Barefoot Ken Bob

Prelude

Anytime you have a surplus of bananas that are starting to become to ripe (you can often buy these on sale). Peel the bananas, put them gently into plastic bags, and carefully place them in the freezer (zipper bags are most convenient). Some day in the future, when you’re low on bananas (heaven forbid!), you can use the frozen bananas in smoothies.

Ingredients

• Fruit  juice – not “fruit nectar”, not “fruit cocktail”, not “fruit drink”, not “Kool-aid” – just 100% Fruit Juice
• Nuts and/or seeds – preferably raw – (almonds, cacoa beans, walnuts, cashews, hemp seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut, etc.)
• Fresh or frozen fruit (vegetables if you like – celery, carrots, etc..)
• Bananas
• anything else you like…

Directions

1. Put the juice in a blender with the nuts
2. Let the nuts and/or seeds soak (especially hard nuts like almonds, or hard seeds like flax) while you go to the bathroom, brush your teeth, etc… (I suggest washing hands after wiping)
3. Cover the blender, and mix the nut/fruit juice into a milky consistency (not necessarily milky color)
4. Feed the fruit to the blender
5. When the mixture is mostly smooth, add the bananas, and blend until smooth again.

Serve

Pour into cups, glasses, bottles, coconut shells, or drink straight from the blender (for safety, unplug the blender first).

Enjoy…

Report

After completing 75 full marathons (26.2 miles each) and hundreds of other races, I’ve written a lot of race reports. So prompted by a question on the Yahoo group from Jan, I figure I’d focus this report on recovery.

So I’ll try to keep the actual report about the race short…

Basically, I was shooting to complete the Surf City Marathon in a little over 5 hours (based on my lack of practice runs prior). But, early in the race, between mile 1 and 2, I found myself pacing comfortably with Alynn, whom I never met before, but we enjoyed chatting together, and actually continued the entire rest of the marathon pacing each other…

Along the way, John Logsdon, our documentarian, was shooting video (and a few still photos with my camera) for a documentary about Running Barefoot. Cathy, my wife, like so many others had failed to register before all of the events sold out. So Cathy was shooting more pictures and videos with my other camera, near the start and finish… In fact Alynn, my new friend noticed her running along passing us to get some more pictures shortly before we started our finishing “sprint” – the final 0.1 mile “sprint” to the finish, according to my GPS watch, was about a 7 min/mile pace.

Along the way we say 3 of the other 4 or 5 barefoot runners in this event.

Barefoot Runners

(not necessarily in order of finish)

1. Mike P.
2. Barefoot Rick
3. Jeremy
4. Barefoot Ken Bob
5. Mike R.
6. unidentified runner Cathy caught on video

Recovery

Every day, every run, most everything we do in life, is really just a short version of the bigger picture – kind of a snapshot. Start out like an infant, slow, checking the system out, how ya feeling? Check your technique, How you doing? Warming up slowly, gradually building speed, then slowing down gradually. Then eating, and resting.

Repeat, but with variety, some days I run less than a mile, but have many other things to keep me active. Some days I run 26.2 miles, and rest a lot over the next few days (or weeks).

Essentially, racing and recovery are the same as any other day, except the runs, walks, rests, and eating vary.

However, even during the marathon, it’s the same thing, only different. I take breaks during the marathon (and sometime during shorter races) to drink water while walking a short distance (the walking distance often gets longer later in the marathon), and depending on how long I expect to be on my feet, one or more snack breaks (usually a ClifBar with water), and if it’s dry, or I’m chatting a lot along the way, I’ll take a cough drop every hour or so.

Specifically;
Immediately after crossing the finish line at Surf City Marathon, I looked for some nice grass to sit on… If I had been in condition to run faster, I would have walked a bit before sitting down, but then I wouldn’t have been on my feet for 5 hours during the marathon. So sitting down was nice – and I had walked a lot during the second half of the marathon anyway (went out faster than I should have – - – but had lots of fun).

After sitting and drinking water, eating a banana or two (maybe 10-15 minutes), I walked back to the car – maybe half mile or more. Let my wife drive home.

Spent the evening on the recliner sofa, with feet up, chatting with friends on the phone, watching movies and television, posting pictures from the marathon, drinking several liters of water, and eating vegetarian egg rolls, and drinking Barefoot Ken Bob’s Barefoot Smoothy.

This morning I took the dog for a walk, about half mile of walking, we met a couple of friends running, so ran about a mile with them (slow pace), then walked home one more mile.

Feel pretty good now… still a bit stiff, some achy muscles, and probably going to take lots of rest breaks between running errands. and maybe I’ll even run (or walk) the Boeing lunchtime 5K race (slowly – with Herman).

When I was in better shape, from running average of 40-50 miles per week, racing (mostly short races) nearly every weekend, recovery was much easier. The key is to do lots of running (for fun) before a long race, then the long race is much easier… Hopefully, I’ll be doing that soon – which is what I said after finishing my previous marathon. But now our old VW New Beetle (2001) isn’t feeling so well, so I may find myself bicycling and running more often for a while…

Photos

Report

The rain backed off for us, and the sun even peeked through the clouds to see just what we were doing on the beach at the Surf City Marathon Expo. Barefoot Rick eventually showed up, and Barefoot Ted made a virtual “appearance” via mobile phone.

Special Guests

• Barefoot Rick
• Virtual “appearance” by Barefoot Ted, via mobile phone

Photos

More Barefoot Ken Bob’s Running Barefoot workshops at Surf City info

click here for the Barefoot Ken Bob’s Running Barefoot Workshops at Surf City home page

click here for previous Barefoot Ken Bob’s Running Barefoot Workshop at Surf City reports

Low Tide

Where, When, How Much

This past Monday, Cathy took the Volkswagon in for service – got a new catalytic converter, oil change, and full check to make sure everything was in good order. Supposedly, it was all in good order.

Sick Beetle

On Wednesday Cathy picked up her brother at the V.A. hospital after his physical therapy session (he was victim of a severe stroke 2 years ago). A few miles before arriving at their parents home, the check engine light flashed on, and then the temperature light, and then steam poured out from under the hood. Cathy pulled on to a side street, and a neighbor called 911 and pulled her brother from the car. Police and firetrucks arrived at the scene.

Now we’re waiting to find out what damage was done to the motor, and if we will continue repairing this vehicle, or not – well, we were already starting to think about finding another vehicle for Barefoot Ken Bob’s Running Barefoot Workshops 2010 Summer Tour – guess we’ll be going about that a bit more aggressively now.

Description

This was a barefoot fun run, at low-tide and sunset
(ya shoulda bring your cameras)

Location

Cost

Free!
This ain’t no contest
This ain’t no race
This is just foolin’ around

Photos

Map

View Sunset Beach Low-Tide Run in a larger map