8.22 Miles moderately easy beginning - progressive to 7:50'ish pace. - 1:06:27 - (8:04) 8:23 - 8:25 - 8:18 - 8:09 - 7:52 - 7:50 - 7:51 - 7:50 - 1:44 84 degrees low humidity and a bit of a breeze.

This really hurts to have to say spare parts is a very smart man two times in a row but from the very beginning of my running life in 1977, I was always told that slow runners should heel-strike and not try to land on the front part of the foot like sprinters and other fast runners. Twenty-five years later when I started running more and more barefoot, it became necessary to switch from painful heel-striking when running on hard surfaces. It was soon so comfortable that it became the norm for my shod running too. In April 2006, I proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that slow runners can do their running too without heel striking when, while in the last stages of recovering from a painful hamstring pull in a shod trail event in the middle of the stormy night in January, I ran all 26.2 miles of that year’s Yakima River Canyon Marathon without any walking or heel-striking at all in 7:09:54 with very abbreviated strides within any hamstring stretch. It took about 50% more steps than normal for my marathons which themselves are about 50-100 per cent more steps than faster runners longer-striding marathons. Two weeks later, I was fully recovered right on schedule. Even though heel-striking is sadly still recommended for beginners and slower runners, midfoot landings are more and more recognized as being faster and safer (less injuries) for everyone. See cites in the post on our RunningBarefoot festival in July. 1. http://www.runningbarefoot.org/?name=How - relax, relax, relax 2. http://www.posetech.com/library/pp-damienhowellpt.html - foot strike is on the ball of the foot . 3. https://www.chirunning.com/marketingmaterials/handouts/gears_lean_footstrike.pdf -foot strike is coming down directly under the knee or behind it, . . . . . . not in front! 4. http://www.mindfulness.com/mindful_running/articles/mr_article4.php - ball-heel-ball is the best way to run Please add any more you might have to our running barefoot reference post. href=http://runningahead.com/groups/MastRun/Forum/c8bf1c3eacc74cb3a800b370c5387c88 HOW TO CHANGE FROM HEEL-STRIKING run barefoot on a hard surface or in thin-soled aquasock beach shoes, thin-soled racing flats like the old days when it would have been an unthinkable joke to stuff cushioning into a running shoe, thongs, Tamahara huaraches, etc. so that it will too painful to heel-strike and landing softly on the front part of the foot will come naturally. Grass is okay but sometimes hard to see sunken sprinkler heads, remnants of goose, dog, etc. visits, and various erratics plus sometimes it’s even comfortable enough for heel-landings. Incidentally, switching from heel-striking will shift the affected muscle group from thigh to calves but sore calves seem to recover a lot faster from running hard and/or long than tired thighs, . . . and has made it possible for many of us regular runners to enjoy consecutive day marathons that would have been impossible in thigh-thrashing, heel-striking days. Good luck. ps - please put any running barefoot miles in Leslie/Lynden's weekly so I can include them in the totals for the July Running Barefoot Festival. href=http://runningahead.com/groups/MastRun/Forum/c8bf1c3eacc74cb3a800b370c5387c88 pps for bike - I think it's just that the toes touch down milliseconds after the metatarsals and sometimes the outer edge of the foot. often exaggerated by martial arts runners getting ready to kick runner in front of them out of the way.

appointment with the foot doc today. orthotics were adjusted, had another steroid shot, told I should be able to start running again in a week or so. RE the salt lake city in a couple weeks, I won't be running it, just cheering Arf on at the finish I am hopeful that I will be up for the marathon distance in Montana in September, it will be quite a while before I start rebuilding any speed.

PT guy said my ankle is healing by the textbook! I told him, of course, because engineers do everything by the book! Tomorrow DH and I are dumping (oops, delivering) our kids to camps, and then roaming around New York and Ontario for a week. I'm hoping to find some flat places to run. I'll take my velcro gel pack and keep it in an ice chest, I suppose. Have a wonderful week, and thanks again for your humor and encouragement! YOU'RE THE BEST, as DD likes to say. I will miss RA! Teresa