One of the things I’ve learned through reading Dr. Phil Maffetone’s books is the importance of aerobic training.

If you’re like me, the phrase “aerobic training” conjures up pictures of running, cycling, swimming, dancing, and the like. That’s all well and good, but when you train at too high a heart rate level you risk injury, over-training, and ill health, regardless of what fitness level you achieve.

Most of the home-study programs out there are made for people who have already established a solid aerobic fitness level. They’re not for beginners. Want to know if your program is one of them?

Subract your age from 180. That number is generally your maximum aerobic pace – in other words, the actual pace you should train at. You should not exceed it.

For example, my MHRT is 126 (I needed to subtract another 5 due to an injury and haphazard training over the past year). Most people can hardly climb stairs at that heart rate, let alone complete an all-out workout DVD or Aerobic class.

When we consistently train at the correct (180-age) pace we will see quick improvement in our speed, improved fitness and health, and we should never sustain any kind of stress injury.

This past week Tom and I established our training heart rates, and set up our training schedule. I’m not too impressed with the huge dump of snow we just got, and the first few days of our “Two Week Test” had us feeling tired and crummy, suffering from caffeine withdrawal and a head cold, no less! So we postponed the start of our training to this week, but the incredibly cold temperatures are also keeping us inside (sigh). We’ll be buying a treadmill for Christmas!! Once it’s in place and/or the weather warms up, we’ll be following this slower regimen, and we’ll keep you posted on the results!

If you want more information about this training method, here’s Dr. Maffetone’s article: Want Speed? Slow Down!

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There’s something truly wonderful about feeling earth beneath one’s feet. The feel of the rocks, grass, different textures, different temperatures. There’s a feeling of “connectedness” that happens when one is outside with bare feet.

Now my issue is that my feet are always cold, so bare feet isn’t always an option, but when it is, I’m all for it. Many of you are aware of the weird shoes I wear when I train, and the only time I wear anything else for training is when it gets below -20°C, and my Vibrams can no longer keep my feet warm enough to avoid frostbite – a discovery I made with some consternation last year.

Also, unless you’ve got (or want) really calloused, hard feet, you’re going to need some minimal protection to keep your feet from getting rubbed raw or stabbed by sharp rocks and glass. There are some great companies out there with shoes that totally fit the bill of being almost barefoot. Take a look:

Vibram Five Finger
FeelMax
Terra Plana Vivo Barefoot
Tom’s Shoes (and these ones come with a cause!)
Soft Star Shoes
Arrow Moccasins
Pocket Slippers
Walking Liberty Moccasins
Gola Store
Steger mukluks and moccasins
Socwa Shoes
Stem Footwear
Skora

Should be enough choice there for even the fussiest of tastes!

Of course, if you’re so inclined, you can even make your own: How to Make Cool Weather Minimalist Running Shoes – wikiHow

The problem is, we’ve all been brainwashed to believe that God had no idea what He was doing when he designed feet, and so we must make up for His lack of education. We’ve designed footwear with so much support and cushioning that our feet no longer know how to “read the road” and we get injured. In fact the injury rate in those who wear “properly designed running shoes” is much higher than in people who run barefoot. Don’t believe me? Check the evidence: Barefoot Science

Or take a look at this site, with some interesting video: The Definitive Guide For Going Barefoot

And then there’s this one that’s almost humorous from Stanford’s Athletics team: The painful truth about trainers: Are expensive running shoes a waste of money?

I think Vibram says it best on their site

The typical human foot is an anatomical marvel of evolution with 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles, and hundreds of sensory receptors (over 7000 nerve endings apparently -DH), tendons and ligaments. Like the rest of the body, to keep our feet healthy, they need to be stimulated and exercised.

Some of you reading this have some real issues with your feet – plantar fasciitis, flat feet, etc. For those of you there is a great book called “Fix Your Feet: Build the Best Foundation for Healthy, Pain-Free Knees, Hips, and Spine” by Dr. Phil Maffetone with some simple, yet effective treatment for problem feet. (read teven Robbins, Edward Waked, and Ron Rappel. “Ankle taping improves proprioception before and after exercise in young men,” British Journal of Sports Medicine, 29(4), 1995, pp. 242-247 for more background information on his methods).

Now, if you’re used to those comfy shoes, don’t go whole hog on me and decide to go totally barefoot starting tomorrow. You need to break your feet in slowly – remember, all those muscles are now badly aligned and atrophied. You can’t fix that overnight.

Start going barefoot at home. Then get yourself a nice pair of minimalist shoes and wear them around outside in your daily activities. Take them for a longer walk, then use them to do your warm-ups and cool-downs when you run, etc.  Go slowly, and retrain your feet to work the way they were designed to work.

