Smart Grit, Stupid Grit, Old Grit, Young Grit

November 19, 2025 Barefoot KenAndrew Brown Park, Angela Duckworth, Bart Yasso, Grit, news, running, sports, Technology, Yasso SplitsLeave a comment

I’ve logged a lot of miles in Andrew Brown Park, located in the prosperous Dallas suburb of Coppell, as the smooth paved trails are easy on the feet. Earlier this week, I showed up for a session of high-intensity interval training — specifically, a drill called “Yasso Splits,” which consists of 10 half-mile intervals at a fast pace, with ¼ mile recovery intervals in between. Developed by Bart Yasso, the “mayor of running” and Runner’s World’s former Chief Running Officer, Yasso Splits force you to sustain an elevated heart rate, which is thought to be good training for a faster marathon. To get through ten of these intervals takes a bit of grit.

I’ve been doing high-intensity interval training for almost 20 years, and Yasso Splits are one of my favorite workouts, although given the intensity, I approach them with a conservative attitude and, if I’m being honest, a touch of dread. On the drive over to the park, I thought through all those years of accumulated experience and weighed them against more recent fitness indicators, and after due deliberation selected a target pace for the intervals of 7:30 per mile, with the recovery intervals to be run at plus-or-minus a 10-minute pace. Then, after a moment of additional reflection, I decided to cut myself some slack – let’s go with a target range, call it 7:30-8:00 pace, with the goal being to maximize the training benefit, without taking on excessive risk.

Risk?

Whenever you run, you take on risk. Especially when running hard.

The risk consists of the possibility that you might damage muscles, ligaments, tendons, and even bones. There’s risk that an injury could derail your training goals, for example, spoil your plans for that upcoming race which you’ve been training for so intensely and which means so much to you.

There’s the risk that injuries could become chronic. Running is not just a sport, it’s a practice of self-empowerment and transcendence. If you get sidelined, you’d have to find a new path to pursue these life-affirming goals.

So, when we talk about needing “grit” to complete a tough workout, the real question isn’t pushing through pain — it’s taking on risk.

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Warrior Moms

November 16, 2025November 28, 2025 Barefoot Kenalzheimers, Catskills Grid, Dalton, Gus Bighorse, Navajo Warrior, Scoti Domeji, Sparta, Spartan Moms, Spartan Women, Tiana Bighorse, US Army RangerLeave a comment

I pulled into the parking lot of a coffee shop to see my friend Kuay. I’d met her at the local gym a few years back, when she invited me to join a group of swimmers she was coaching. Afterwards, I hit the weights, saw her pedaling away on the stationary bike, learned that she was training for her next triathlon.

Now, as Kuay and I sat down at an outside table, I asked about the knee brace. It provided much-appreciated support, she explained, following her run that morning, adding that her knee replacement surgery was scheduled in two weeks’ time. She’d done her research and thought through the options. Whether she’d be able to keep running was an open question. Over the years, running had been a major part of her life, and she thought she would miss it. Although she didn’t always enjoy it.

“I like getting to the end,” she explained. But not every step along the way. Especially the long training runs.

“Then why did you do so much?” I asked.

She thought about the question for a moment. Acknowledged some of it might have been ego-driven, because she liked how she felt when she raced well. But then observed that ego can be a valuable source of motivation. Because she also raced for her daughters. “When they started playing sports in school, I wanted to set an example.”

“So, you’re a warrior mom,” I said. Continue reading “Warrior Moms” →

Winds

November 9, 2025 Barefoot KenCornell Mountain, Harriman State Park, hiking, Manly Health and Training, Nature, Stash Rusin, Travel, Walt Whitman, writing2 Comments

It was a cool morning in early November. I was following a ridgeline in Harriman State Park, moving through open forest and across grassy knolls, sauntering easy and cheerful as the morning sun set the oak forest glowing in colors of tawny ocher and burnt orange — when suddenly the wind picked up. It rolled in from the west without warning, jostled treetops, roared like a jet plane. I zipped my jacket tighter, recognizing in the rough gusts the angry sound of winter.

That evening, I was chatting with my friend Stash Rusin, who’d recently climbed Cornell Mountain in the Catskills on a cold fall day, the sky overcast, the ground at elevation already dusted with snow as light as sugar frosting, although surprisingly no ice. From the summit, he looked south, but a squall had pushed into the valley and blocked the mountain views. He made his way through the woods to the north side of the summit and found himself in the middle of a maelstrom. “The winds were 30-40-50 mph,” he recalled. They made him feel “so excited – so alive.” Continue reading “Winds” →

Welcome to the World — Bob’s Baby Granddaughter!

October 23, 2025 Barefoot Kenanti-depressants, Bob Dewey, books, Childhood mortality, Children of Men, Dan Lieberman, genetic drift, health span, Healthy Life Expectancy, Hippocrates, John Ioannidis, life expectancy, movies, Nassim Taleb, news, photos, politics, Robert Pirsig, selection pressure, Stephen Hawking, Tragedy of Big Data, VirgilLeave a comment

In an eloquent and heartfelt essay, my former colleague Bob Dewey announced the birth of his granddaughter, commenting on how grateful he felt that the delivery was “routine and uneventful.” Indeed, modern medicine delivers infants with exquisite care and safety. Bob pointed out that childhood mortality in the US recently hit a new low – only 5 deaths per 1,000 live births, equivalent to a rate of 0.5%.

I, too, am grateful for safety. My grandson, Arden, recently turned 6.

But…

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PUT DOWN THE PHONE (I’m trying, but I can’t!)

