Barefoot in the Park

10 miles per day - barefoot - for the last 3 days. Saturday was just after it stopped raining with standing water. Of course running in puddles is no fun with shoes and socks on but the real reason I took my shoes off was that my left knee was in pain. I was wearing the heavily armored New Balance flats which was probably part of the problem. Running through the puddles barefoot was a blast. The water wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. The on Sunday, I was cruising at a pretty good pace. Tonight (Monday) I just wanted to see if everything still held up. Niece and nephew are here - later.

Weight

First: I saw a reference to this article - while trolling Lets Run.. It occurred to me that I know what my optimum weight is. Back when I was running big miles, I found that if I went down to 142, I felt worn out. 143 was ok. 145 was ok for long periods of time.

Second: My weight seems to be a function of my mileage, not a function of how much I eat. If I run 100 miles/week, I drop down to 145. I am not running that much now because of various ongoing issues (see previous posts). My current weight is 151. I have backed off on how much I eat. I eat one bowl of cereal for breakfast instead of two. I'm eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. I typically have one helping at dinner, not 3.

151.

Third: I figure that some of my current problems are due to weighing 151. So how to ramp up miles to lose weight without picking up injuries (because I weigh too much)? I decided it's a combination of gradual increase along with running on soft surfaces. So anyway, I see a lot of 10 mile runs on grass in my immediate future.