Let me tell you a little story..

What up crew!  Hope and pray this babble meets you all well and good!

Things in the TR hood are all good!  Family is awesome, work is going stella (with even a few foot chases and exciting jobs) and training is ramping up nicely.  For the last three or four weeks I have consistently run well over 100km per week and feel fresh as a daisy!

As I have had a few ups and downs in the start of the year (nothing to really complain about), I wanted to get a good solid run in before The Cooks Tour (80km) in a couple of weeks.  I wanted to run to Childers at Easter but dont think I was quite ready at that time...so I set a date, TODAY!


So I rounded up a few friends and we met at Mum and Dads at 4am and set off into the darkness.  There were  five starters, Tanya, Lee, Karen, Matty and myself.  Sue wanted to get an early start and was off at 3am!  Crazy times!  Dad was to be our support vehicle as he has been injured.  It sucks he couldn't run but at least he was still threre!

Starting off there was no drama and we were all in good spirits!  The dark running was exciting for a few that hadnt done that before and it was nice and cool which kept us plugging along.  Everyone did really well and seemed to be progressing nicely.  With Dad having food/drink in the ute, it made for a reassuring run.

Matt, Karen, Tanya, Lee and I

Karen plugged on well and achieved a personal best of a bit over 20k (I think it was more like 21 or 22).  Matty then kept going to complete a personal best in his home made huaraches of 24km.  Stella performance my friend, stella!  We then stopped for a quick few photos and to refuel the body before saying good by to Matt and Karen.  Dad drove them back into town, what a champion!

It was at this point that we also caught Sue.  She was going steady, but I tell you what, that is one determined woman!  She was going great, looked fresh, but I think was happy to see dad with some water and aide!  She said that she was happy to keep going on her own so Lee, Tanya and I left her to chug along herself.

So, the three of us kept running at a great pace!  I am thankful that I had their company as we were going quite a bit quicker than I would have on my own and there conversation and companionship was super!  As dad had to go into town and back again, this was our longest stint without aide.  He eventually caught back up to us after about 1hr 15min and I was pretty happy to see him and get some Coke in the system and refuel with some of Tanyas home made protein bars (YUM) and watermelon.

Once refueled we kept going and things were going nicely.  I ditched the Sunday business attire (my new race collared shirt, as per above) and went all minimal on your ass, shirtless.  It was nice and cool to start with as the early morning fog was STILL around.  After a while however the sun came out and it heated up nicely.

Tanya and Lee

As we were running quite quick (for a long run anyway) I started to slow a little from Tanya and Lees cracking pace.  I kept about 10-20meters behind them and just kept plugging away.

We arrived at the Apple Tree Creek Servo and had time to take a few photos.  We heard that Sue had made it 40km which is an amazing effort!  I think the longest she has ever run is 25-30k so just incredible!  Well done Suzie!

Tanya, Lee and I, almost there. (I
need more tattoos, wanna sponsor me?!)

As per usual, and something that ALWAYS seems to happen on long runs, Dad started to lose his mind!  Between all the driving back and forward and being on the road, he always tends to get a bit loopy, which is always fun and evident from the picture to your    right!

After Apple Tree Creek, we turned off the Highway onto Old Creek Road to go to my work friend Leesa's house.  She so very kindly offered for us to use her shower and use her place as a finish line.  So after a nice sharp little hill and a few more k's, we made it!  All feeling pretty darn good and stoked with our performance for the day!

After a tub at Leesa's beautiful house (thanks again Leesa) we then met up with Lees wife and son, Mum, Tegan and Pria and all went into town for a feed, relax and a laugh.  Beautiful day out!

A couple of wraps...

The three at the finish!

Tanya - Holy makral!  Before today she had not run further than 30k!  She ran through her first marathon and completed the entire distance fresh as a daisy and powering on!  Super super effort!  I have a sneaking suspicion she may be joining me for some trail ultras in the near future!

Lee - Appart from being a big skirt and not even planing on coming, he as usual did an incredible job!  He is as fit and strong as ever and was great to do another run with you mate!

Dad - Thanks Boss for all your help today.  Was super to have you there and provide all your usual energy and fuel supplies you bought!  Thanks again Boss, hope your back on the road with us soon again!

