I have not run with my VFFs in really cold weather. The coldest I think was around -7 C. Today my toes did not get cold, but I did feel a good deal of frost burning in all my other outdoor VFF runs, probably because it was colder. I kept having to flex my toes and worry about frostbite until around the 3 km mark when my toes warmed up to a normal comfortable temperature. My wife came up with a theory for that and I think it is correct. She thinks my body shuts off blood flow to my toes and fingers until my core body temperature is high enough to begin diverting heat to the extremities.

I am not really paying a lot of attention to my foot strike like I did in the beginning. When I started I made sure to land on the forefoot and this caused me some problems and a lot of soreness. Now, I am pretty sure I mostly land on the mid-foot, my second most frequent landing is on the forefoot, and very rarely I still heel strike depending on the terrain and whether I am going uphill or downhill. On the road the foot strike is fairly clear-cut and well defined, but on the trails it is almost always a combination of all three at the same time and never the same foot strike twice in a row. If you can imagine that, great, if you cannot then all I can say is the terrain varies greatly on the size scale of your foot so there is no way you can predict how your foot is going to respond to the ground. It just does so in a dynamic way and your foot really instantly senses the tiniest micro-variations under it and responds accordingly even before you have transferred your full weight onto it.

I find myself running more and more with my knees bent slightly especially on the downhill. This essentially means I have a shorter stride and keep my center of gravity under me at all times.

One other thing I would like to comment on is muscle recruitment versus training and injuries. There comes a time when you push it too far and injure yourself. But as you become more aware of how your body reacts to training you begin to know when to back off and when to call the bluff and ignore the complaints (of your muscles, that is). Today I actually imagined I felt I had exceeded the limits of certain muscles but rather than getting injured, I felt other smaller muscles coming into play to support the big ones. I think this is the first time I imagine I could actually witness new muscle recruitment taking place. Which is pretty cool. But it could be pure imagination. Which is OK. Because I never imagined I would ever be a runner in the first place. When I began I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going or why.

So there you have it. If I imagine something, then the rest of me will follow up on that and I will begin to make conscious and unconscious choices leading to that goal.

There is no other way.

My muscles were too stiff on the initial climb out of the valley and I wish I had rolled before starting out. I had to walk most of that hill. I was worried too that my toes would freeze, especially the middle toe on each foot since I was feeling a little frostbite burn on those. I just kept running and flexing my toes to make sure I could still feel them. It wasn’t until I passed the 3 kilometer mark that my worries about toe frostbite disappeared as they were now nice and toasty warm. I will have to think about better ways to keep my toes warm.

That’s about it. Expect perhaps to say that as long as I can tolerate the cold toes somehow, I can’t imagine myself ever wearing running shoes again for a run. But it is too early to know that for sure. I do not know if there will be a problem if I become really used to the VFFs then suddenly switch back to shoes for a race.

Sometimes, I hate having to figure this stuff out.

http://jaredbangerter.hubpages.com/hub/Theory-of-Evolution

After reading this post, I decided to reply in the hope of doing two things: The first, was to clear up some misconceptions about the topic in the hope that the author of the above post would stop wasting his time reading about bullshit and actually read some real science books instead. The second reason is that I am becoming increasingly alarmed at the threat posed by people such as David Wilcox, Richard Hoagland (hereinafter referred to as “con artists”), and many others who are extremely intelligent but they do not care at all about truth. All they care about is the attention and money they can generate from misleading people into believing and paying for their drivel.

After I say a few words about my concerns, I will post the comment I made on the above blog just in case it gets deleted by the author.

I would not mind if these obviously highly intelligent con artists would turn to writing science fiction novels and getting their dime that way but what they are doing is highly destructive and anti-social. It is a real threat not only to our civilization, but to our liberty as well. These con artists do not seem to care that they are destroying the science that gave them life, and preserves all of our lives.

I want to include and accuse also some religious people. A lot of them.

I want to write down just a few reasons why I think they are a threat and that they are destroying our civilization and hurting thousands of people around the world. Let us start with keeping people from the real truth. People waste enormous amounts of time and money pursuing fantasies. There are many sincere people who are confused and looking for the truth and the fact that they will never find anything in these revenue generating fantasy structures that the con artists build is a huge waster of time and resources. It can also psychologically damage people so that they begin to mistrust real science and they put their faith in new age mysticism instead of working towards a better planet in the real world.

It leads to attacks on science in the home, in schools, and in political circles. It draws people away from solving real problems. Instead they devote their time and resources into fantasy solutions that will never happen. If you destroy reason and argument as they are doing, oppression and destruction of freedom is inevitable. Logic, truth, and reason will no longer be the cornerstone of our civilization.

