For my birthday this year I don't want just any surprise party. I want a Pullit Surprise party! I remember hearing about those in movies when I was a kid. For some reason reporter types always wanted them. Whatever kind of surprise it is I bet it's fancy AF if reporters want it.

A simple, binary question I ask every run. From today's Strava status:

Ever time I hear about corporate masters telling employees to smile I think of this classic episode: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folie_%...

You are tough. I don't say this to butter someone up or mean "rah rah! You can do it!" It's a word of caution. It's hard to know the difference between "tough it out" and "endure abuse." When I "tough it out" with running I fail. When I focus on finesse and mindfulness I achieve my goals.

I've decided to make a huge mistake. You have to be really careful with sprints if you're over 50. You certainly shouldn't do more than one sprint interval workout a week. To train for a 5k on December 6 I'll do sprint workouts M-W-F this whole month. Rest days Tu-Th-Sa-Su. 1/2

I've been practicing on the accordion all this week and I have a Hawaiian shirt hanging up and ready to go. Why is this only the FIRST Halloween I've done this?

Running in bare feet shouldn't be a goal. It should be an essential tool used to achieve your goals. You can and should use this tool from day 1 of your running journey. Use shoes, too, but make sure "no shoes" is in your equipment rotation.

Cushioning in shoes is comfort. It's not protection. I can shoot novacaine into my hand and smash it with a hammer pain free.

Imagine being an underpaid construction worker and you're on a crew tasked with causing the most damage to the White House since 1812.

"Barefoot shoes" is a marketing term. It helps sell shoes. It doesn't help you run better. Actual bare feet on harsh, unforgiving ground will unlock running cheat codes.

Mankato Half Marathon Race Report trevize1138.substack.com/p/mankato-ha...

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day! All the way back to the original Dinosaur Nation. The Dinosaur Oyate! #ReservationDogs

Hard =/= fast Easy =/= slow Speed and effort have a relationship but it's not 1:1. It's complicated. Running is a sport like any other. It's about how you play the game. It's not just about who can mindlessly grunt it out like a dumb animal.

No, those shoes are not "barefoot". old.reddit.com/r/BarefootRu...

I keep learning new things with bare feet on the street sprints. From today's session notes on Strava:

Sometimes doing the right thing means accepting that you are in the wrong. Stubbornness and persistence can be great assets, but not when they lock you on a path that leads you in the wrong direction.

Great River Bluffs SP, Minnesota.

"Know why he could do it? Because no one ever told him he couldn’t. No one ever told him he oughta be off dying somewhere in an old age home. You live up to your own expectations, man!" Micha "Caballo Blanco" True on meeting a 95yo man hiking 25 miles over a mountain.

My mom took Tylenol. That's why I won't shut up about why you need to take your shoes off.

Running in shoes can be like playing catch while blindfolded. With a thick, cushioned, Hoka-style blindfold it hurts less when the ball hits your face. With a thin, minimalist blindfold it hurts more when the ball hits your face. Take the blindfold off and you can finally see the ball.

Sprint intervals really improve your running in a big way. At 52yo, though, they're risky. An easy way to get injured. I've been working on how to do them more safely. From my Stava today:

Do not make friends with pain. Do not develop an adversarial relationship with pain. Enlist pain as a coach. It's a brutally honest coach. A coach with your best interests in mind. A coach that tells you what your need to hear not what you want to hear.

Bare feet are starting to really ruin running in footwear for me. But there's still hope for sandals if the sprint workouts come through for them: trevize1138.substack.com/p/prepping-f...

Bare feet on pavement pace: 8:30/mile. Sandals on pavement or gravel: 9:15/mile. Traveling for work tonight. I'll bring my laptop and write more details on Substack about what's going on and what I'm trying now to close this gap.

Save the racing for race day.

This has been in my neighbor's yard for years now.

Autistic? Hate the "autistic superpowers" trope? This one's for you: trevize1138.substack.com/p/youre-a-be...

If you aren't liberal in your youth you have no heart. If you don't grow ridiculously super uper duper liberal as you age you have no head.

Race report: trevize1138.substack.com/p/afton-25k-...

Muddy and slick at the Afton 25k yesterday. Full report to come in next Substack v

Pre-race thoughts: trevize1138.substack.com/p/two-days-t...

5k library fundraiser run with the 13yo today. Paced him for 29:36. Under 30min! Proud of him.

I love this for them!

I can't go barefoot: I'm in MN where it gets cold. There's too much gravel. Ticks in the summer and hot pavement. My feet are too narrow. I have high arches. I also have 2,444.1 miles on my "no shoes" equipment on Stava. Saying "I could never" did nothing for me.

Skin-on-ground race training: trevize1138.substack.com/p/race-train...

11 mile "all the surfaces" calibration run.

Typical running advice applied to my awful golf game: Hit the gym! Build strength. Better diet! Yoga! Fancy new golf shoes. Expensive new clubs. Result: go from missing the ball half the time to missing the ball half the time with more FORCE!

Finesse > force

Cushioned shoes make stepping on the brakes comfortable. Minimalist shoes make stepping on the brakes pain free. Take the shoes off entirely and it now hurts instantly to step on the brakes. That's when you start to learn how to run without the parking brake locked on.

I had a dream last night that I put a big wad of Red Man chewing tobacco between my cheek and gum. I thought it would be like Big League Chew. It wasn't. I spat it out but spent the next hour feeling tiny bits of it in my teeth.

Love this. Do it while you still can. old.reddit.com/r/minnesota/...

Twisted my ankle yesterday doing trail work! Swolen and stiff today so letting it heal. I haven't twisted an ankle like this in over 10 years. It used to be a regular thing several times a year for me, though. I took out the tiny buckthorn stump that did it, at least.

Turns out targeted speed work makes you faster.

Shoes, soft grass, soft dirt and sand are all externally imposed comfort for your feet. You do not control them. That represents risk in my experience. When you learn how to handle challenging surfaces in bare feet you are 100% in control of your own comfort and safety.

Soft, smooth dirt is the exception. Dry, hard, rough and scattered with debris is the norm. Adjust your gait accordingly.

I'm autistic. Running is one way I regulate. It's my passion and I love it, yes, but I also really need it for mental health. I never guilt anyone else for not running as much as me because they may not require it nearly like I do.

Today's run reminded me that speed is like an elusive crush. Go after it too eagerly and it'll avoid you for being all creepy and stalker like. Be cool and calm and act like you don't care one way or another and speed will seek *you* out.

Baseline easy pace continues to improve. Today was yet another lesson to me on effort =/= speed. Past few runs on this route I've *tried* to go faster only to be 20s/mile slower and with a higher average HR. The human body is amazing like that: faster speed when you go a bit easier.

I've done two sessions of 8x200m intervals in bare feet on this street in as many weeks. I've never sprinted much so there's a lot to learn. One thing I didn't expect to learn: sprinting can be really fun!