So, I am stoked.  I only walked one hill and Lee, Tanya and I completed 51.18km in 5hours and 29min (including stops).  This was a super hit out physically and mentally for the Cooks Tour...BRING IT!

Good times people!  Thanks again for following my blog!  I love writing it and I hope you all are still enjoying the rants!  Keep smiling friends, be good to each other and Ill catch you again soon.

TattooRunner

Week One

The beginning...

Day One- Today was off to a rocky start. We were up through the night with a sick little bub so my early morning run got thrown off track. I did some stair climbing on my stair machine and a half hour on the exercise bike instead. The day was enjoyable and I finished the day off with a 8k barefoot. My foot was pretty sore this arvo which was disappointing as it has been coming much better. I plugged through though and enjoyed the afternoon sunshine. I was able to stick to 100% vegan today which was a top start to the plan. I am very excited and looking forward to the next 99days!

Day 2- Runners high! It has been a while since I have felt that full on euphoric feeling but right now I am grinning from ear to ear, high on the good stuff...LIFE!

So this morning I did my 10k at the hummock (hill day) with Jodie. Now she usually only does 5k there but decided to step it up today, doubling her distance. The first lap went as normal but the second started to get her a bit. I did my best to encourage her (with a little yelling) talking her through each section. I can proudly say my training buddy And friend smashed it in and did a super job! This is going back to my blog a few weeks ago and encouraging others. I went away from that run not even caring about what I had done but so proud of Jod's because of what she had accomplished!

I then got to shot my gun at firearms training today...a perk of the job!

In the arvo we had Bundy Road Runners. Now this is usually just a nice steady pace with Matty or Brett or both. Brett had the pram today so it was me and Robbo. We were running along as usual and got to the 5k mark and hear our spilt of 5:22 pace. I challenged Matt that we had to get under 5:20 pace by the end of the run and had 2k to do it in. I then felt like I wad flying. This session I always do barefoot and it felt awesome! We hooked in and were doing about 4:45-4:50 pace! We ended our 7k averaging 5:15min per km! I am SO proud of Matty for his efforts and how far he has come in such a shoot time! Amazing! I was wrapped also as I don't usually run that quick and to do that speed barefoot and after a 10k hill session in the morning I was stoked! One very happy camper!

Today was a ripper! Life is grand, smile and run fast every now and then...it is fun!

Day 3 - Well today was a bit non-eventful. I clocked up 14k of running plus time on my stepper but did it a little tough. This was a combination of hard training yesterday and battling the flu. I don't have it, but it is lingering. I am doing what I can to fight it. Food wise it has been a bit tough and I have felt a little like eating some junk. I withheld the temptation though and got through the day clean as a whistle. I am praying this flu will go away as I have much training and living to do!

Day 4-6 - well the last few days have been busy and a bit up and down. Thursday and Friday were ups. Diet went well and got some good training in. Today however (Easter) I have allowed myself a day off from my eating plan to relish in the festivities. It has been a super day and I got a top 30k run in this morning without hardly any fatigue! Stoked!

I have been reviewing myself and plans a little and going to change a couple of things up from the original plan. I don't think the timing is exactly right for my vegan eating. It is surely something that I am interested in in the future but I just don't feel the timing is exactly right now.

Secondly, I can't maintain my daily posts on here. It is all bit hectic finding the time somedays to get things typed up.

So...where to from here. I am going back to my healthy vegetarian diet. I want to get it in check and under control. Healthy eating a vast majority of the time is the plan. Secondly I still want to reach my goal of under 75kg by my 30th birthday. Focus, determination and drive will get me there!

So that has been the week that has been! I am smashing out the k's again, getting my diet down pat and lovin life!

I hope that you have all had a Stella Easter and enjoyed the day as I have. Lets get back on focus tomorrow and hook in like a banchi!

Until next time friends! Run on!

A new journey...

This blog will be honest...proberbly a little too honest but thats why im here!

A new journey is beginning...let me explain.

