Caity McCardell

Yesterday morning I ran almost 11.5 miles, and my body feels great today (maybe a little more tired than usual, but I exercised a little anyway).

11.5 is my Personal Record for distance… take a look at the course I took on Map My Run.

Also, you’ll see me – number 15 in my age group [...]

The beginning of the slow motion segment (around 1:44) of this video has Asafa at the starting line and it sounds like his body is a falling, cracking tree. I cringed, wondering if his right arm was going to break right off.

But once he gets started, the video is an amazing demonstration of foot [...]

I was running this morning (“shogging” as my children call it, since I shuffle and jog along), and I started thinking about a post I wanted to make on a barefoot/minimalist shoe site I frequent. As I was writing it in my head, thinking about how the tag on the back of my left new [...]

I’m officially a runner because…

- Someone has yelled, “run, Forrest, run!” at me
- My shoes are thrashed from running
- I’ve peed in the bushes mid-run
- I’ve admitted defeat and walked
- I’ve admitted defeat and kept going
- I’ve discovered the meaning of life while running
- I’ve been sad when I can’t run
- I love it

Stefan drove me down to the 10k this morning and was waiting for me at the finish. I made it in under 1 hour!!!!!!! That’s an awesome personal record. Here I am at the start, waiting to get going…

There was a nice hill at the end – steep enough to challenge me but not too [...]

I’m participating in my 3rd race tomorrow – a 10k in Santa Maria called the Bull Canyon Run, benefiting the Special Olympics. That’s 6.2 miles, which means I’ll be “running” (most people would call it shuffling or jogging) for about an hour.

My Vibram FiveFingers Classics are pretty worn down – there are holes between [...]

I’m stealing this from a barefoot running board I’m on:

In addition to build up the musculature and bone mass (which takes time for the adaptations to occur), my experience is that beginners make the following mistakes:

* Over-striding – resulting in higher impact on the foot during landing. [which I do]
* Low Cadence – similar [...]

I had assumptions about running before I started. My comparison of pre-running and now:

Pre-Running:
Can you please wait until I drive by you before you blow your nose on your sleeve? It’s disgusting.

Now:
I come home from 6 miles with a very wet, slimy set of arms.

Pre-Running:
Hacking up and spitting your phlem is disgusting and [...]

To think that in December I could barely run around the block! I’m happy about this, particularly running barefoot.

7 miles took an hour an a half. That’s 4-1/2 – 5 miles per hour, but that includes:

- Stopping for a while to figure out if I could possibly get a beautiful dead cat out [...]