Monday, March 15, 2010

Run 4 the Kids 2010

Ok, my first race wearing the Vibram Five Fingers Sprint was on Sunday in the 14.5 km Run 4 the Kids. The only other person I saw wearing Vibram was my buddy and I never saw a single barefoot runner. A couple of people asked, quite a few others started, but for the most part the majority paid no attention. Especially when the race was underway and the other runner's focus was primarily on their own pain.

There were a couple of spots where I did slow down which were made up for with a few quick spurts, overall I found that I ran with a nice consistent pace. My overall time was 68 minutes which averaged out to a 4:41 pace, my buddy ran at a 4:16 pace (or therabouts).

Today I feel good. A little tightness here and there but nothing out of the ordinary and the feet in particular are fine. I did have a minor concern that I might have been coming down too hard in my footfalls but it all seems to be A-OK today. The next race will be a 10k job at Hanging Rock in April and I plan to do plenty of kms between now and then with a few very long hill runs thrown in.

The Plantar Fascia pain I had earlier in the year is completely gone and the Achilles are both getting better and are not far off being cherry ripe. To think that only 4 months ago I was starting to worry that I might never be able to run again without pain. Changing to a forefoot running style and running in the Vibrams has been the saviour for me.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Vib strong

My feet are getting stronger, I can feel it, it feels good :)

A nice little 11 km run today down the Yarra and around the Tan a couple of times.

The first lap was at a steady 4:44 which help me end up with 5:16 for the whole run.

Didn't push it hard to max although that one lap was steady.

I'll be more than happy if I can do R4K on Sunday at faster than 5:00 pace.

Opinions

....are just opinions

If you don't agree with one, no problem just move along

If someone doesn't agree with yours, no problem just move along

No point arguing when neither side will change their mind. Especially when there is money and/or career choice involved.

Sunday, March 07, 2010

Blood Letting

Fantastic run this morning with Wheatie up at Sherbrooke Forest. We had a massive storm yesterday afternoon and rain all night which left the rainforest trails nice and soft and the forest smelling more alive than I have ever seen it. Well all except for the two cracked and splintered mountain ash we found that had come down over one part of the path. That slowed down our pace as we had to climb through the debris.

During the run I was thinking about how I can get some balance in my running and martial arts and I've come to the conclusion that I should give up the short runs during the week and concentrate on a Wednesday long run and a Sunday mega run. More than that and I am just exhausted.

The "mega run" was not so mega today, only about 11 km as I am still breaking in my calves and getting used to running in the VIbrams, which by the way felt awesome on the damp trails today. It is so much nicer being able to feel the earth under foot as you run. Not so much that I was prepared to go barefoot. Whilst I am into the whole barefoot philosophy of gently treading and feeling your way through, I am not so open to the idea of exposing my bare feet to unpredictable trails. We'll give that a bit more time.

When we got back to the car park I noticed that I had picked up a little leech, so I gently flicked him off so that he could go and find some other runner to have a snack on :-)

Friday, March 05, 2010

Floating moments and slices of time

I was just driving into my street last night when my daughter called and asked if I could pick her up from work, which is across the road from the carpark I had been in just a few minutes earlier. So I continued back and a few minutes later turned right into the side street, continuing on for another 30 metres and stopping outside the coffee shop.

I turn the ignition off, open the door and stand up outside the car whilst looking forward and across the road towards the coffee shop. Right at that moment I hear the unmistakable screech and impact of a car hitting something. Immediately I look over my right shoulder and see a car airborne and then smash into a power pole at the intersection I had just turned down.

Hot on the tail of this car was a police car, which stopped before the driver got out and arrested two men from the crashed vehicle.

So its a bit like, ahhh yeah, I was there driving through the crash spot about 30 seconds before it happened. When I collected Pais she pointed out that if I hadn't come back to get her she would proably have been walking around that corner at about the time of the crash.

Really, its the sort of thing that I've seen before, but it was interesting to think of the timing and how close it all was. Also interesting to think of the participants and the strange lives they have created for themselves.

How do you help people who choose criminal behaviour?

The coffee shop owner was telling me that the law doesn't work and that there should be more social input. I'm not sure about that. The law is effective enough in helping to keep the majority of people safe. As far as the criminaly inclined go, well they get some punishment but the only way for them to change their life is if they choose to do it.

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Return of the hump

Just me and Rob for a hump day run. Really I was a bit worn out from my lunchtime run and probably went too far with Rob. We did a lap of the Tan with about 8 km all up at a nice steady pace.

I was exhausted after having a shower and went and got some dirty bird to fuel up. It filled the spot - all fuel for the fire :)

Achilles cured??

Maybe, just maybe....

After a week of semi-detox the pain in my achilles is all but gone and I have noticed that my toes even look better. Hard to explain, but they look trimmer which means they were probably a bit swollen before, especially the big toes.

My weight has also dropped by a couple of kilos which isn't great. But it was most likely a couple kilos of sugar that had been dropped!

Today's run was awesome. A short knock down the Yarra River at a nice pace that was coincidently my best race pace in a 10k and a 21.1k race.

Generally feeling good and now thinking about knocking up some serious kilometres again. I'll see if Bob will do 8k tonight :)

4.4 km @ 4:45 pace