As of my 29th birthday (November last year) I went full on vegetarian. Before that I was vego through the day and just eating meat at night. Since going vegetarian, my running has improved, my recovery has improved and i generally feel better. For some reason though, i have been struggling with eating a fair amount of junk! I have also been battling to drop extra weight that i have been wanting to drop. Ever since i had my tumour removed from the base of my brain I seem to have been battling with eating a fair amount of crap food and I don't even know why half the time(connected? Who knows?) It is a viscous circle and I end up pretty down on myself. My life is so abundantly blessed in so many ways and it seems like my diet is the only thing that really brings me down! I hate it and I really want to change.

I have tried and failed so many times over the last little while. I am sick of the ups and downs. Things need to change! I generally only start thia type of thing at the beginning of the week, month etc (as most people tend to do and end up failing by Wednesday), but i need to take action NOW! I feel as though I need to take some drastic action to change up this rutt I'm in. I am going to have a go a a new plan starting 03/04/2012.

I am looking forward to the next 100 days. I am setting a pretty challenging goal for myself. I am aiming to eat a vegan diet wherever possible but generally vegetarian at night due to it being much easier on my family and socially. This will generally eliminate the crap that i struggle with eating and make me be more creative and healthier overall.

I am also looking at running everyday and training damn hard. I will be doing my absolute best to do a weekly blog with daily updates on how I am going. I got this idea from Anton Krupicka and think it is a much more creative/progressive way for me to blog my way through this journey. I will be updating you on how this new diet effects my running and general health/well being. I know that this idea/personal challenge will be damn tough but I need to break myself from this rutt i feel I am in!

As a side point, I will be weighing in every 10days to keep track on my progress. I am not wanting to focus on weight but do want to keep an eye on how I am going. This challenge is more about improving my health, not necessarily weight loss. In saying this though, I know that by eating this way and training hard, the weight will fall off and I will break through this personal barrier.

I find that when struggling with any area in life (diet, motivation, health, fitness etc) the best way to break through is to saturate ones self with help and inspiration. I will be doing this throughout my 100day journey, reading a lot of vegan running and non running related articles, watching a lot of YouTube videos and reading a lot of information about vegan related info.

I would also appreciate any advise or encouragement from any of you along the way. If anyone finds any cool YouTube clips, articles or books to read, just holler!

So that is it! The new adventure of the TattooRunner. I hope and pray that this will be a real turning point in my life and change the way I view food/my health. I am not necessarily going to stick at the vegan eating permenentlly but it is a possibility...I will review this at the end of my 100days and see how the process goes.

Good times! I hope that this blog finds you all well and ripping into life. I look forward to catching up with you all soon and having a good old yarn. Keep smiling and I'll see ya Mellon soon!

TattooRunner

Motivation...

Well, over the last couple of weeks I have suffered from something that is completely new to me...a lack of motivation.  There has been no reason for it and I have been running reasonably well, I have just had no real desire to be putting in the hard yards.  It even got to the point where one day I was programmed to do a 15k hilly run and I turned around at 2.5km to make a massive total of 5k.  I have NEVER done that in all the time I have been running.  The only thing that has reduced my run from my regular program has been injury.

Now I know that a lot of you struggle with this problem on a day to day basis, but it has never been a issue for me...I just wake up every day, jump out bed and get to work...that is training!

So, what is one to do when faced with a problem like this?  Well one thing that I do is saturate.  Let me explain...usually all I read, study, look at etc is running stuff.  But over the last few weeks I have uped this even more so!  I have been reading about running, watching running DVD's, checking out clips on You Tube etc.  Mass saturation.  I find that when struggling with something that we love, if we fully emerge ourselves in it and remind ourselves why we do it, it re-ignites our passion and drive to get out there day after day.

Secondly, I reassessed my goals and what I am training for.  Although I run for the sheer enjoyment of running, it is nice to have races and goals to aim for.  I set myself a pretty heavy schedule between now and the start of July, and this also kicked me into gear.  Maybe too much so...

I have to be honest...I started and deleted this blog a couple of times.  Reason being is at the moment I am down... My passion and motivation is well and truly back in full flight, however I have developed a very sore foot.  I am not sure what this is from, but it seemed to start on my 35km sandal run last Saturday.  I even had two days off running this week to try and heal it...UNHEARD OF!  Even with this rest, it is still bloody sore.

