BAREFEET.....ZERO GRAMS!

        I did say that after the first two reps. yesterday things had started to come together quite well.  What I failed to mention was that on several of the 300s I was actually breezing past a European 400 metre hurdles champion hogging lane 1.  Believe me, I was going past as if he was standing still!  Mind you KEITH WHITAKER is 79 now.  A track star for most of his career with Airedale & Spen Valley A.C., Keith travels from (nearly) Harrogate to the track at Nelson to jog around 16 laps. As we say "use it or lose it"

     Todays' run was a flat offroad toddle.  Toddle?  Well there's easy.....very easy ...then there's toddle.  Toddle pace is centred between " jog" and " fast walk".  Weight of shoes today? Of no importance,  but
certainly heavier than when I set off, as the trail , frozen overnight , thawed late morning  and lbs of mud were picked up.

     Following on from Thursday's comments on weight of shoes, of course, you can't get any lighter than no shoes at all!  Ever tried running barefoot?  On the beach?  On a highly manicured golf course?  How about
snow or even 26 miles of tarmac?  In the '60s barefoot running was quite in vogue.  Aficionados included many of G.Bs top 6 mile runners ....Bruce Tulloh, Ron Hill, Jim Hogan. Bear in mind tracks were cinder in those days not tartan.  Of course, as teenagers we followed the example of these distance stars of the day.
Imagine the look of horror on the face on our Lancashire team manager when we lined up for the Inter Counties championships without shoes! No problem. On Derby's Markeaton Park's lush grass we put 5 in the first 12.  Snow started to fall during the race as it did for the Worlds XC champs. one year in Boston but it didn't deter one young Kenyan runner as can be seen from the photo below.

     Later we had the arrival of ZOLA BUDD from South Africa without shoes.
Remember Mary Decker and the Olympic fall?
 But the most notable barefoot performance is surely that of ETHIOPIAN ABEBE BIKILA.  In the 1960 Rome Olympics he won the marathon in a then world best time of 2 hrs 15 16.2. Four years later after Onitsuka Tiger (Asics) has convinced him of the benefits of their
footwear he won the Olympic event again in 2: 12 .11.  Remarkably Bikila's  1964 time matches the fastest UK marathon this year....Dan Robinson 2:12.14 and the time of Andi Jones (2nd) matches his barefoot time...2.:15.20.
I will not comment on today's "advances" in
training methods, nutrition or shoe technology!!
Save that for another day.