Starting at 6am, I ran from St Heliers Bay Road (along Tamaki Drive) to Okahu Bay Road and back, twice. It was another beautiful, perfectly still day.

All was going reasonably well till just before the 15km mark, where I realised a tendon under my right foot had tightened up so much I was probably going to have to stop. The top of my left foot was pretty tight, too.

I stopped and did some stretching (flexing the toes back on my right foot) till it felt like the tendon had loosened up a bit. I gingerly starting running again to test it. Fortunately, I was able to keep running; though, I thought at any minute I might have to stop. My feet, thankfully, let me keep going for the final five ks, but not without difficulty.

In the second half of any barefoot run, my soles normally start getting a bit sensitive.  On Sunday morning, that, combined with dodging an increasing number of people on the footpath and ensuring I relaxed so my tendons didn’t tighten up too much, took a lot of concentration.

Finally, I crossed my imaginary finish line!

I was happy that I’d been able to run the whole way, but pretty sore for it—and even tighter and sorer for the next two days.

But hey, I’d run 20km—in bare feet. It’s not surprising that my feet, which had not done this before, complained a bit!

I’m happy to report that, as of today, my legs and feet are feeling a lot better! I just have to keep gently stretching the tendons in my feet, so that doesn’t happen again. In fact, if I had’ve stopped earlier in the run and stretched them, it might not have been quite the battle it was.

Interestly, I had no trouble at all with my Achilles during the run; although, they were both quite tight the next day. The eccentric exercises must be working.

To do the 20km, it took me 2:22:31.

I took my camera this time, too, so the photo above is one I took (at the turnaround point at Okahu Bay) on the morning.

I couldn’t wait any longer, though, so I decided to go for a slow run along Tamaki Drive, which is flat, again. (For anyone who’s had an Achilles injury, you’ll know how frustrating they can be. They take so long to heal, and sometimes they feel better, and sometimes they feel worse!)

I started at Mechanics Bay, heading out towards St Heliers, just before 7 in the morning. I took it very slowly for the first four or five kilometres, monitoring the back of my foot for any suspicious sensations. I didn’t have any pain, though, and started to relax into the run.

It was a cloudy day and quite warm, so I was glad I’d worn my singlet.

My aim, ideally, was to do 17km (a 2km increase on my longest barefoot run), and I felt pretty good pretty much the whole way. The only annoying thing was the hill I had to climb when I got to Cliff Road in St Heliers, but then, I should have known to expect a hill, given the name of the road!

As usual, there were the slightly uncomfortable patches of broken, slanted and stoney pavement in a few of the bays on the way back, and I had the occasional small twinge in my Achilles (although, I think I’m hyper sensitive to that at the moment). Overall, though, it was a good run, and I was encouraged that I’d completed a long run without any real pain from my Achilles.

My lower legs were pretty sore and tight the next day, but that’s not surprising, given that I hadn’t run for two-and-a- half weeks, and that I’d just done 17km! As of today (Wednesday), they feel a lot better. Bye bye, DOMS!

Anyway, I’ve been sporadically doing the heavy-load eccentric exercises I mentioned in my last post, and I’m going to be more vigilant with those now, so I can continue going for long runs each weekend and hopefully get my Achilles back to 100%. The fact that I could run without any pain was a sign to me that I can proceed, albeit cautiously.

Saturday’s run took 2 hours, 3 minutes and 51 seconds. Here we come, half Marathon!

Nothing much to report, except for a rather abusive remark from a young guy hanging out a car window.  I won’t repeat it, though; it was pretty bad! It’s amazing how people react to things that are outside their sphere of experience. Oh well, it goes with the territory when you’re barefoot running. I just did what Jesus said to do (Luke 6:28): I blessed him and moved on.

The other reason I thought I better have a recovery week was, my left achilles tendon has been a bit sore and tight first thing in the morning. As you’ll see from my About page, I’ve had this problem before (when I was wearing shoes). I personally don’t think it’s related to wearing shoes, or not wearing shoes, per se; I just think the tendon is a bit weak on that side. Interestingly, my calf muscles on the left side are noticably smaller than on the right-hand side. I have wondered whether they’re not supporting the tendon as well as the ones on the right-hand side.

I’m confident I know how to deal with this, though. I’ve started a program of heavy-load eccentric exercises, which fixed it last time. It’s not causing me any trouble when I run, either, so I’m not going to change my training at this stage.