At this point, I am taking each day as it comes and doing what I can.  I am planning on greatly reducing my complete barefoot k's and more using this as a technique stable/foot strengthener.  I will be mainly running in my sandals over the next few days/week at least and Ill see how things go.  I am unsure why this problem has occurred however I do firmly believe that if I had been in shoes it would be even worse.  My feet, ankles, legs and whole body has become so strong since minimizing my footwear, it is unbelievable.

So...I am sorry for my lack of 'OMPF' in this blog.  It is a bit tough.  As much as I don't like sharing negatives, I wrote this blog cause I think it is important to share not only the positives in life but also the hard times.  I hope and pray that this issue will only be a short term thing and that I will be out running 100% ASAP.  Dependent on the length of time it takes to heel, I may need to re-assess my upcoming runs/events...at this point, it looks like my run to Childers is out, but we'll see.

Anyway friends, I am trying my best to stay positive.  As much as running is every part of me, there are SO many beautiful things in my life I have to be thankful for, as I am sure you do!  Have a look around you, smile, laugh at yourself and have fun!

I am thinking and praying for you all and hope this finds you well and running fit!  (Do a couple of k's for me ay!)

Until next time, Run On.

P.S - My daughter this week did her first somersault on her own!  SO proud as I have been trying to teach her to do it for ages!  She is SO stoked!  Love it!

What recovery???

I have a confession…I used to be an elephant runner.  You all know what I am talking about and we have all been next to them in a race…heavy breathing, feet slapping the bitumen sounding…well HORRIBLE and PAINFUL!!!  We then usually find ourselves running faster or slower than normal just to get away from the NOISE!!  I too used to be that guy, a heavy, hard landing, hear me coming like a jumbo jet, heal striking, tattooed runner (not quite as many tattoos as now but you get the idea!).

My recovery from runs used to take an eternity, I was living in Skins, running in calf socks and sometimes skins shorts, icing, heat packs, heck if standing on my head, spinning around whilst balancing plates on my toes would have made my legs feel better, I would have done it!

Note the words used to…

I have had a number of conversation/slightly heated conversations with a number of different people recently about the topic of recovery.  This has been something I have wanted to discuss in my blog for sometime and here we are.  Before I go too much further, I know that a number of you will disagree with me, screw up your faces, hate me forever and probably write a letter to the editor…(that may be an exaggeration!) but I firmly believe in my view points and if you don’t like em well your loss!  Ha!

So…where am I now?  At this point of my running career, my running recovery is almost instant.  I really believe that this is down to a number of minor details however two main contributing factors.  These are :

1)      My shifting and maintaining a vegetarian diet, and

2)      My complete change in running gait.

Ohhhhhh, I can hear the haters already!  As mentioned earlier, don’t be quick to pull me down, have a read with an open mind and you never know, you might be encouraged to further your own journey in better your running!

VEGE GOODNESS:

So, I have read countless articles about how ditching the dead animal and moving over to a plant based diet can improve your life in so many ways and one of these being recovery from training.  I must say, I was a bit of a sceptic when I first started to be interested in becoming vegetarian.  This however has very quickly changed!  Since going all hippy on y’all, I seem to be able to train on a far greater workload than before, run more often and not get sore legs!  I naturally get what I call ‘running tired’ (this is more of a ‘I’m sleepy and need some rest’ tired than a leg tired) but no longer experience the heaviness, concrete, tough battle to recover from long runs that I did before.

Now I am not going to get all scientific on you but this is due to a vast number of reasons (taking in more valuable nutrients, the body’s ability to absorb plant based products much more quickly, plant based foods being ‘lighter’ and easier to digest etc.)  There is a number of websites that are extremely useful and have a wide variety of benefits for, excuse the pun, giving meat the chop!

GAIT…ahhh such a beautiful thing…when right!!!

So, the second thing I attribute to my morph-speed recovery is my change in gait.  Now I am sure that most of you have never even thought about this…or even know what it is.  Gait is our running form/stride length/foot landing position/body movement amongst other things.  Basically, the way we run.

As I mentioned earlier, I used to be a horrible runner.  Sounds weird as it is just putting one foot in front of the other right…WRONG!  Over time, I have eliminated cushioning in my shoes, freed my feet and ditched the shoes all together.  As most of you would know, I now only run in sandals (huaraches) and completely barefoot.  This topic is a whole thesis in itself (I would love to do one one day!) but I will try to summarise!

