Where you at?

Those were the words uttered, or shouted, over and over at me through the phone as Skolnick and I headed out of the apartment to see what manner of road kill awaited. As we headed down Buchanan St. to try to corral a one Spenis Hunt, we started peaking in to several bars to see where this hooligan was lurking. Our phone convo circuitously proceeded something like
Me: All right man we're looking for you, so you're in Joe's?
Spenis: Yeah Joe's and Othello's. Where you at?
Me: I coming from just up the street at Essex, stay where you are we're coming for you.
Spenis: Where you at? La Luna? I'm at White St. and Boomer.
Me: Fuck me. How the hell did you get over there so fast? Now where are you, we're on White St. and I don't see you.
Spenis: Where the fuck you at?

So as you can see, we were in a bind. Spencer was clearly obliterated, PD were out and about, and I couldn't seem to find the asshole, considering I'm walking down the street, which are sheets of ice, checking out every locale he claims to be at, some of which are closed for the night or fictional period. Anyway I give Skolnick the phone so I can scan the horizon and look for a drunken idiot in every alley and gutter. We notice some guy walking down the street yelling, not Spenis, and then look further down the way in the direction of the dude's yelling and notice Spenis is in fact walking down the middle of Asp yelling into his phone. Mission accomplished. But oh no a drunk Spenis still has pretty good foot speed and slick street maneuverability. Anyway, we finally retire Spenis, I think, for the evening and I went and got some food.

Life is going good right now as a 27 year old. I'm hardly running but I think that will come shortly and I'm pretty fit from cycling. I don't have any spring race plans other than a possible duathlon in late March for laughs. I am trying to come up with some definite summer plans in the form of mountain runs, and bike tours nothing that is going to involve a lot of specific training just mostly lenghty aerobic outings.
I find myself reading a lot of the minimalist/barefoot literature the has been coming out of the woodwork lately. I have a lot of issues with it and would like to here from more veterans and seasoned coaches on the topic. I do know that the only stress fracture I have sustained was after training in the most minimal footwear across the board that I have ever run in. I love the feeling of barfoot running but for the Harvard prof to blatantly suggest that people go run on pavement barefoot is really tough for me to swallow. Of course man can run a marathon on pavement barefoot, but how fast and consistently? I know the tales of Abebe Bikila but he wasn't training on concrete, nor racing on it at the Rome Games. I know of few other cases where people have run exceptionally on HARD surfaces without footwear and I personally think it's a little dangerous to advocate such a blanket statement. I think the benefit of SUPPLEMENTING training with minimalist work is to improve form and efficiency but I think that efficiency could just as easily come with some proper drills, speedwork, etc. Dynamic training is an imperative for the average runner, too much of the same thing without real progression and room for adaptation. I want to hear what my friends think.

Lots o' links:
http://www.barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/index.html

http://www.dailytriathlon.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1412027%3ABlogPost%3A35769

http://www.pikespeakmarathon.org/

http://www.imogenerun.com/

http://www.blueridgerelay