If you are one of those people who are lured by these con artists, perhaps you should step back and observe the tactics of these con artists in an objective way. I know that is a tall order, because if you were objective and logical you would not be fans of them in the first place. But let’s say you did step back and observe their tactics. What would you see? You would see a carefully structured formula designed to mislead you.

The first thing you will see is that almost without exception they first trash the existing scientific and social structure. By that I mean they will tell you that modern science is wrong, has deceived us, wants to controls us, wants to keep the truth from us, and other conspiracy nonsense. The second thing they will do is offer their own theories as to why this is happening, and what you can do about it. The third thing they will do is to sweeten the pot by seducing you with promises of greatness. This greatness takes many forms, such as evolving into superior beings, getting special powers, and in general have all your problems mysteriously disappear in a new wonderful life. And you usually don’t have to do anything nor take any responsibility for your own actions or inactions. What does it say about people when the real hook is the last one: The one where you can achieve your dreams with no effort. People fall for that one hook, line, and sinker. For example, David Wilcox claims that even if you do nothing at all your DNA will miraculously rearrange itself (“be upgraded”) into something capable of self-levitation, telepathy, and time travel merely because our Solar system will be passing through a torsion field December 21st, 2012. Richard Hoagland claims that NASA is hiding evidence of extinct alien civilizations on Mars and the Moon. His hook is that governments don’t want you to have free energy and wonderful technology that the aliens have because then the governments will lose control of you and they cannot allow that. But by buying into his theories you can make a difference and force the government to reveal what they allegedly know. The thought that the dirty old government does not want you to have the free energy you deserve and now you have to keep paying your utility bills forever is what Hoagland wants you to think. Why? Because this leads you to support Richard and give him more money so he can be the energy messiah.

They would not attract many followers if it were not for the seduction of a future personal gain for the follower. It’s almost like they think, “to hell with reality, all I need to do is to put my hope in David Wilcox’s theory and if I am right then I will be wildly happy and successful! I am so sure he is right that I need not do anything.” This leads to mistrust of governments, of scientists, and of authority.

Don’t get me wrong, I strongly believe that governments, scientists, and authority absolutely should be challenged, questioned, and monitored continually. It is the only way to preserve our freedoms. But: Not for ridiculous and unsubstantiated reasons.

The result is that these con artists are contributing to the destruction of our planet and our society. I know this for a fact. I know this because I personally know people, and I know of many others (not personally) who do not care about the environment of the planet because it will all be destroyed or washed clean anyway. I know this because they have told me that they want the Earth to be destroyed so it can be re-created by their fictional God. They have told me that any attempt at uplifting mankind to build a better world is tantamount to accepting the Anti-Christ. Better to let things deteriorate until God saves them because that is the only way. All this because they believe in this rubbish.

I know people who place their faith in quackery at the expense of their own mental and physical health. I know people who suffer because they reject science such as those who refuse vaccinations. In their ignorance, they are at the mercy of every con artist because they do not have any science education nor do they have any critical thinking skills.

Do you see now, why I am so passionate about this topic?

And now, I leave you with my reply to the above mentioned blog post:

David Wilcox, along with others in his industry, is just making shit up. He has absolutely no evidence for any of it. He is making it all up.

First of all, there is zero evidence for this radiation belt which you refer to.

Second, the period of revolution of the Solar system around the galaxy is 250 million years. If this belt existed, (according to your diagram) the sun would pass through it twice per revolution, a period of 125 million years, not 62 million years.

Third, Darwin never believed in the Big Bang because that theory did not exist until long after he was dead.

Fourth, there are no missing links between species, and every fossil represents a transitional form.

Fifth, evolution is a documented fact and has been observed.

Sixth, evolution has absolutely nothing to do with random chance. Evolution is a directed force, there is nothing random about it. Evolution also has nothing to say about origins. So to talk about the big bang and evolution in the same breath is misleading and irrelevant.

Seventh, if David Wilcox’s theory (based on no evidence whatsoever) was correct, then why do we still have primitive unicellular organisms? Why weren’t they evolved into higher forms by this so called regular alignment.

Eighth, what the hell is a torsion wave? Has he detected any? Does he even know what torsion means? It means twisting, as in a force which turns a screw cap or other object. How is twisting our Solar system going to do anything but destroy it, depending on the amount of twist?

The only thing David Wilcox has studied, is crap, and how to scam paying customers. Because he sure isn’t using any science or scientific method, and his arguments are invalid. If you want the truth, study some real science books, you know, the science which gave us longer lives, health, power, protection, food, fuel, computers and a myriad other technologies that would never be if we had continued to listen to self proclaimed mystics like David Wilcox.

I will tell you exactly what will happen December 21st, 2012: The sun will rise. Then it will set. Then it will be the 22nd of December, 2012. In other words, absolutely nothing that hasn’t happen for centuries before.

I hope this helps you clear up some of your confusion.

Comments, anyone?