Nose Dive

So for my third time in a week since I got them, I went out with the Vibrams. Today I did my 7km lunch run around Lost Lagoon. This was the longest run I've done in them so far, and it was a bit of a mixed bag. I went out too fast. I knew I went out too fast while I was doing it, but I just didn't want to rein it in. I just felt too good. As you can see from the graph, I didn't exactly sustain the pace.

Still, I feel pretty good about the run and the graph, considering how bad it dropped. (I'll get to that). Out of the gate I was super quick (for me lately). But even after the first two stoplights, shown as pauses in green, I held a good pace for the first half. For instance, here is the graph of roughly the same run in my Asics just over a week ago:

For the first half of the run I averaged much much faster than usual. While slower, my average for the second half was at least as good. But, the old run is much more consistant and steady. With the Vibrams my pace is all over the place. I actually think it is accurate that my pace is fluctuating for a couple of reasons. First, it supports the sense of acceleration I mentioned in an earlier post. Sure enough I can accelerate with less effort, but can't hold it for long yet. Second, the distance for the run seems accurate (the slightly longer run I did before had a different route at the start). Third, pacing myself with a runner who passed me, I could tell I was fluctuating. I think it is a good thing.

The bad news from the run today is that the blister on my big toe is back, and this time I was wearing the toe socks. I noticed it right when I paused in the middle of the run. Again, I wished I had a camera. During that pause, on a little foot bridge, a squirrel came up on the rail to within a foot of me. Anyhow, maybe the blister hadn't healed completely. I'm not used to getting blisters, so I don't know how they work. I did some googling, and stumbled across another great resource the Minimalist Runner email group. It is an awesome site, but it seems blisters is a pretty common thing. So, I may need to toughen up, or change my gait and toe-off a bit. During the run it felt pretty bad, and I expected a huge popped blister. But it isn't quite that bad. It is deep in the toe pad and tender, but I think it will heal without ripping. It is fine to walk on now, but it did mess with my pace more than my legs or cardio capacity.

So,  I want to heed my body's warning about doing too much too fast, but I think I'm failing. I've done about 15km in them in less than a week. That is more than I've been running at all lately. But I like it so much I want to take them out every run. It will have to be back to the Asics next time, but I'm optomistic about doing the Sun Run in these.

I had posted a picture of the goofy shoes on my Facebook and my old friend Shady Brady responded with this link. So very, very funny considering.

JJ Casuals - watch more funny videos