Barefooting Across the United States

(Picture from The Epoch Times on September 9, 2009). I heard about this story a few weeks ago, but now it has begun. A guy is running from New York to California barefoot to raise funds for homeless youth! Is that crazy or what? Seems like this is a great cause and I wish him well on his 3200-mile journey. I'm mostly interested in the barefoot running aspect of this adventure. I hope he updates people on how things are going during the run (beyond the charity part of the event). How are his feet & legs holding up? What type of daily recovery routine does he have? Are other barefoot people joining him for parts of the run? Now that I've gotten more and more into barefoot and FiveFinger shoe running, a stunt like this is extremely interesting to me. I'll be keeping an eye on his web site.

His name is Tellman Knudson and here is more information on his cross-America trek:

Tellman's blog

Trans World News article

Epoch Times article

This guy even looks like Forest Gump. I encourage you to check out his blog posts and videos. Pretty interesting. Run Tellman run! Good luck. I hope this draws attention to his charity cause and also barefoot running (in a positive way).

Damn that Heart Rate Monitor!

Lately I have found myself engaged in a conversation with my heart rate monitor...

Monitor says, "Beep, beep...beep, beep..."
I reply, "Alright already! I'll pick up the pace!"

This sequence repeats itself every few minutes as I do my daily 5-mile trail loop.

For the first time in quite a while I have been setting my HR monitor to its audible alarm mode. My current zone setting is 112-142 (that's my MAP and MEP zones combined). For more on Phil Maffetone, Stu Mittleman and my heart rate zones, see my July 17, 2008 blog post. I'm trying to build endurance and aerobic capacity and don't care much for the anaerobic stuff right now. These two zones will keep me going easy and aerobic--perfect for ultra training. The audible alert will keep me from going too fast. That's a good thing--especially since I tend to push too hard on many of my "easy" days. I didn't expect to have problems on the other end of the zone.

I should have no problem staying within these zones on easy runs...unfortunately, I tend to slip BELOW the lowest setting rather often! I usually walk the longer hills on my normal trail run and the HR alarm will go off after just a few seconds. No chance to enjoy the down time. Heck, the darn alarm will even go off when I'm jogging easy on the downhill sections. I think this is a good sign--my cardio-vascular system recovers quickly and I end up with a heart rate of 110 or so very quickly. That's a sign of sound health and fitness. But it bothers me when that dang alarm goes off..."Alright already!" can be heard on the Lake of the Woods trails almost everyday now as I hear the alarm, curse, and pick up the pace.

Overall, it's annoying, but I like the extra prodding to "pick up the pace" and get back into a solid aerobic zone. Walking is OK, but it doesn't build much aerobic capacity. I want an easy workout, but I still want a workout. As I become fitter and fitter, my pace will be faster at the same low base heart rate. I dream of being so fit one day that the darn heart rate monitor will beep when my heart rate hits 112 and I'm "only" loping along at 7:00 pace. That would be sweet! And annoying at the same time. Gotta love technology.

PS: I have a feeling my heart rate monitor won't be beeping at me for going below my zone at the Canadian Death Race next year. It easily could be beeping for exceeding my HR limits.

Canadian Death Race

I just realized I'm not in as good of shape as I thought I was...and it took a darn arc trainer to let me know! I did a couple gym sessions on cross training equipment like the elliptical, stair climber and arc trainer. Damn, those suckers are hard when you increase the resistance and incline! My heart rate was jumping well into the 160s. Hills are not my forte. So what's that matter? I live in central Illinois and we don't have big hills. Even Clinton Lake, Forest Glen, and McNaughton Park are pretty tame as far as long or steep hills are concerned. What do I care if I'm not a "hill person"? In general, I don't care. Unfortunately, lately I have been thinking about doing the Canadian Death Race in 2010.

The Canadian Death Race is a 125km trail race in early August way up in the Canadian Rockies. It starts and finishes in Grande Cache, Alberta. It goes over 3 mountain summits and has 17,000 feet of elevation gain. I'm not ready for that kind of race with those kind of mountains! I need to begin preparations for next August right now. I'll be running the local "tough" trails (Clinton Lake, Forest Glen, McNaughton Park) as much as possible this fall, winter, and spring. I'll also be visiting the gym on a regular basis to do uphill running and walking on the treadmill, stair climbing, and elliptical and arc trainer workouts. If I am in reasonable shape come January 2010, I'll sign-up for the Canadian Death Race. If not, I guess I'll have to settle for Howl at the Moon 8-Hour for my big summer race. Howl at the Moon isn't too bad, is it? At least the promotional tag line for Howl at the Moon isn't "It's a Killer!"