The basic differences (that I have noticed) between shod (shoes) and un-shod (FREE) running are…

SHOD                                                                         UNSHOD

Heel striking generally                        v                      Forefoot to midfoot landing

Straight leg landing                             v                      Bent leg/knee landing

Damaged, weak feet                           v                      Strong, uninjured feet

Squashed feet when running              v                      Natural splay, free feet

Constant, niggling injury                    v                      Zero to minimal injury

‘Breaking’ with every step                  v                      Natural forward momentum

Lengthened, un-natural stride             v                      Shortened, natural stride

Slow, laboured leg turn over               v                      Quick, energy efficient turnover

Black toenails and swelling                v                      Nil of the mentioned

Heavy landing                                     v                      Up to two thirds lighter landing

Slower, harder running                       v                      Natural, faster running

Effort                                                  v                      Joy!

Now this is not an exhaustive list by any means but certainly some good starters.  This is a whole nother blog topic! 

Sooooo, how does all this help with recovery?  Well I believe (and has been tested and proven by some science clown) that it mainly comes down to the foot landing position. 

When getting out of shoes, or at least going to a minimal one (not ideal but better), the stride is dramatically shortened and your foot lands nearly under your body as apposed to out in front of it.  By doing this, the foot lands on the mid to fore foot and leg turnover is increased.  This also reduces the impact on the foot, ankle, lower and upper leg, knee, hip and all other parts of the body.  All of this in turn reduces body stress and thereby reduces the amount the body needs to recover when finished a run.  No more smashing your legs, just pure, beautiful, unhindered free, light running.

Again, I can see you all giving me the forks and disagreeing.  That’s cool.  I don’t expect all, or any of you to listen to what I say or rant about.  What I do encourage though is for you to open your mind and gain more knowledge about what you do and not just go through the motions.

There are SOOOO many good websites and information out there that go into much more detail than I have here.  I will include a few Google topics below for you if you might be interested.

Life is all about learning, knowledge and growing.  Let’s all keep our minds open and get amongst it!  It is my dream to have all my friends running, injury free, smiling and sharing the same beauty in the simple art of movement that I do.  Running is the most primal, simple, basic form of exercise/enjoyment we were ALL built and born to do.  If you can have the chance to do it, without injury and minimal soreness, trust me, you will fall in love with the bride that is running!

Here ends my rant...

PS – I have ditched the 100mile a week idea due to it affecting my motivation.  I have now done up a pretty hectic 16week program including a run to Childers (road, 55ish k’s sandals), Cooks Tour 50mile (trail, sandals), Rocky River Half Marathon (road, barefoot) and the Gold Coast Marathon (road, barefoot).  Should keep me buzy!

RIPPER GOOGLE SEARCHES

Luna Sandals

Run Bare

The Fruitarian

No Meat Athlete (One of my favourites)

Dirty Runners

Scott Jurek (One of the best ever Ultra Marathoners...and VEGAN)

Running Raw

Barefoot Ken Bob

Tim VanOrden

Anton Krupicka (Possibly my favorite runner, along with Killian.  Minimal runner but still wears shoes)

Encourage...it'll enrich your life!

Give me an E....for Encouragement...a word that goes entirely underrated in today's society!  (Notice how I 'Encouraged you to join in straight up'...oh so sneeky!)

Recently a couple of my mates from church have gotten into some running.  They are training for the Gold Coast (not sure which events yet?!) and are doing a great job.  One of them has run a little...very inconstantly and the other is completely new to running.  Both are now being consistent with their training which is super!  I have been doing some running with them too and also been running with a few other local runners, newish to endurance events and I have been trying to help them along.

Life in today's society is so focused on the negative and ourselves that we often need a little kick in the backside to see through the haze.  Let me just say that your life could be, I would say surely would be, enriched if you encourage someone today!

