barefoot : as safe as bare-hand

a wonderful weekend camping with friends in Epping forest meant i forgot i was meant to be resting my feet.

instead, i walked in the forest, gathered wood, stretched and strained putting up the tent, and jumped about playing Frisbee.

so my heels are a bit sore again, but nothing too bad.

however, i did get a cut on my toe (because, of course, i was barefoot), and this raised a host of imagined "i told you so"s in my mind. proof positive that barefoot is not just weird, but dangerous!

which set me thinking...

i and a number of my friends got small cuts on our hands from the wood. there were a couple of minor burns or scolds. one leg was bruised. 

none of which caused any particular alarm.

where necessary plasters where deployed, but for the most part the injured soldiered on without a second thought.

so why are feet any different?
if you use something, it may show a little wear and tear: hands, cars (thanks red car, who dinked our car's door), and yes, even feet.

but bodies are designed to heel, and with sense no real damage is done.

Apparently there is a common risk of enjoying barefoot to much...

...and it seems i have made this mistake.

for the last week i have been hobbling and limping and generally suffering for really sore heels. not the underside,  the soles of my feet are feeling great, but the back, where the tendons and stuff join the bones.

the 'and stuff' there points to the problem in part - i am trying to re-train and strengthen my feet without a proper understanding of what i am doing.
so now i can't run, although i am getting better at walking again.

i think this is a problem that has been brewing whilst i was walking in my VFFs, as my feet started hurting earlier in the year. the extra strain of the running has done the rest.

so - i need to go back to basics.
i have bought this very interesting looking book, which i hope will bring me safely back to the path.
fingers and toes crossed!

morning run

same 1 mile route weaving around my neighbourhood, in 7:50 this morning.

i was running in my VFFs today, and really missed the feel of the ground. however, i was able to concentrate more on technique, and they will help me open out the distance faster than bare feet proper will allow.

so - a bit faster, a little bit softer.

the biggest positive, however, is that i got out of bed for a run on a work day. a first for this lazy bed-head...

also been doing some research about running barefoot, looking for help with style and safely.
birthdayshoes seems like a great resource, so i have some homework now.

Flights of fancy

Last year having decided to try my arm at archery, but not being able to join a club, i took a course to learn how to make a primitive longbow: that is a simple flat bow, with no recurve or other fancy bits.

Three days in beautiful Lakes countryside at Woodsmoke saw me learn how to use an axe and a hunting knife, producing a working bow.

I had never done any carpentry before this, so i was hugely pleased with the result (and not a little surprised) - my 6 foot ash stave was hacked down into an elegant bow, which shot straight and powerfully. 

But still having no club to shoot at, it now hangs on the wall.

The next task was clearly to learn how to make flint arrow heads...

Another long weekend earlier this year, this time with the wonderful tutoring of Karl Lee, saw me turning stone into beautiful arrow points, just like our ancestors, through Europe, Africa, the Americas...

This is white flint transformed into a tang and barbed arrow head.

Karl wasn't just a patient teacher, but also generous with his knowledge, and his stock of feathers - he knew my next task was to make the arrows...

I had made a couple of arrows when i made the bow, but felt uncomfortable at the thought of openly carrying a lethal weapon together with ammunition on the train back to London, so, sadly, i donated them to someone on the course.

But from September i will finally have a place to shoot, so i thought i should make some more arrows...

Clearly i have a retro thing going on, so wanted good wooden shafts, traditional points (the flints are for show for now), and natural feathers.
With supplies to make 12 arrows, over the weekend i made the first 4.
The points are black armour-piercing jobs (think Battle of Agincourt), the feathers are cock pheasant wing feather donated by Karl, held in place with (artificial) sinew. The feathers on two arrows have a twist and two are straight. The twist should create a rifling effect, spiralling the arrow as it flies. This should make it fly straighter. Although, it may be a while before i shoot well enough to properly see which is best...