I’ll probably go and do a couple of laps of the 3km route at One Tree Hill today, then do a long run in the weekend. I may even go for 17km this week. I did really enjoy running along Tamaki Drive the other week, but it’s totally flat, so I have to find a way of integrating some hills if I’m going to go back there.

My time on Saturday (just been) was 1:15:05. That was on Hillsborough Road, which is hilly.

Image by NZ Alex on Flickr

I got up early this morning to go for my long run along Tamaki Drive. I started at about 6.20am, just as the sun was rising. It was cold, but a beautiful clear morning, and the water was lovely and still. Thanks God!

I ran from St Heliers right round to Mechanics Bay and back.

I kept my pace pretty slow for the first half, then picked it up for the second. My time ended up being 1:35:39, which I’m actually really pleased with. 6-minutes-23 per kilometre isn’t bad for me, in bare feet—especially over 15km.

Though, it was totally flat (my previous runs have been slower because they’ve been pretty hilly).

It was a very enjoyable run for the most part. There were just a few short sections of rough asphalt through a couple of the bays, but nothing unbearable.

I still find it amazing that I can actually run this kind of distance in bare feet. And I can say, my legs feel pretty good tonight, and my soles, although a bit sensitive after the run (which is normal), are fine. No blisters!

As you’ll see from the credit, the above photo wasn’t taken by me; nor was it taken this morning (it wasn’t wet this morning). But it gives you a good idea of how peaceful Tamaki Drive can be if you get up and out there early enough!

My friend Mark took me for a run round his 10km route—from Westmere, down through Herne Bay and St Marys Bay, up through Jervois Road and back to Westmere—on Saturday.

What you need to know is, Mark is a much faster runner than I am, so even when he slows down to allow for my pace, he’s still making me run faster than I would by myself! So, starting faster than I normally would, I got pretty tight calves by about half-way, which (I’m pretty sure) caused a numb patch on my left foot a bit further on. For a while I couldn’t feel what was happening, and consequently got a blood blister, which—not so coincidently—was on a hot-spot from the week before where I’d nearly got one.

I can say, though, it’s only a small blister, and a surface one at that. No real discomfort, and it’ll be fine to run on in a day or two. My calves are still quite sore, though, a couple of days later!

There were a number of hills around the route (most of them not too bad), including two sets of stairs, one of which was the famed Jacob’s Ladder in St Marys Bay. It’s only about 46 steps (I’m told), but it’s so steep it almost looks like a ladder when you’re looking up it from the bottom! The worst thing about it is that the steps are really shallow, so I didn’t feel like I could plant my feet properly while I was going up. I’ll admit I stopped for a breather at the top!

Anyway, it was mostly an enjoyable run, except for the tight calves and the numbness in my foot; but hey, I should have expected a bit of a challenge from Mark—he doesn’t let me off easy!

The time was 1:08:39. Very slow for Mark, but not too bad for me!

It was an out-and-back run, from Blockhouse Bay roundabout (Donovan Street), right along to Currie Ave (off Hillsborough Road) and back.

The hardest part was the big dip—and, more to the point, the hills either side of it!—going down past the Lynfield shops, but I got through that OK.

I did have a bit of numbness in my toes for about a kilometre after the halfway point, but that went away (it was probably due to tightness in my calves, and the fact it was a cold morning).

Overall, I felt really good, and it was great to finish 12km—my longest barefoot run to date.

Oh yeah, and it took me 1:26.

Overall, I really enjoyed it.

It’s a pretty much a flat course, part of which runs along the Onehunga coastal walkway. The morning was cool, and it threatened to rain, but didn’t.

For the first half of the run, my calves were a bit tight, so I took it easy. Once they loosened up, I relaxed and started enjoying things more.

There was quite a lot of fragmented glass on the pavement near the Onehunga wharf, but I managed to navigate my way through that without mishap.

The hardest (most uncomfortable) part was Orpheus Drive, which is probably one or two hundred metres of very stoney asphalt that runs beside the motorway. I had to focus on picking my feet up and keeping my contact with the ground very light. I got through it, though, and once I crossed the overbridge, I was on the home stretch.

I picked up my pace considerably and felt great running on the asphalt road towards the finish line. I finished in 1:03:54, which I was really pleased with, as I’d probably been closer to 1:15 in my training runs.

Among the entertaining comments I got along the way, the best was probably, ‘Are you doing that for a dare, for torture, or by personal choice?’.

I should mention that my friend Mark was there to run the 10km with me, and ended up running the half Marathon distance by accident (probably caused by a combination of tiredness and unhelpful marshals)–and in 1:33:28, would you believe!