Often in running it is tough as we run at 'our pace' and find it frustrating and difficult running at another persons slower pace.  I have come to learn over time though that this is so very important, not only for the 'slower' person but also for your mental strength!  By running with other and encouraging them to a) get out running and b) make them push themselves, it will make your heart smile to see others achieve.  Today I saw two of my friends Jodie and Matt achieve personal bests in both running time and distance!  TOPS!!!  I truly believe that it is far, far more important for us to sacrifice one or two runs a week to get a new, slower, not as strong mentally, struggling for motivation etc friend out of the house and running with you (all be it at a slower pace than you are used to) than your running alone and your mate either run alone slowly or worse, not run at all!

There are many, many things in life more important than self or ego and helping those around us is way further up the list than these things!  Now this doesn't even just apply to running, obviously!  Encourage someone today...build someone up, try to be more positive today than yesterday, smile more, help someone, say something nice when someone says something nasty (oh they will find it so frustrating!)  There are plenty of haters in this world so lets try to make a difference, one person at a time, one thought at a time, one action at a time!  A challenge, maybe, but all be it a healthy, honest one!

Diverting slightly...info on the last couple of weeks.  After my little hospital visit, my toe has slowly healed.  The skin is still tender however is on the mend.  This week I have done almost 100k both barefoot and in sandals so things are looking up.

I have also made a big decision last week.  As most of you know I am still training for the Cooks Tour 50mile race in May.  I have also now decided to train for my first completely barefoot marathon!  I am doing the beginners program for the Gold Coast Marathon barefoot and then making up the rest of my k's each week in my sandals.  It will prove to be a challenge but one that I am very excited about!

Now that I am almost back to full strength, I have also decided to start my 100miles per week (160k) for 10weeks tomorrow!  I know this is a big challenge but one that I am going to strangle the life out of!  I am hoping to throw a couple of 200k weeks (well try to anyway!) in there as well so it should be fun!  LOADS of running and LOADS of good times!

Well that about wraps things up this week!  I have had a really positive week this week, making some new friends online who are super athletes and meeting some amazing new local friends!  I pray that your day and week ahead is full of smiles, good times, challenges, stupid amounts of running, love, friendship and nature!  Keep living life to the full and moving forward friends!  Love you all!

Run on...

PS - A massive congratulations to our good friend Nix who this week got engaged to our new friend Andrew!  (Sorry boys you missed out!)  Tegs and I are so amazingly happy for you both and pray that God will bless your socks off!  AWESOME!  

Ups and downs...

So, since my last blog it has been a hectic, up and down two weeks!  I will work my way through sequentially to make it easy to understand!

I started the 1million kilo challenge and my new running goal with great excitement and anticipation!  I was at the Academy for a work course all the first week so pretty much all I did was run and go to class.  It was fun!  The jump in k's I wanted to achieve seemed substantial but I plugged through k by k.

On the first Saturday, I had a race at Mt Glorious.  It was to be a 'short' race for me, 22k but it had 1200m of elevation.  It was up in the Deagular National Park, North West of Brisbane where I had never been before and it was incredible!  An absolutely beautiful place!  I met up with good friends Tylana and the Rusty Ironman.  I also got to meet Seivland who I had been communicating with via Facebook since the North Face 100.  Good times!  We had some good laughs before the start, especially at a pink princess that forgot her shoes!  The Rusty Ironman and I offered to whip her up some sandals but she opted for a pair of innocent school kids shinny white Asics instead!  Scared I think! Ha!

We started the race and there was a creek crossing in the first meters!  We then started climbing up a steep incline for HALF AN HOUR!  We then went down a steep decline for HALF AN HOUR!  Tough first hour!  Things then were still steep but a little more rolling.  I had some great conversations with people about sandals and barefooting and this made the time go very quickly, along with the beautiful scenery.  The last about 2km was single track switchbacks through amazing rain forest going up another hill.  This running seemed so easy as it is my absolute favorite to run!  Single track love!  The knot on my left sandal pulled through in the last k, which I had been waiting to happen for about a month.  I had my trusty Bear Grylls knife to fix them but I thought I would just, to the confused looks on everyone's faces, finish barefoot!  Good times!  There was a great feed at the end and lots of smiling faces.  After a while I got a lift with Seivland and her partner back to my car and I headed home...thanks for the fun guys!

Now, after the race, I re-tied my left sandal...too tight on the top strap...stand by for more in a sec...

