Måndag, 19 juli

Fortfarande sjuk. Lite bättre, så bestämde mig för att ta en kort barfotarunda, 3k. Logg.

Tisdag, 20 juli

Lite bättre. Men fortfarande snuvig och hosta. Tänker att det är bra att röra på sig ändå. Samma runda igen, med skor denna gång. Logg.

Torsdag, 22 juli

Lite bättre igen. Samma runda, mycket lugnt. Logg.

Fredag, 23 juli

Nattåget upp till Östersund. Tänkte att jag måste prova benen inför lördagens halvmaraton, så tar en runda ner till Frösö strand och apoteket, tillbaka upp via Öneberget. Hälften barfota. Kändes OK men knappast bra. Logg.

Lördag, 24 juli

Dags för halvmaraton. Kroppen samtycker inte alls. Bestämmer mig för att köra ändå, men att köra mitt eget race i mkt lugn takt. Sagt och gjort, 2 timmar och 21 minuter senare är jag i mål. Trött men inte söndersliten. Nåja, det kan ju bara bli bättre, och det var en under omständigheterna relativt trevlig upplevelse måste jag säga. Logg.

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Det har blivit rätt dåligt med träningen senaste veckorna. Kroppen vill inte. Ingen intervallträning och inga temporundor. Trist men inte så mycket jag kan göra åt saken, annat än att försöka ta mig ut och köra lugna pass tills det är bättre. Trist att jag missade uppladdningen till Östersund halvmaraton helt och knappast var tipp-topp på tävlingsdagen – det var som till det jag tränat hela våren. Bah.

Nu då? Först ska jag bli frisk. Sen ska jag anmäla mig till något nytt lopp. Eller tvärtom kanske. För er som springer regelbundet men aldrig sprungit något lopp, kan jag varmt rekommendera det. Skitsamma hur placeringen blir, det är en fin upplevelse och ett mål vässar träningen. För er som precis börjat springa, rekommenderar jag precis samma sak.

Sammanställer veckans löpning från och med idag. Hurra!

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Tisdag, 13 juli

Andra gången på 2 timmar och 30 minuter. Ut till Södra Sandby och tillbaka igen, med en extrakrok på slutet. Började lugnt, bra väder, inte för kallt, lite vind. Lugnt och fint ut mot Södra Sandby, Hardebergaspåret raka vägen, där efter dryga timmen. Fågelsångsdalen tillbaka efter en liten chokladpaus, rätt bra tempo (160bpm), hyfsat svår terräng, var så nära att krocka med en fågel att jag inte ens hann inse det. Hardeberga åter och rakt tillbaka mot Lund, lugnare tempo igen. Framåt 1h40m högre tempo i 20 minuter (160bpm), efter det rätt mör. Sista 30 minuterna betydligt långsammare. Lite tufft, men aldrig direkt svårt. Blir inte speciellt trött, men ont i fötter och höfter. Kör med skor utan dämpning och stöd, och det märks att fötterna får jobba, men min arbetshypotes är att det är bra.

Se logg för mer detaljer.

Onsdag, 14 juli

Sprang barfota hem från stan efter två öl. Asfalt, rätt grov. OK. Logg

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Hade tänkt köra ett intervallpass lördag, men vaknade fredag morgon och upptäckte att någon matat ner grovt sandpapper i min hals. Typiskt otrevligt. Vem var det? Va? Kunde varken springa lördag eller söndag. Dålig uppladdning inför Östersund halvmaraton på lördag. Suck.

the future you think you know is never really it. oh i've lived in so many imaginary futures, misty landscapes of hopes and wishes. always inside the illusion, the fear of stepping outside strong enough to touch but too subtle to grasp. right there, feel it? just above your stomach. like a knot, curled so dense it's almost black to the feel. instinct keeping it tight, protecting. i've woken up after days inside, years, who knows? looking back at the hollowness of it.

this permeating psychosis is sometimes real, sometimes unreal, sometimes everything. subtly massive, embracing.

and then the moments of clarity, the braveness to stop. letting go, one instinct pitched against another. the expansion – a sense of strings unwinding, of strands breaking, something tearing apart. but it never quite breaks, an entire universe always just out of my reach.

i don't know what to make of it. maybe it's me trying to live that saying – it never plays out like you thought it would – not in retrospection, but in the present. but there's something else too – something more subtle; that feeling of being tangled up into a vast web of stories of almost ungraspable dimensions, and of those endless loops of recursion just outside my consciousness.

So lately I've been looking for a place online to log my workouts.

The two largest of reasonable quality seems to be beta.mapmyrun.com and runkeeper.com.

RunKeeper seems to have an awesome iPhone app, but the web version isn't that impressive, especially since I don't have an iPhone. I added a cycling session but since then we've been giving each other the silent treatment.

MapMyRun is OK. The mapping tool is good. But overall it's not that impressive. I added a couple of workouts while trying it out.

My latest choice is RunningAHEAD. While arguably neither as sleek nor as functional as abovementioned, it has a nice homey DIY feel to it, and the people there seems nice and not too serious in the bad sense of the word. It has quite nice functionality for creating custom graphs (haven't really tried it out much yet, though).

