Stay Strong - Run Long

For those of you who don't know (all one of you that read this), I have been doing this barefoot running thing now for about a year. I first started when we had a treadmill in our house over the winter of 2009-2010. I kind of actually started by accident. You see, I was adjusting the belt on the TM because it was making this horrible squealing sound before Mrs. Messenjah decided to go for a run on it. I had just gotten home from work and was still in my khakis, dress socks and dress shirt. As I was adjusting the belt I realized that it wasn't making the noise until someone got on it. As my wife was somewhere doing something else I didn't want to go up and get my shoes and I was only going to take a few strides anyway. I jumped on and started going. What the heck was going on? This actually felt kind of good. This is weird!!! As you know, I am an uber-dork and ran upstairs to do some research. I found out that there was actually people around the world doing this crazy thing

I have been fairly absent from running for about the past 2 months. To give you a little detail, I was sick and all of a sudden I got hit with this NASTY pain in my foot during a 6 mile barefoot recovery run. If you know me, I am not one to go to the doctor. I don't like them. Don't get me wrong, I think that being a doctor is an incredibly honorable position and they help millions of people every day. They helped me recover from having a stroke at 17, but health care costs are way over-inflated and they always end up prescribing us stuff that our bodies end up becoming immune to and we end up getting sicker. I know, in this regard I may be a hippie but if I am sick I usually try to eat a little better or drink OJ and stuff with lots of vitamin c to build my immune system back up. I have dealt with sinus infections for years and come out of them just fine. Anyway, I self diagnosed myself with a sore foot (trust me that's the medical term :D) and decided that I needed to tak

I begin this blog today explaining that if this comes off as being a little harsh, it isn't meant to be. To give an update. I have been sick for nearly a month, sinus and chest cold, and have been nursing what appears to be a stress fracture in my left foot. I haven't gone to the doc but have been resting and doing some different workouts to try and keep most pressure off of it. It happened a couple of weeks ago. I was on the treadmill, yes it appears that I get hurt every time on the treadmill, and was in the middle of a 6 miler while barefoot (don't blame the barefoot). I was going along fine really concentrating on how my feet were landing, answering questions why I was running barefoot, yada yada yada when all of a sudden it feels like my toe needed cracked. I stopped, cracked my big toe and went on. About 2 minutes later the pain became REALLY intense. Not wanting to risk anything I jumped off, showered off and went back to my desk. Throughout the rest of the day I kep

Sometimes I can't believe how fast time flies when you are busy. I just realized that I haven't put anything on here and figured I would at least put something for the one or two people that will ever read this. Life has been crazy lately. Work is nuts (in a good, busy way), there is so much going on around home (I'll explain later) and just trying to keep moving with my runs. First of all, my little, baby soon to be 5 year old will be starting Pre -K in just a couple short weeks. I can't believe how grown up she is. Not that she has grown necessarily as Mini Me has passed her up in weight, but intellectually she is starting to become an adult. She asks a lot of adult questions, is recognizing her letters & numbers quickly, can write words without asking how to write the letter and loves to draw. It is going to be interesting how pre -k goes. We have struggled so much for probably the last year trying to decide if we send her to Kindergarten or do we send her to Pre

I wanted to provide, the few of you who read this, with a little updated since my last post. In the past 3 weeks I have run a total of 4 times. Why you ask? Well, a couple of weeks ago when I was on the treadmill (my arch nemesis) I took a weird step and felt something that didn't feel quite right in my knee. Trying to be smart, I took a week off and felt great during the run and when I stopped I started to have the same pain. Waited another week with the same result. Waited another week with the same result. What the heck is the problem here????? UGH!!!!! It's really strange because when I am out on the run it feels great but when I stop it hurts. I'm not sure. Maybe that is just telling me to not stop running. I bet Mrs. Messenjah would LOVE that idea :) Pray that something gets fixed and I can get back out on the trail/road soon. I am a much happier person when I can get in a run. Not sure what my next race is going to be. It was going to be one of my favs, but with this

Let me start off by saying that this is one of the coolest races that I have ever been a part of. The KC Trail Nerds are one of the greatest groups of runners/volunteers/RD's I have ever had the fortune of meeting. I will get into specifics throughout the report so lets dive in. We started off our magical weekend Friday. I got to spend the morning just me and the girls. While the Mrs. went off to work for a few hours I got rested, did some work around the house, created my playlists and watched some TV. I really wanted to spend some time just relaxing since it seems like we always have something going on. I took the day off to do just that and it was amazing. I decided that I was going to take my iPod and while on the run and I wanted to just have some playlists so that I wasn't fumbling with the thing while I was running. To give you a little background, my iPod talks. No, not like the voices in my head, but it actually says whatever you are scrolling over. I am assuming that

So I have really been hitting the training hard lately. Free State is coming up in a few short weeks and want to really make sure that I got my nutrition, trail runs and long runs down. Last Sunday I decided that in order to increase my miles I need to make sure and get a 25 miler in. I decided since it was going to be a nice day that I would grab the backpack, my new kicks (Brooks Adrenaline ASR 6's) and run home from Church and add a few miles at the end. Home is about 15 miles from Church and one of the small towns around is about 10 (out & back) from home so I thought it would be a perfect setting. As I woke up Sunday morning I realized that there was about a 20 mph wind from the NW. Luckily a lot of the run the wind would be at my back. I said a lot. Not all. Not most. But a lot. For the first 10 miles it was a cross wind, which I could deal with. The next 5 was at my back, sweet relief. The rest not so much. It was horrible. I didn't have my wind gauge on me (don'

Got out over lunch today and MAN was it nice. 35 deg when I got out the door, a slight 9 mph wind from the South and got in a great 7.25 at 8:45 min/mile. These are the days that I love. When I can go into the gym, see all of the treadmills filled up (which is weird for a Friday at our work gym) and know that I can go outside in my shorts. Went outside and it was SLOOOOOOOOOOPPY. I can honestly say though that even though I have been out quite a bit this winter and run in the snow, ice, while it was snowy and icy, I much prefer the slop. Just for the fact that slop = warmer temps. I am pretty lucky too that I discovered such great shoes in my Brooks Adrenaline ASR's. I don't know how many puddles I stepped in today with no water or mud in the shoes at all. Now it is a different story for the outside of the shoe. I am actually quite surprised that I felt pretty good. My group went out 03/04/10 and did 7.70 miles at 8:24 min/mile and I was zapped when I got back. Since it was nic

No this is not going to be a post about Whitesnake.......which would be fun. I just realized that it has been a very long time that I have posted anything on either the Run For The Pines or this blog, so what better day than one that I am taking a day off from running. With the upcoming year I hope to blog a little more consistantly to keep you updated on what is shaking down in the Messenjah Homestead. The month of Jan was good. Recovered well from a fall on a New Year's Eve run. I would like to send a shout out to my big butt for giving me the cushion that I needed from getting really injured. It could have been very bad, but you were there to get my back ;) Started incorporating some barefoot running in January, which has been working out very well. It really helps me work out some of those nagging injuries that obviously have been coming from wearing shoes while I run, weird how that works out. I finished the month with 108 miles for the month, but that was figuring in about 2