Ah, the joy of setting my feet free – it’s such a great feeling, that once you try it, you’ll probably never go back to traditional shoes.  I know I dread dressing up with heels…

Oh, and if you’re like me, cold feet all the time, you might want to check out this site: Cold Feet, and see if you can nail down the cause. I’m going to spend a little time here myself to see if I can generate nice toasty toes for myself!

What do you  think, am I nuts (well, ok, that fact has already been established numerous times!)  Have you tried this yourself?  What’s your opinion?  Comment below!  I’d love to have your input.

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My funky shoes have become my trademark, and rightly so.  I adore them.  Given my ‘druthers, I’d wear nothing else (well, nothing else on my feet, that is..).  They are just the greatest thing to have on your feet, though they won’t help you win any fashion points!

With the Frostbite, I’ve had to switch to something different when the temperatures are below 0°C to prevent frostbite from happening again, but I’m not happy about it.  This is the case at least until Vibram gets caught up with their world-wide back orders.  They do have winter shoes, but none in stock in my size anywhere in the world, apparently.

Everyone thinks you need all this cushioning and support for your feet.  The research now shows that the more you pay for your shoes, the more likely you are to be injured.  When you buy shoes – especially for exercise – the rule of thumb is, “the less the better” if you want strong feet, and if you want to avoid injury.

According to the Vibram site:

The typical human foot is an anatomical marvel of evolution with 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles, and hundreds of sensory receptors, tendons and ligaments. Like the rest of the body, to keep our feet healthy, they need to be stimulated and exercised.

That’s why we recommend wearing FiveFingers for exercise, play, and for fun. Stimulating the muscles in your feet and lower legs will not only make you stronger and healthier, it improves your balance, agility and proprioception.

Want more information on getting the best shoes for your feet?  Check out this excellent article

Still not convinced?  Read this: Athletic Shoes & Supports: Facts & Myths

Want to risk trying the Vibram Five Finger shoes?  Get them here -but you’ll probably have to wait until Spring.  Sigh.

Happy Walking!

Darlene

A couple of weeks ago I developed frostbite on the toes of both feet during one of my longer walks.  I’ve been working hard to take care of my toes properly since that time, and hoping that the feeling will come back in most, if not all of them.

Well a friend of mine is in to Essential Oils and gave me some Helichrysum Italicum to massage into my toes to see if the feeling comes back.  The good news is that my toes – all except for the very tip of my left big toe – have their feeling back, and are functioning as normal.   The problem seems to be that the frostbite created a very thick layer of dead skin around the tips and bottom of my toes that wasn’t really visible – it looked completely normal.  The massaging removed that, and now all is well.

Whew!

I still have to be careful in the future to not allow my feet to get cold, but my new “Post Frostbite Kit” seems to be keeping all the cold away completely.

Today I get to start back in to my full training program again.  This is a happy lady!

Darlene

Ok, so it’s a week since my Sunday Frostbite fiasco.  Winter walking will never be the same.

First of all, there seems to be some permanent damage – especially in the fourth toe on my left foot – the one that went gray.    Dead as a doornail, that one.  The rest are tingly at the tips, some are still a little tender, but not bad.  Yesterday I was able to wear my normal shoes without pain, though, so that was great.

Last night I visited some “new” friends – well, I was actually his Gr. 12 prom date, and haven’t seen him since… I found him on Facebook, connected with his brilliant wife – who seems to be my twin separated from me at birth – and she’s into Essential Oils.  Last night while we visited at their lovely country home, Sue offered to massage my feet with some Essential Oils (not many people have offered to massage my feet EVER, let alone after knowing me for fewer than 12 hours…).  This morning my toes felt irritated more than usual, which gives me hope that this oil mix/massage might be waking up some of those dead nerves.  We’ll see what happens over the next few days.

I saw the doctor on Friday and he made it clear that I must now be extremely cautious for the rest of my life as I am now 10x more likely to get frostbite again.  As someone who has freezing feet even at the height of summer, I felt somewhat doomed by that statement, and knew I had to re-think winter walking.

SO…

Today my most-generous-of-all-wonderful-husbands drove me down to Gord’s Running Store to check out some different options.  The problem is that Vibrams strengthen all the foot muscles and allow your feet to work the way they were designed to.  “Normal” running shoes don’t – they support everything to the point that the muscles in your feet atrophy, and no longer work the way they were designed to work.  By switching between the two you end up living in a place where you go from body-builder to wheelchair-bound and back again – at least as far as your feet are concerned.  WAAAAY too much work!

I explained my dilemma to the incredibly helpful saleswoman, and told her I don’t want to spend six weeks during the peak training season re-strengthening my feet when the snow goes and the temperature warms up, and I can be back in my Vibrams.