All my workouts are there for you to see.

What I really want though is a nice application (desktop or web) that can sync with my heart rate monitor and give me all the hard numbers – oh what a dream for a stats junkie! I guess that won't happen until I get a Garmin HRM though.

Anyway.

Tomorrow I'm running Startskottet, 10k. I hope to break the hour for the first time, and I'm pretty confident I will.

So long.

Try a smoothie for breakfast!

This is the version I've had for the last couple of days -- see it as a starting guide, and use your imagination!

Makes roughly one big or two small servings:

Base:

• Orange juice (100-200 ml, adjust for desired consistency)

Seeds and spices:

• Sunflower seeds (peeled, 1 tbsp)
• Crushed flaxseed (1 tbsp)
• Hempseed (0.5 tbsp)
• Cacao (1 tbsp)
• Cayenne pepper (0.5 tsp, depending on heat -- make it spicy, but not too hot!)
• Cashew nuts (10 or so)
• Honey (0.5 tbsp, depending on the sweetness of the base and the other ingredients)

Fruits and berries:

• Raisins (1 tbsp)
• Goji berries (dried, 1 tbsp)
• Bananas (1 or 2 small)
• One or more of: blueberries, raspberries, strawberries (2 tbsp each, or more)
• Wakame (a kind of sea-weed) (1 tsp)
• Some fresh herbs, like menthe or lemon balm

This smoothie is a complete meal in itself! As you see, there are three parts to it:

The base is the liquid. In this case it's orange juice, but you might try out tea, coconut water, or even coffee. The main purpose of this is to give flavor and the right consistency.

The seeds, spices and sweeteners gives richness and subtle taste to the smoothie, and lots of healthy fats, vitamins and minerals. Go for natural sweeteners like honey or agave nectar; avoid the highly processed stuff like white sugar. Actually this applies to all ingredients: prefer them raw. That is: prefer ingredients that have not been processed by heating them -- dried and frozen things are perfectly OK!

Fruits and berries are for freshness and color. They also give you lots of vitamins and anti-oxidants.

The great thing about smoothies is that it's so easy to make up new variants. Just think of the three parts: the base, the seeds and spices, and the fruits and berries (vegetables probably work fine, too!). Go for local ingredients that are in season, and try to get all the colors in there -- think rainbow!

Just came back from a 3k barefoot run. Fourth one so far. Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself, and found the run a bit more rough on the feet than expected hoped. I notice too, how my form gets worse as my feet start to hurt, and how it's hard to relax the upper body, especially on rough surfaces.

So why run barefoot?

My current experience, of which I don't seem to be alone, is that it (a) promotes good running form and prevents injuries, and (b) keeps you alert and more in touch with the surroundings.

Barefoot running and running form

When barefoot, you are basically forced to run in a way that minimizes impact. There's no Abzorb® FL and N-ergy® to "defy whatever pounding you and your next marathon can dish out". But that's actually a good thing, because you are NOT SUPPOSED TO BE POUNDING YOUR FEET! We are meant to move with our bodies, not against them!

And this is very hard to ignore when barefoot. Naturally, you'll want to land like this elite marathoner and move like ultra marathoner Anton Krupicka. You'll be forced to absorb the impact by landing slightly towards the ball of your feet and bending your knees. Because this is what feels best, and what's hurts least. Slamming down your heels like you do in padded shoes will not be a very pleasant experience.

In the words of Barefoot Ted:

Barefoot running is not about blocking or pushing through pain, or at least it shouldn't be. Rather it is about tuning-in to your own body's highly sophisticated set of integrated awareness systems, systems that communicate through feelings and senses that are being collected in real-time as you move. From my perspective, learning how to run well means learning how to tap into the feeling of running well, which more often than not requires baring the foot to get the full feel of what happens when you move.

Word to you, Ted!

The kinesthetic experience of running barefoot

Removing what's between you and the ground (your shoes, that is) is a way of getting more in touch with both yourself and with what's around you - whether forests and mountains, grass and gravel, or with the city-scapes born of men. Your feet will instantaneously tell you when the surface changes, and you'll pretty much be forced to adapt to it. To avoid being surprised, and possible hurt (say, by stepping on sharp stones or broken glass), you'll also need to look ahead. Shortly put, you'll need to be more in the moment, paying attention to what is there before you. And actually, running becomes more enjoyable this way. It's like adding a new dimension to it.

Anton Krupicka puts it like this:

As runners, our feet are what keep us connected with the ground and offer important tactile, sensory feedback, which makes the structure and design of the shoe on our foot essential in shaping our experience with the surrounding terrain.

...

My best runs are where the felt kinesthetic experience of moving quickly and efficiently through a natural landscape is most fully realized, not necessarily the runs where I make it to the top of the mountain and back down the quickest. However, I think it is not by accident that these two ideals often coincide.

Word to you too, Anton!

The moon is almost full tonight, with a red warm tone.

XS is now known as Pipe. I've started exploring barefoot running, inspired by Anton Krupicka and Barefoot Ted. I'm reading Gangaji and Terence McKenna, listening to Cohen and The Tallest Man on Earth.

More on this to follow.