass can be a little rough/crunchy and takes time getting used to it. The biggest challenge I’ve found in OKC is convenience, access, quality, and debris-free grass.

I like to think of the barefoot running as a form of therapy. Like stretching, foam rolling, or getting a massage/PT/Chiropractic care, barefoot running is another “tool” to prevent, treat, and maintain a healthy body. There’s been countless times over the years where

I’ve developed a body issue, and a little bit of barefoot running has straightened out the problem (as with my sprained ankle). When we first moved to Indiana and I went months during the winter without running barefoot, I noticed body aches popping up (and knew exactly why)! My only options were to run barefoot on the indoor turf and sun-soaked golf courses (where the snow had melted). There was even a time I slept on a bad bed and hurt my back, and some barefoot running somehow shook out the “kink” in my back. There are no promises it’s a cure-all for everything, but it’s certainly worth trying when all-else-fails.

Camille Herron, a native Oklahoman, is

a 2-time Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier

with a personal best time of 2:37:14; 10-time

marathon winner; and, recently represented the

US Team at the 2011 Pan American Games.

She’s coached by her husband and OCU Head

XC/Track Coach, Conor Holt. She holds

B.S. and M.S. degrees in Exercise and Sport

Science. She currently runs professionally for

Marathonguide.com, Powerbar, Inov-8, 2XU,

and Oakley.

That's an interesting article, Opie.  I haven't walked around barefoot hardly at all since I ended up with tendinitis and I miss it!  I've pondered the idea of seeing a podiatrist re the tendonitis, and the article has me thinking about seeing if there's one local who understands runners so I could discuss being barefoot vs. tendinitis.  It seems all the PTs could think of doing was getting me into stability shoes, and now little issues are cropping up on from those.  Hmmmm . . .