She directed me to Biom Shoes.  You have to sacrifice your first born to afford them (Simon’s a good kid, he won’t mind…) but they apparently encourage natural motion in your foot and they keep the foot muscles strong. Not everyone believes they achieve that, but my options are limited at this point in time.

Knowing that the real key is keeping my feet warm at all times, I bought the shoe two sizes too big after trying them on with double socks – one very thick hiking sock and a standard fitness sock – and insoles, because I’m also going to be investing in thermal insoles.

While I was there I got two pairs of Injinji Outdoor socks made with micro-fine Merino wool to make sure my toes don’t rub together and get lesions that get infected without me knowing it (when your toes are numb, you don’t know there’s a problem…) and also to keep my feet warm, as Merino wool is “excellent at regulating body temperature, especially when worn against the skin. The wool provides some warmth, without overheating the wearer. It draws moisture (sweat) away from the skin, a phenomenon known as wicking. The fabric is slightly moisture repellent (keratin fibers are hydrophobic at one end and hydrophillic at the other), allowing the user to avoid the feeling of wetness” (according to Wikipedia)  And, of course, I can wear these in cooler Spring/Autumn temperatures in my Vibrams and still keep my tootsies warm.

Finally I got some ice-grips.  A few close calls made me realize that adding a numb head to numb toes would make walking impossible (though I’m sure many of you think the head’s already numb…) so I decided to not take any chances.

And there went the second child – thanks, Tina!  LOL!

So now I have cool gear on my feet to keep the toes toasty, I’m all set to go!   I’m breaking in the new shoes over this weekend, and I’ll do an easy 1 hour on Monday to test them out.

Wish me luck!

Darlene

(PS – who was it who said that walking is a very inexpensive sport?)

(PS – and never fear! I’ll be back in my beloved Vibrams once the temperatures are above 10˚C!)

(PPS – Oh, and just kidding there about exchanging my kids for cool gear.   The kids are here and safe…)

I was so proud of myself for getting out for my 3 hour walk yesterday in spite of the -19°C/-2°F temperatures. I bundled up, set up my technology, and headed down what was actually a beautiful pathway with fresh snow that sparkled in the sun.

As usual, my toes got pretty cold when I started out, but I knew that once I hit training speed, they’d warm up and be fine. Or, so I thought. Yesterday was a “ladder” walk, a kind of Interval walk where you jump around into different heart rate zones, several of which are quite slow. At times my feet felt fine. Other times, my toes were quite cold, but not painfully so.

On the way home, however, I began to feel quite uncomfortable and about 1km from home, when I should have been in HR Zone 2 (HR in the mid-90′s) I just kept it up in HR Zone 5 (HR in the mid 130′s) because my right foot felt numb, and both feet were feeling uncomfortable.

I got home and found a hot meal waiting for me, so I peeled off my shoes and snow gear, and sat down to eat. My feet began to thaw over lunch, but my toes were still numb. After lunch and a cup of tea I finally got my socks off – and realized how wet they were. I looked at my feet and discovered 3 toes were an odd grey-colour, and all my toes were bright red. One was swollen. My feet, however, were very warm.

It was then I realized I had frostbite.

Thankfully it wasn’t really serious frostbite, but I quickly did some research to treat my feet to make sure I didn’t damage them further.

Following instructions to continue to keep them warm and dry, I had a quick, not-too-warm shower, put on clean Injinji socks to keep the toes separated, wrapped those in fuzzy warm socks, and then slipped on my hut booties. Feet were toasty, but as the toes began to heal, the pain started. By dinner time I could no longer walk – it felt like a 200lb someone was standing on my bare toes with work boots on. There was no place to “put” my feet. No place brought release – raised, down, with weight on them, without weight. The only relief came from walking so I walked around the dining room table for about 40 minutes trying to cope with the pain. I have no idea what serious frostbite feels like, but if this is mild, I never want to find out.

Finally at about 6:30 I took some ibuprofen and crawled into bed. It was after 7:00 before I could tolerate covers.

This morning I’m still in quite a bit of pain, but it’s tolerable. I don’t walk too well, but at least it’s not excruciating when I just sit. Toes feel like they’re soaking in “too hot” water.

The real dilemma is, where do I go from here? Looks like new VFF’s won’t be ready before March (!!). I don’t have any shoes to walk in other than my regular day shoes which will get totally wrecked in the snow and salt outside. Do I pay $160 for shoes that will “do me” until the VFF’s are back in stock?  I do have my Sketcher‘s (which I stopped wearing almost right away because they “re-activated” an ankle issue I used to have), but with the lack of feedback from the thick soles and the rocking soles on sheer ice, I’m liable to end up in the hospital with a concussion wearing those.

