barefoot

"In January this year, Wim Hof ran half a marathon (21 km) above the polar circle in Finland. He wore only a pair of shorts and no shoes. The ground (snow) temperature was 35 below. In a few months time, he'll try something along the same line on Everest's north side...."

Read more and SEE THE PICTURES of the "Dutch Iceman" here.

No, it's not Spring or anything, but I did manage to do my 3x12-minutes pace workout barefoot round the perimeter of the soccer fields.

There was bright sunshine and the pitches had drained well, so the only hazard were thousands of nearly-frozen goose droppings. (There is a 300-hundred strong flock that roosts there like disgruntled spectators who have invaded the pitch and refuse to leave. Come to think of it, they make the same amount of noise and mess.)

Running barefoot always perks me up. I know all the good intellectual reasons for doing it, like improving running economy, strengthening feet and ankles and so on, but really it just FEELS great. And it always gives me an emotional boost as I feel connected with a long tradition of distance runners, from Percy's boys on, who also ran barefoot as often as possible.

AP has a story up about Barefoot Running titled Pain doesn't defeat unshod marathoners.  Blisters, infections, sandpaper - this is not something that’s interesting to me – there is apparently a growing movement of them in the US.  Ouch.