Nails and newts and broken glass, oh my!

I did a 4 1/2 mile run yesterday morning. Feet felt pretty raw afterwards for most of the day, but by the end of the day at work they started to feel normal again. About 3/4 of the way through the run my feet started to feel seriously raw and I was wondering if it was worth it. The wet grass at home felt really good and I walked around in it for a few minutes. For recovery, it seems like just walking around gently helps. Every time I got up from sitting (at work) for a while they seemed to feel more raw than if I walked around for the same amount of time.

I actually saw some broken glass on the side of the road, too, and a rusty nail. The glass looked like bottle glass rather than windshield glass, so the shards may have cut if I stepped on them. It was mostly off the pavement but the few pieces that were on the road were easy enough to spot. So was the rusty nail, which was lying flat so wouldn't have punctured even if I had stepped on it. I have been a ground-looker since forever, though. I was always picking up rocks and things as a kid. Maybe the shoe runners who worry about glass never actually look at the ground.

Also on my runs there are things to watch out for not for my safety but for theirs. The red efts! They are usually motionless in the road and I always wonder if I should help them across. Are the paused because large objects (cars) have gone past and they're waiting for the coast to clear? If I help them across will they just head back out in the road again because that is where they want to be? Maybe they're afraid of broken glass. If I do pick them up will my sweat cause them distress? I pick them up by the tail tip if I do and try to be quick about it. Anyway, they're fellow barefooters so I say, "Hello, fellow barefooters!"

Other BFers I see on my runs are the turkeys, but they have no problems crossing the road except for somtimes they have trouble deciding which way to go.

Beach Run

Let's see, this past week I made it up to 3.88 miles on one run. Feet were okay except afterward there's been a persistent minor pain in the area of the cuboid bone of my left foot--between the fifth metatarsal and the heel. Really minor pain--I only notice it after running and rolling my foot over a wine bottle makes it go away. After that long run I did shorter runs-- around 3 miles-- and one beach run.

We took a day off and went to Salisbury beach on Friday. It was a great day for the beach; a lot of people there and good weather. The water was fairly warm--I could have stayed in a long time. But I did go running and this was my first beach run ever. It was kinda fun dodging people and getting splashed by the surf. It was high tide and the beach at that time was had a fairly steep slope into the water ( more level at low tide) but that didn't seem to matter since the feet sank so much in the sand. I didn't encounter any rocks but the sand was a little on the coarse side. If I had run my usual amount my feet would have been pretty raw. As it was, I ran about 1.3 miles total (as figured on MapMyRun later) and my feet had a good scrubbing--very clean looking afterwards. I was there to relax mostly so I did the run in two parts, one after arriving and one after lunch and in each of those I walked briefly once or twice. I wonder if running on finer sand scrubs the feet as much?

After the beach we spent the night in Salem. Lots of witchy, spooky things to do there, but we went mostly to eat in the old jail. They jail was, until it closed in 1991 (I think) due to inhumane conditions, the oldest operating jail in the US. It has now been converted into apartments or condos and a restuarant called Great Escape. Afterward, walking back to our inn, I had to take off my sandals. They are tolerable for short periods but are tight in the toe area and really annoying when the toes are used to freedom. But the sidewalks and the streets in Salem are really rough. Sidewalks are cement but very gritty on top; some have small pebbles set in and some are just not smoothed over. Probably to combat iciness in winter, so what can you do? What can you do?

Maybe a trail run sometime.

It's August! I've been running exclusively barefoot for two months now, with about 35 miles total for July and individual runs up to 3 miles/5k. Sometimes, the day after a run, my left foot aches a little when I stand too hard on the forefoot. I still have callouses but they are mostly not painful anymore. I've been running every other day or so; sometimes two days in a row, sometimes skip two days. Soles feel a little raw the day after a run, which I'm going to attribute to the rough asphalt around here.

The road surfaces vary quite a bit. There's some fresh pavement on one portion of a road. It is mostly smooth, since it was rollered, but seems a little porous so there is some roughness. The worst is the road right in front our house, which is what the BFRers call chip seal or chip and seal. That's where they spray down liquid tar and immediately follow with coarse sand. They've done that all over but for some reason it's worse for the half mile section nearby. It's especially noticeable since the routes I take have a short, really smooth surface just preceding it.

Anyway, enough about roads. I've been considering checking out some nature trails around here to run on. There's something just down the road, and the former Temple Mountain ski area and Pack Monadnock. There's also a section of the Appalachian trail nearby, but I'm guessing that's not easily runnable. The part near the road looks pretty overgrown. I think I'd have to walk the trail first to see if it's doable. So I guess I'll set a goal of getting out on a trail before the end of this month.