September 29, 2025September 29, 2025 Barefoot KenCivilization and its Discontents, cognitive control, confidence, effort, Freud, health, mental-health, productivity, Scott Barry Kaufman, Self agency, work, writingLeave a comment

“Put down the phone,” I bark to myself, and I know I need to. But I don’t. The device is engineered to be engaging, and the information is so intriguing – why, my social media feeds contain the latest headline news, and what my friends are doing and what they care about — which is all quite relevant to my life – and then an email arrives from a colleague with a new task awaiting my attention, a task which really matters. There’s the familiar ping – incoming text – it’s Mom with a report on what my daughter and grandson are up to. And I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit this, but I spend a lot of time on my phone doing word games, too. The dopamine hit from completing one puzzle always makes me want to start the next, and as a result I’m nearly 4,000 levels in. I do these games to help manage my stress and energy, in other words, to keep myself in the “flow.”

Indeed, I’m so absorbed, I often lose track of time. Is this not the very definition of “flow state,” the super-productive mindset that coaches, therapists, and scientists exhort us to attain?

Yes. But.

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You Never Know Who You Might Meet on the Summit of Tsoodził

September 24, 2025October 16, 2025 Barefoot KenAnti-fragile, Blackhorse Mitchell, Gus Bighorse, Mt. Taylor, Nassim Taleb, Navajo Holy People, Navajo Traditional Teachings, Nilchi'i, Tiana Bighorse, Tsoodzil, Turquoise Girl, Wally Brown1 Comment

Ninety minutes outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mt. Taylor (11,301 feet) rears its lofty head. The Navajo call this peak Tsoodził, translated as Blue Bead or Turquoise Mountain. Tsoodził is considered a sacred mountain, marking the southern extent of the Dinétah or ancestral homeland of the Navajo people. As I neared the summit, I wondered if I might encounter Turquoise Boy, Blue Corn Girl, or Cougar, who are Holy People said to live there. Continue reading “You Never Know Who You Might Meet on the Summit of Tsoodził” →

Reservoir Year by Nina Shengold — A Review

September 15, 2025 Barefoot KenAshokan Reservoir, Book of Nature, book-review, books, Catskills Grid, family, fiction, John Burroughs, Martin Armitage, Nina Shengold, Reservoir Year: A Walker's Book of Days, Samuel Steen, Switching Gears, writingLeave a comment

Everyone wants to be in charge, but there are so many distractions

The Ashokan Reservoir is an important component of the New York City water supply. Lying at the base of the Catskill Mountains, the reservoir is 12 miles long, covers 8,300 acres, and has a maximum capacity of 123 billion gallons of water. Reservoir Year: A Walk of Days is Nina Shengold’s account of a unique project during which she visited the Ashokan Reservoir for a daily walk along the shore, with a special commitment to complete a full year’s worth of walks without skipping a single day. In her daily notes, which range from a single sentence to a few pages, she brings the reservoir to life. She recounts the drama of sky and water. Shares the antics of crows, deer, squirrels, bears, herons, and bald eagles. Relates the interactions with strangers she encountered and with friends and family members who sometimes walked with her during this improbable quest. Improbable, for a 60-year-old single mother with bills to pay and aging parents who need her help and many other obligations.

Nina is a talented writer and in particular a master of metaphor, which makes the book a stimulating read. On a spring-time visit, the cloud-striped sky evokes a blue-and-white lava lamp. The atmosphere beneath a brewing thunderhead feels “dead-air, locker room humid.” A sunset morphs from pastel “to flamingo, persimmon, tandoori salmon, hot lava.” It’s clear in writing up this account she had fun.

But beneath the engaging prose, a serious question lurks. Why? Why, if you didn’t have to walk a dog, would you visit the same place on every single day for a full year?

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Fork in the Road

August 30, 2025 Barefoot KenAlita Battle Angel, books, consciousness, Ghost in the Machine, Henry David Thoreau, Lives of Quiet Desperation, Manly Health and Training, Mose Velsor, Philosophy, Ray Kurzweill, Singularity, Transcendentalism, transhumanism, Walt Whitman, writingLeave a comment

We have reached an interesting fork in the road on our collective journey. One way is a short cut to the promised land. The other way takes us home. Speaking as both a runner and an analyst, I’ve made my choice – how about you?

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Bunny Fitzgerald’s Barefoot Manifesto: A Review

August 25, 2025 Barefoot KenBunny Fitzgerald, health, Meditation, mental-health, The Barefoot Manifesto, wellness, writing1 Comment

Bunny is a writer and jazz singer who’s built a following on Instagram (@bunny_fitzgerald) and Patreon (patreon.com/bunnyfitzgerald) by chronicling her barefoot lifestyle. Her new book, “The Barefoot Manifesto: How I stopped Wearing Shoes and Started Living,” is a deeply personal, lyrical, and forceful account of why she walks this interesting path. But the book is not a practical guide to foot health. Nor is it about style. Rather, Bunny positions the manifesto as a “book about freedom” with the key themes being personal sovereignty and the primacy of sensation.

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So You Want to Fly an F-16 (It’s Not That Hard — I’ll Show You How)

July 28, 2025July 28, 2025 Barefoot KenF-16 Viper, Phaethon, Richard DAmbrosioLeave a comment

Twist the throttle to the left, then push it forward. This engages the afterburner. Jet fuel is injected into a combustor located behind the turbine, significantly increasing thrust, the effect of which is visible as a 30-foot cone of blue fire and sometimes sparkles of flame called “shock diamonds.” Soon you’re topping out at Mach 1.8 (1,000 mph at sea level).

That’s how easy it is to go fast.

And this matters, because it’s not just Tom Cruise who feels the need for speed.

Continue reading “So You Want to Fly an F-16 (It’s Not That Hard — I’ll Show You How)” →

The Long Brown Path

Peak-bagging, running, barefooting, exploring, and other minimalist adventures in nature

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Author: Barefoot Ken