New toys purchased!

This week I have declared an easy week. Last Saturday I was very thirsty and cut my long run short at 24.3k, headed straight to a personal training session where the PT proceeded to thrash my quads, then had a quick 5k race on Sunday. It was a good finish to a 3 week block of 50k+ weeks. Now is my chance to recover, let my legs adapt to the new load, not get up so early and feel strong for a bigger week next week!

Last week I ordered some cool new running toys from http://www.zombierunner.com/. That is One Cool Shop! Run for ultraheads by ultraheads. Now of course, I'm nowhere near their league, but it's my goal. And I love the name of the shop. They sell cool ultra gear like hydration packs, injinji socks, arm warmers with pockets (perfect!!), caffeine enhanced jelly beans, a wide range of ginger lollies for the vomit factor and everything else you could possibly imagine.

My order arrived today - I bought a clip on pouch to carry stuff home from work so from next week on I will run home from work once a week. That's a pleasant 18-20ish km mid week run. That was the main thing I needed to purchase, but of course I got side tracked with a keyring sized thermometre/compass (strangely enough, just what I've wanted for years!), a sample pack of 6 electrolyte pills (because they were only $1USD, not because I need them), a pair of injinji socks to try with my Five Fingers so my feet don't get so cold, and of course I couldn't resist a totally cool coffee mug with their logo - it says Zombie Runner and has a pic of a person running carrying a massive coffee cup. As a lover of coffee, and as someone who is constantly tired from the early morning runs, I thought this was very apt :) They also threw in a free fruit bar and a 10% off coupon to tempt me to shop again.

It has been extremely cold here lately. Winter is definitely starting. We've even had to use the central heating at home in the mornings and evenings. I only bought one pair of injinji's just incase I didn't like them or they don't fit under my Five Fingers (it's a tight fit already with no socks). Can't wait to try them out tomorrow and see how it goes!

Sore feet

Lately the balls of my feet have been feeling quite sore. I think it's due to running a bit too much on less than perfect ground in the five fingers when my feet aren't quite up to it yet. A couple of times this week (including this morning) I considered the option of socks and cushioned shoes due to the general feeling that my feet just didn't want to hurt when they step on little rocks. But then I remembered - It's April and I have been injury free all year! Four months is a record! ...So I put on the five fingers again.

I'm going to keep doing my long runs in the Asics for now. I just can't run on gravel or rough ground in the five fingers. I know I need to work on it, probably starting with some short walks to get used to it. Actually I was thinking a few barefoot walks would probably solve the issue of the sore feet, but I feel quite busy at the moment and I could only fit in walks in the evening after work. The morning is my running time and I don't want to cut back on that at the moment. Maybe during an easy week I'll give it a go....if I remember.

Intervals

This morning I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30am for 1km intervals! FUN! My feet were feeling a little tender and I almost put on the Asics but went for the five fingers. They are my favourite shoes AND they help my feet do what they're supposed to do AND they're light so I should be faster, right?

It was a 1km warm up, followed by 1km fast, 1km recovery etc, total 7k. Although I tended to tire towards the end of the fast bits, and get bored of the slow bits, so it was closer to 800m fast/slow. Except one section I did 1.3k fast because there were people out on their morning walk and I wanted to keep going fast past them!

Running fast in the five fingers is so easy. It felt natural. Whenever I felt myself struggle, I just had to remind myself to gently lean forward, keep a fast leg turnover, and don't overstride. It worked a treat! Don't have the stats here right now (I'm at work) but I do recall my HR not getting over 185ish which is AMAZING considering how fast I was going. Well, fast for me, probably average for most other runners!

My right ankle started to feel a little weak at times. Old stability issues returning? Just getting tired from the fast stuff? Relying on the Asics too much lately? Longest long run to date last weekend? Who knows. I don't think it's a big deal.

Current longest run

I did my longest run to date yesterday - 22.8k. I decided to run in the Asics because I didn't want my last couple of five finger runs to beat me. ie I wanted to go on those gravel paths that have tortured my feet over the past couple of weeks. Since I've been doing a lot of runs in the five fingers, including 2 long runs, I had the 'feel' of running correctly still in my memory so I didn't get any shin pain at all in the Asics! It was FANTASTIC! I focused on just letting my feet fall naturally and not over striding. I iced the balls of my feet afterwards, because they were still quite sore from the previous weekend's 19.5k in the five fingers (where I was reduced to a hobble over the last k partly due to some long rocky gravel paths, and partly coz my calves and hamstrings wanted to cramp). Anyway, yesterday's long run was the best run and the furthest I've done. I wanted to stop and walk up the last two hills, but forced myself onwards. Had a few stitches, but forced myself onwards. Was REALLY BUGGERED but kept going. My HR was lower than it was several months ago and my pace was slightly faster! I think I had the confidence to complete over-half-marathon distance because of my training in the five fingers. I had done a few long runs in those, and my feet just knew what to do even though they were in shoes. It really was my best run to date. To top it off it was a good route.

The Yarra is a nice place to run. There is the Main Yarra Trail, which is easy, flat and not overly exciting, but there are also all these little trails that go off the main trail and then it is like you are on a real bush trail...but in the suburbs! These trails are pretty quiet. So far haven't seen any runners on them, just a dog walker or two but mostly mountain bikers. With all these little trails, I don't understand why people stick to the big boring gravel trail. Oh well, leaves the good stuff quieter for the rest of us!

...after much pain with MapMyRun and trying to edit the run so you don't see exactly where I live...Here it is...



Did a short recovery run today in the five fingers - no pain, felt FAST and had a surprisingly low HR. This put my weekly mileage to 52km! Biggest week to date, and first over-50! Now I just gotta keep it up. Have been starting to lengthen a weekday run or two so hopefully soon I'll be doing a short-long mid week run to support what I'm doing on the weekends.