I arrived home to my lovely family and good times!  I weighed in on Monday and had lost 1.3kg...stoked with the first weeks efforts...however this is where the trouble started.

I am often asked if I get rubbing between my toes from my sandals.  I have been in them for nearly six months now and never had a drama.  HOWEVER, due to my having the top strap on my left sandal too tight, and not taking too much notice of it, my runs on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday came at a cost.  Between my left big toe and second toe rubbed, and rubbed, and rubbed...leaving about a bizilion layers of skin GONE!

Now I like to think when it comes to running I am pretty tough (not much else though!)  But by Thursday things had gotten too much.  I was still trying to stick to my goal of 100miles for 10 weeks but my foot was in agony.  I tried on Thursday to run in my sandals and only made it a k because of the pain.  I then thought, well I will run in my old trail shoes for a couple of days till my foot heals.  I put them on and instantly they felt wrong!  I ran 10meters down the road and I literally felt like someone elses legs had been attached to my body!  Running in shoes, I am convinced is the most un-natural, leg, hip, ankle, foot, whole body destroyer ever invented! Everything felt SO wrong.  I threw my shoes to the dogs and just went barefoot.  I then decided on Friday to do two runs in my Merrell Trail Gloves, a minimal shoe with no cushioning and only a 4mm flat sole.  These are better than convential shoes however at the end of my two runs that day my feet were mush!  I now have bad blisters and rub marks all over my feet...STUPID SHOES!  I then threw these to the dogs!

My long awaited new Luna Sandals did arrive on the Thursday though.  I got a spare second on the Friday to check em out and try a new lacing method.  Due to all my drama and wanting to maintain my 160k weeks, I decided to tape and pad my toe and tough it out on Saturday after working 8p-4a.  The run was a little painful but due to the thinner leather on my new sandals was bearable.  I ran 35k and I gotta tell you, did not even struggle!  The high mileage is doing me GOLD!

My VERY sore foot!!!

So I slept Saturday for another night shift last night...and it was painful.  All night at work, my toe/foot was in constant pain.  I was due to do 25k Sunday morning after knocking off but my foot was too bad!  After a large amount of convincing from Dad, Tegan and other running mates, I decided, begrudgingly to not run and go up to the hospital.  I got my toe looked at and the Doctor said it had turned into an ulcer and if I wasn't careful it could spread to the rest of my toe, foot and leg.  He was up in the air about antibiotics however he thought it wasn't quite at that stage yet.  He said I needed to take a few days off running to let it heal a little.  He said that I could then return to some running barefoot and back in my sandals when it had pretty much fully healed.  He was really understanding of my running commitments and I'm glad Ill hopefully be able to get back to some short barefooting on Wednesday...see how it goes.

Although I am extremlly disappointed, I am glad I went and got it looked at before getting any worse, it is SORE!

So, this has postponed my goal of the 100mile weeks for 10weeks.  My plan is to have an easy week this week, build again the following week and then look at restarting the goal the following week.  This will be perfect timing before my next big race, the Cooks tour.  I managed 160k the first week and 135km this week.  I will achieve this personal running goal, I just have to wait a bit for it!

Even though my foot is sore, I would prefer to have this problem a billion times that run in shoes.  The feeling of my 20m run in them Thursday re-confirmed how un-natural they are and how bad they are for the entire body.  Sandals are here to stay...just make sure you dont have them too tight!!!!!

So, on the food front, this week has been very up and down.  I have had a bit of a shocker and as a result have decided to not weigh in tomorrow.  I am refocusing and going to smash this week out of the water.  I am keen as mustard to see a big loss on the scales Monday week.

So that is the last two weeks homies!  It has been hectic and up and down, but what doesn't kill us makes us stronger!  I will enjoy this week of barefooting and can not wait to slip my sandals back on and smash out the k's!

I hope and pray that you are all going super and loving those around you!  Keep smiling and loving life and I cant wait to catch you soon!  Love ya'll!!  Until next time,

Run on....

As a side note, a massive congratulations to Ben and Andy who did the Caboolture 12hour run last night!  Ben managed 78km and Andy did a massive 90k!  Super effort boys, your an inspiration!