ARGH.

Well, one thing is for sure – no walking this week! I’m not sure what I’ll do with all that extra time…

Darlene

Every now and then I hit a place in my walking where I need to take about a week off.  Because I’ve never had problems starting up again, I allow myself this grace.  It happens about once or twice a year.  No biggie.

About a month ago, such a time had arrived.  I just needed a break, so I took a week off.  That weekend I got the dreaded flu, and the following two weeks, while there were no messy flu symptoms, I was so tired as to be useless.  I did do a couple of walks, but not enough to brag about, and each one left me drained and exhausted.

Following that my husband and I took a week off and went to Montana.  Training wasn’t even slightly in the picture.

In the meantime, due to complications with getting the winter version of my “funky feet” I succumbed and bought a pair of Skechers.  Since having begun with my Vibram 5 fingers, I’ve really only worn shoes with next to no support or cushioning in them, and my feet have loved it.  When I got the Skechers (SUPER comfy shoes with lots of support and cushioning) I’ve been wearing them quite a lot to get my feet used to them, and have hardly worn my normal shoes.

So for about a month I’ve not done much in the way of serious walking, and my feet have also been relaxing in these lovely skooshie shoes.  On Monday I went for my first serious walk in ages, with my Vibrams, and came home with feet screaming in agony.

I told them to “suck it up” and went again on Wednesday.  Well, my feet then went on strike altogether and I could hardly walk.  It meant I had to take a break from walking yet again, and baby my feet, getting them used to the Vibrams again.

What a nuisance.

The moral of the story is “suck it up”.  Don’t get lazy.  And if you DO get lazy, don’t let your feet get lazy too.

Ouch.

Darlene

As I write this, I’m in Steamboat Springs Colorado, on a family vacation that’s turning out to be “Just what the doctor ordered”.

Monday’s  post was a little on the down side as I was writing them while being frustrated with pain and injury.

Monday itself was completely different.

I’ve had a bad run of luck with injury.  First the sciatica, then while packing, I managed to badly scrape my left hand on some velcro (that stuff can be NASTY!) opening scrapes all down the back of my hand.  Sunday, while thoroughly enjoying the Alpine Slide with my family I managed to slam my hand in the joint of the safety bar on the chair lift going back up the hill.  I pinched it pretty hard, and it still hurts to type.  Tuesday night I had a terrible migraine, probably due to mild sun-stroke as I spent the day outside without a hat or sufficient water.  Stupid.

Monday morning (last Monday as you read this) I woke up early without the aid of an alarm clock (6:30 am), got up and did some meaningful quiet time with God, and then headed out for my first training walk in over 2 weeks.  14k.  I managed to get onto a beautiful bike path that meanders along a river, some ponds, and along the back of a botanical garden, all beautifully shaded and full of wildlife (just the small, cute stuff).  Instead of pushing too hard into training, I decided to just walk.  I put on a “shuffle” list of worship songs, set up my Nike+iPod, and headed off.

While walking I was overwhelmed by the beauty around me in combination of my favourite praise music, and I found myself feeling as if I were almost flying.  At different points along the route I actually burst out singing – which was probably awful, as I was moving reasonably fast, and had earphones in – poor neighbors! – I was so full of joy.

Joy of being back in health, joy of movement, joy of the beauty around me (Steamboat Springs is quite pretty – a little like Banff Springs, but not quite so spectacular), joy of hanging out with my family with no pressures or time lines.  Joy in what God had brought to me even in the pain of the past two weeks of recovery.

God is good.  Even in the dark. It’s wonderful to be free to celebrate Him out loud, to walk out my praise in the midst of His beauty.

Joy.

Darlene

Marathon Countdown: 28 days

After months of training, massive research, and now a rapidly approaching race date, I find myself “out of action” with the onset of Sciatica in my left leg. I’m technically supposed to be in my most intense training week before the race, and I find myself sitting on the couch.

Waiting.

My natural desire is to ignore it, and keep on going – I mean, I’ve put a lot of energy and time into this race, and I don’t want to have to not complete it because of a stupid injury. I’m angry. Frustrated. Impatient. Discouraged. Getting Desperate.

My wisdom says “wait”. There’s something to be learned here. Something needs correction. Something is out of alignment. I need wisdom greater than my own, and I need to tackle this calmly and patiently.

I’m afraid I’m not very good at this. I really just want to fight, push through, and win anyways.

I hate weakness. I wonder what that says about me?

Darlene

PS I Wrote this last week as I prepared everything for going away.  The good news is that God in His mercy gave wisdom to a highly skilled Chiropractor who, with the most painful adjustment I’ve ever endured, corrected the problem.  This morning I go walking for the first time in two weeks.  Yahoo!