Again, really happy with the results. The arrows look amazing. Will know in September if they work.

V&A Decode : Recode awards!

Fantastic news!

Recent work for the V&A museum's digital exhibition Decode : Recode was nominated for a D&AD award.
Sadly it didn't win, but it does get into the annual for this year, so i'm really chuffed.



Plus!
The work also won a Bronze Cyber Lion at Cannes!


There has also been loads of chatter about the work, including a NMA site of the week (83/100), and a feature in both Creative Review and Marketing Week.

Here is a nice wee video made by Saint that explains what it was all about.

Scoring for the World Cup

Recently i got to work on a great brief for the BBC, building their interactive World Cup wall-chart, which was coupled with a predictor so you could decide for yourself who deserved to win, and not worry about the actual football.

Here is the link: BBC World Cup: Team Tracker 

You can view match highlights and share links to main BBC site content, as well as sharing your predictions with friends via the usual Facebook and Twitter links.

The work was really challenging: technically tricky, lots of design input, and not really enough time.

Geekily, one of my favourite bits was finding a way to make a compressed encoding of the prediction (which had to have two team names for every match in the tournament, together with who you thought won and lost each match), which i got down to two characters per match. Really geeky, but it was a major issue and an elegant solution using base 32 characters.

There has been some chatter about the work, some liking the design, but mostly just ordinary people using it to share their predictions, which is at least one brilliant result from the competition...

when i was 11 i could run about a mile in about 6 minutes

3 runs this week, and only 2 blisters so all-in-all i'm really happy.

i would never have thought i would be (willingly) running around my neighbourhood barefoot at all until a few weeks ago, so this is a success.

when i was 11 i could run about a mile in about 6 minutes.

stats for the runs:

1 - 1km in about 10 minutes.

2 - 1 mile in about 10 minutes. first blister on ring-toe (are there names for toes?)

3 - 1 mile in 8 minutes 20 - i remembered to check my watch properly. second blister under big toe as i changed the weight on my feet to avoid the first blister...

so, 30 years on and i am running about 2 minutes slower over a mile than my 11 year old self. i was a kind boy, so i hope i would have slowed down a bit for an old man and given encouragement. i was also full of energy and would probably have gladly run on ahead when the (still kind) old man told me not let him hold me up...

i am looking forward to catching me up. or at least drawing closer. but slowly does it. in my first ever race (my first real run) around a village in Cyprus i came 4th and still regret not getting a medal because i raced ahead too hard. the boy behind me just sat on my tail until the last bend, then sprinted past, having saved his energy. i learnt a good lesson that day. timing and patience matter at least as much as speed.

the first run was just around the block, to prove that i could / would do a barefoot run, and it turned out to be almost exactly 1km, according to this site here. having found a way to measure the first run, i wove a route around my local streets that was a mile, as i am a good imperial boy and prefer that distance to the new-fangled metric stuff.

i'm running with my shoes in hand, just in case i need to rest my feet, but no need for them yet, but it feels like a sensible precaution.

i am loving the difference in textures, temperatures, and other sensation.

the pavement feels really hard as expected, but the road feels softer which is down to texture i guess: the road has more texture so my feet have more to yield to and find grip on... maybe.

metal drain covers and such like, which i thought would feel harder again, mainly feel smooth and somehow softer, even those that have a raised pattern.

the streets have been dry, but near a washed car the pavement was wet. the cooling for my feet was good, and lasted longer than i would have expected.

i don't recall any of these variations in sensation when running in shoes. sure there was a difference between concrete and grass, but none of this range and subtlety. a great bonus.

i am trying to stretch after my run, and i'm feeling pretty good really, but i am conscious that i need to find out more about looking after my legs, especially as i extend the range. i'm happy with my small circuit for now, but have plotted a 3 mile route taking in the local park. the paths there are much rougher than the neighbourhood streets, so i'll need to build up toughness and distance first.