Impossible possibility thinking

We begin with a question and when I say begin I mean it's coming next.

Is it possible for me to run a marathon, barefoot, in under 4 hours? Well, of course anything's possible you might say. If you believe you can achieve, I'm sure I've heard that somewhere you'd tweet merrily, not to know I don't tweet read.

Background seems to be a good place to start and mine is quick and minimal. I used to run of course, that's how all these things start. I used to run well, and that's even worse - it means I still believe I can, somewhere deep in my sole. (Yes I know, funny aren't I!) I've been looking into barefoot running too, like what children and hippys and tramps do, more than that I've been doing some.
Not recently obviously, 'cause it's been cold and that'd defeat the hilarious stupidness of the challenge I'm setting myself. There is of course an ulterior motive, my wedding in the summer for which I'd like to look all trim and nice and that. Oh and attractive, I forgot to say attractive.

So, background done it's expansion on the premise I suppose. Liverpool, which is quite near where I live, is meant to be getting a marathon in October, which is 9 months from now time. Unless, of course, the austerity measures apply to people running in groups, in which case we may be forecasting a 70% cut and just running through someones house a few times.
Furthermore I've been completely taken in by the deception that is barefoot running, even running 7 miles on pavement and sand, barefoot, with no ill a/effects (delete as appropriate).

Well, there you have it. A slightly bellyfied 24er wants to run a marathon with no shoes on. And if you thought that was good wait till my next update, if there even is one!

Yesterday

I'm starting to get the hang of posting a day after I've exercised and not letting on to you, dear reader.

14/06/10

55 push ups: 2 sets of 20, 1 set of 15.
40 sit ups: 2 sets of 20

I took it easier last night, mostly because I'd given myself the weekend off and my arms didn't quite make 60 push ups. On a side note, is it push ups or pushups? I did 10 demonstration leg lifts earlier in the day and didn't get around to doing them last night as I was tired, boohoo.

I'm hoping to go running again on Friday, with a bout of heavy piano lifting on wednesday night and possible climb next week. Who knows. Well, I will in a week or so.

Friday and the weekend

11/06

2 mile barefoot run on the beach
10 pull ups: 1 set of 10
20 push ups: 1 set of 20
15 leg lifts: 1 set of 15

A brilliant run along the beach in bare feet with my brother convinced me that barefoot running is great and running in general is excellent.

I had a busy weekend so took the time off, with the absolute that I must get straight back in to the routine tonight.

I've just gone and got myself a training log on the Runner's World website, it's nice and free and easy to use, so I think I'll be using that from now on to log all the runs et al., I'll be using this blog to describe purchases, moods, experiences etc. Good.

Day 2 of this.

So first let's get on with yesterday's report.

10/06/10

60 push ups: 3 sets of 20
30 sit ups: 2 sets of 15
30 leg lifts: 2 sets of 15

72KG

So, I hit the core pretty hard last night, for me anyway and slept pretty well. I've almost finished Born to Run and find myself really wanting to both run more and finish the flipping book, if only to find out what happened.

I'm planning on going for a barefoot run this evening, perhaps I'll even take someone with me, most likely to be my brother, **NAME DELETED**. I'll be running on the beach just a short drive from my house and will run at most 2 miles, and if I take my brother with me I'll explain all about taking it slow and it being okay to walk in bare feet etc.

I've noticed a little more definition in the pectorals, which were sagging, after this week or slightly less of hard press ups. I think 60 is a good amount at the minute, the last couple were really quite hard, so I'll stick to that for not too long so that I can build up some stamina. At some point I'm hoping to shift my exercise from night time, to evening and then hopefully all the way to mornings, but I'm awful at getting up in the mornings at the moment, so still some work to do on that.

Next week, after pay day, I may well order some chia seeds and try and make some iskiate, just to see how it tastes/works/affects my life. I'm planning to do two barefoot runs next week, one each free evening and maybe just kick about in the garden barefoot a bit, as well as in the park if I can make it.

Good.

Why, what and other double ewes.

I started reading a book that a lot of other people had read, called 'Born to Run' by Christopher McDougall. Apparently every runner in the world and their sperm has read this, but I hadn't, so well done me (or my Dad's sperm if your thinking like that).
In the book there's a lot of talk about a tribe in Mexico that McDougall sets off to find and learn from, and they run using enjoyment and native-y type flip-flops called huaraches, the spelling of which I'm now checking and is now correct.
To cut a long intro short, the book extols the virtues of running barefoot and getting back to a state where you enjoy running again, so as to improve. I was excited by this so I've started this blog to chronicle my exploits and also my journey back to fitness. Like an exercise diary, but online and with poorer jokes.

It seems funny, as an aside and overview, how this all links in with other interests and exercise philosophies that I have and have come across, it reminds me a lot of the Methode Naturele of Georges Herbert, one of the guys who inspired David Belle and Sebastien Foucan in Parkour and I was delighted to see a recommendation for Parkour on the Nicholas Romanov website, a guy who works on 'pose running' which is an interesting concept for you to go and look up yourself. I'm also interested in the Alexander technique and how this could apply to running, something I may take a class in much later from the much vaunted naturalrunner.com guys.

So, on with the diary: 9/06/10

55 push ups in 2 sets of 20 and one of 15.
30 crunches in 2 sets of 15.
20 leg lifts in 2 sets of 10.
2 minutes of jogging on the spot barefoot (I'm conditioning see) in 2 sets of 1 min.

As with most exercise routines, I'm looking to push till I feel I can't push up, or crunch, or etc, apart from with the running as I'm getting my feet back used to running barefoot. I've done quite a bit of barefoot running around in the park recently, but I want to make it more consistent and scientifical, so I've started at the start and will work up.

My GOAL is to get down from my current 72kg to a much more trim and reasonable 64kg or 65kg, which is a drop of 8kgs or so, maths fans, or if you're old and mentally infirm, from 11 stone 5 to just over 10 stone, which is a good size for me.

So there.