Vibrams

I went out for a 7 mile run in my Vibram Five Finger KSOs yesterday. The furthest I'd ran in them before was abut 5.5 miles, which left a spot on my right foot raw. I decided to pick up some Iniji running toe socks to wear inside the Vibrams to cut down on rubbing and provide some more warmth so that I can use them until it gets Minnesota cold. The shoes felt very snug with the socks inside them, but I was used to them feeling overly snug since my feet and ankles were swollen up for a week or so after my illness. They actually felt a bit less snug! At any rate, here are my observations about how running with the KSOs differ from my Teva sandals, (and other heavy training shoes) :

-My stride changed a little, even though I'm trying to use the same midfoot stride regardless of shoe
-I noticed more rubbing between me legs, which hadn't been a problem for me recently (a result of changed stride)
-I felt very light on my feet
-I felt like my heart and lungs didn't have to work as hard to achieve the same time
-I felt like I didn't sweat as much as normal
-My upper leg muscles (quads and hamstrings) felt like they were not working hard
-The tendons in may ankles and feet felt more strained than normal
-Both ankles felt a little sore at some point during the run
-Several lower leg muscles were being worked much harder than normal, especially the one immediately to the outside of the tibia (shin bone), which I'm assuming is the tibialis anterior and fairly meaty one on the outside of my lower leg which is probably the peroneus longus. (this is based on a quick online search) These muscles are involved with stabilizing the ankle and balance and work opposite one another in turning the ankle over one way or the other so it makes sense that they would both be tired together.
-My "calf" muscles were not especially tired. People seem to refer to any muscle in the lower leg as the calf muscle, but there are something on the order of 12 muscles in the lower leg, the "calf muscle" is actually two muslces, the gastrocnemius and soleus, large muscles at the back of the lower leg that help with plantarflexion--making the angle of the ankle to the shin greater than 90 degrees, aka pushing off with the toes or going up on the tip toes.


Overall the run felt very good, except that my toe was being stressed a little more than it would have been in my sandals. I don't think my muscles and tendons would have been up for running much more than 10 miles in them yet, but If they were in better shape, I felt like I could have kept pace for a really long time. From my knees up the run felt effortless.

10 Day Forecast

It's about 10 days until the 2009 Twin Cities Marathon now, meaning long shot weather forecasts are starting to roll in. I don't know about other marathon runners, but I'm a bit obsessive about checking forecasts before the race since my other two were: 1 Unseasonably Hot and sunny (low-mid 80's for october) and 2 fairly cool and rainy. It would be ideal for me if it were low 60's and completely overcast; the forecasts so far range from 39 degree lows to 65 degree highs with a decent change of rain showers... it's looking like another #2 year. My main concern with the weather is if rain comes when it is very cool, like the mid 40's which is quite possible. This will force me to wear a lot more clothes which will likely slow me down a lot. My other big quandary is what to wear on my feet for the race. My old running shoes with the holes in the insoles began bothering my toe a bit after a couple of 11 milers the past few weekends. Last weekend I ran about 11 miles on Saturday but decided to stop because of soreness in the toe; the next day I went out again and did 13 miles in my teva sandals with socks. It seems a bit crazy but I'm leaning toward tevas with socks for the race, even though they are much thicker and heavier than I'd like, they seem good for my toe. The problem is, if I'm wearing sandals with socks, cold rain would mean soggy feet in a couple of minutes, although they would dry fast if the rain stopped.

As for my four hour time goal, its looking pretty bleak. Between changing my running stride and feeling unable to push off too hard from my toes, my top speed has dropped considerably and I don't feel like I can kick and put in a sub 8 minute mile to fininsh off if I had to. I'm going to have to just go for a steady pace from start to finish to protect my injury and see what happens. I think I can beat my time from last year (4:35), and hopefully beat 10 minute miles (4:20) but 4 flat will take a tremendous effort for me having had too little time to get used to my altered stride and to find a pair of shoes that works better. I wish I had had time to train up my calves and feet so that I could run in my Vibrams; maybe next year. I might go shoe shopping this weekend and take a 10-13 miler in a pair of new kicks to see if I can find a light weight flat that will work.

With 10 days left before the race, I only have time for 3 or 4 more training runs. Its nice to know there's not much left, but in my case, it would be nice to have more time. Apparently the sickness I had that kept me down for a week and a half was probably swine flu. My mom had the same thing (I think I got her sick) and her doctor said it was probably H1N1, since there's no other bad viruses going around right now. I'm feeling pretty much 100% better now though, so its full steam ahead. I ran about seven miles in 1:02:32 and 1:04:14 my last two runs. This is probably 3-6 minutes slower than I was going before I got hurt back in May. On the other hand, I'm not feeling quite as tired at the end, because I'm not pushing so hard or kicking for the last mile. In a marathon things might even out; If I can run as fast as my 1:02:32 time for the whole race, I can make 4 hours. Just do decently fast training run four times back to back... That's not so bad!

I'll probably make another post or two before race day, and definitely the night or morning after the race.

Crunch Time

Training over the last couple weeks hasn't exactly gone as planned. I ended up getting a couple 7 mile runs in without my toe injury coming back in full force, which was a heartening sign. I tried to run with short strides and a high cadence. I also ran with holes cut in my insoles around the large big toe joint on the bottom of my foot to take pressure off of it. It seems to have worked. Just when I was feeling like I might be able to get on course to get a few long runs in before the marathon, I got sick. I just woke up one day and had a mild headache, that turned into a pounding headache the next day. I attribuited it to allergies, but the next day I had a fever that continued for almost a week. The fever has finally disappeared in the last couple days and I feel pretty much normal, but I missed a good week of activity of any kind. I'm also not sure if I'm 100% in the health department yet, since flu/colds which I'm assuming this is tend to linger for a while. At any rate, I hope to start get some workouts in this weekend, and maybe try a half or longer next weekend. There's only 3 weeks left before the race, so I don't have much time to work up to it now. It seems like the race will be a huge struggle this time around, but for some reason, I'm feeling optimistic.

In other news I received my Vibram Five Finger shoes in the mail last week, and they seem pretty fun, although I haven't gotten to use them much yet. I also read the book "Born to Run," last weekend, It was definitely worth the read. Its nice to read a running book where the writer isn't a super runner that makes you feel like a total newbie--he might be surrounded by super runners half the time, but he writes from the perspective of an average Joe runner. I liked it a lot better than the other running books I've read: "Ultramarathonman," and "Once a Runner."