Footprints in the sand - Photo credit ApidyaThe running, and more specifically the barefoot running, hasn't been going as quickly as I would like. I am still nursing a sore calf, so any progress is limited as I can only comfortably run 2-3 days per week, and only for 20-30 minutes at a time.

Also, I have been lagging in getting to the store to get a pair of water socks to start running in. I read water socks are actually great minimalist running shoes, which around here I really need since barefoot is hardly an option, unless I make it down to the beach. (There isn't a whole lot of soft grass in San Diego.) The theory behind the water socks is that they provide a fair amount of protection against objects on the ground, but don't provide any real support and don't encourage heel striking, which is what would be avoided going barefoot.

Yesterday morning though, I got in a nice 5-10 minute barefoot run and it felt great! After my 20 minute run which was split between concrete sidewalks and a short canyon trail near my house, I went down to the ball field at the Rec Center, and did a few laps around the field. The best part was that I did a couple sprints, and I have never felt better or lighter sprinting! (Though my conditioning leaves a little to be desired)

Near the end of the barefoot session, I did notice the pads of my feet were beginning to get sore, which is good I suppose. This means I am on my way to toughening them up. And now, about 36 hours later, I do have some soreness in my arches and calves, but have come to understand this is a normal symptom when you first go out without the support of shoes. Hopefully I can continue this training, get my feet to strenghten up, and maybe by the time they are ready to go 20-30 minutes I will have a pair of water socks that I can use.

Labels: barefoot, running, updates

I know I have at least a few readers out there. Some of you I have exchanged emails with and some have commented in the past, so I know you're out there, but I'm curious about those who read but have never commented.

So now I'm putting out the invitation. Feel free to drop in and say hi, post a comment or say hi over on Twitter. If you have a blog, feel free to put in a few notes about it. Since you read my blog, I'm interested in what you're writing. This isn't a request for spam, but I'm certainly interested in helping everyone, including myself, to build a little network here online.

Currently blogger automatically inserts the nofollow attribute into all links that are in comments, so unfortunately your link in my comment won't help your page ranking. But just so you know, in an effort to increase reader interaction here I am in the process of trying to remove it. The only reason I can't do it now is because I self host my blog, and also use a custom template. I am hoping that when I have the time make the switch to use the new blogger layouts that I will be able to allow comment links to be followed by search engines.

So anyway, feel free to say hi!

Labels: random, updates

It's almost time for the long weekend, so I'll keep this post short and sweet. I've written this ahead of time but will schedule it to go out before everyone heads out for the their three day mini vacation.

I just want to wish everyone a safe and happy 4th of July weekend. Most likely I'll try to keep myself away from the computer, so we'll see how that goes. Or maybe I'll just spend some time getting ahead on some good posts for next week. In either case, keep an eye out. Also, in case you haven't noticed, I've been trying to be better about posting more regularly too, but no more than one or two posts per day, if that.

I'll be sticking around, staying in San Diego, but heading down to Ocean Beach for a party on Saturday afternoon.

Anyone have any big plans? Or are you staying home and doing the traditional bbq and party thing?

Labels: time off, United States, updates

I realize I have been pretty slow about posting recently. But that doesn't mean I haven't been working on the site. Over the past few weeks I have spent quite a bit of time reorganizing and cleaning up, hopefully to make the site better down the road.

A few things you will notice that are different:

I have made some subtle changes to the layout and the look and feel of the site. This is pretty insignificant to you, and I realize it's probably foolish on my part to spend my time on trivial things like this when I should probably spend it on more important things like creating content and increasing my readership.

Another major change that has been implemented is the rollout of the "shopping" part of the site using Amazon's Astore feature. I know this is also trivial, but I figured rather than having random links send traffic over to Amazon, now I can increase my branding and the site experience by keeping readers on my domain. So now if you click through on an Amazon link you won't end up over at Amazon unless you are actually purchasing. I decided on doing this after reading Chris Guillebeau's 279 Days to Success Manifesto.

In short, he says that by using Google Adsense (yes I know Adsense and Amazon are different, but bear with me) you essentially devalue your site, give your users a worse experience, and also send your traffic away to sites that you don't endorse. The fact that I still run Google Ads, and also that Amazon and Google are two different beasts is not lost on me, but in taking a tip from Chris, I have attempted to customize my Amazon store to mostly products that I have used, or at least product categories that I would use myself. And by incorporating it into my site frame, if you do browse over there, the experience is seamless and you can easily come back.

Lastly, I have reorganized my travel section for better SEO, and also have focused on updating it to include my recent travels. I should be fully caught up in another week or two, at which point I can set my mind at ease and re-focus on putting out more content and increasing my readership.

Thanks for reading, and as always, I welcome your feedback here.

Labels: updates, work

I've updated my blog layout once more. These changes are more subtle that the last ones. I changed the width to maximize the screen more, now with two sidebars instead of just one. I feel like this way my previous posts, archives, links, etc are more accessible. Also added a "tag cloud" with my frequently updated topics and a search form. However I just realized the search form searches the web and not my site so I need to fix that.

Lastly, if you are a subscriber or a reader and want to be on my blogroll, just send me an email or comment here and I'll be happy to exchange links with you if you're interested...

Happy Sunday!

Labels: updates

For those of you who use the web feed, just letting you know that I have created a new look and feel for the website. It is mostly the same layout, however I wasn't crazy about the solid black background I had before. I was using a free web layout from online, so I stuck with it, but changed the colors and some of the images. Let me know your thoughts...

Labels: updates