If it doesn't kill you...

... it's good for you. Right? OK - did another treadmill workout yesterday. 3 fairly slow miles - with a nice 1 mile barefoot sandwiched between two fully shod miles. The good news? I don't have blisters on my right foot... and my left calf feels fine!

Bad news? Three blisters on my left foot, and my right calf feels like it just got hit by a baseball.

Don't worry - the weird little toe is just the camera angle. Nothing broken there. However... walking has been fun... do I put my weight on the blisters? Or support my weight with my right calf. Tough choice! Needless to say, I've had to cut down on creating new "dance moves" with my five-year-old daughter!

One interesting observations from this workout. During a portion of the run, I compared my cadence (steps per minute) in the three different running styles - while running at the same pace on the treadmill.

Old style with shoes: 150 steps/min

New style (forefoot strike) with shoes: 160 steps/min

Barefoot: 180 steps/min

In other words, to run at the same speed, I took 20% more steps when I was barefoot than when I was running in my old style. This really isn't that surprising - running shoes, with their thickly padded heel were designed to help runners take longer strides. Without the shoes, you naturally take shorter, faster strides.

Off to drain some blisters...