Last Tuesday I took a short 2M run/jog wearing my Vibrams. I’ve owned and used my Vibrams for almost a year now, but I’ve never run farther than 3M wearing them. The reasoning for this is twofold: first; I have the original (read: cheapest version) where there are no straps or material to secure the shoe (is it a shoe?) to the foot (see picture below);
and second, my foot slides in them. I’ve purchased the toe-finger socks to try minimize this, but it all results in the occasional blister on the direct bottom of my heel. And yes, they are the correct size, the foot just naturally slides in any shoe you run in.
When I ran in my Vibrams last Tuesday I nonetheless still got a tiny (dime sized) blister on the bottom of my right heel. No big deal, I’ll just take it easy and it will go away naturally, as they always do.
But during my tempo run I managed to aggravate that blister, and during the last mile of my tempo run I felt the bottom of my heel “squish” a bit. When I got home I noticed the blister had grown to the size of a silver dollar. Ugh…not so good. But it had a few days to recover before the CRIM. No problem.
On the morning of the CRIM the Redhead began inquiring as to my desired pace. I was figuring something conservative—around 75 minutes. Because of her injury, she was going to be the official Spike Cheer Team Captain and photographer.
So, facing 60deg temperatures and a forecast of a cloudless day, I lined up just after the 7min pace sign and slammed an 8oz bottle of water. When there are over 10,000 runners, even if you line up by the 7min pace sign, you are going to have to spend a lot of time playing the human version of Pushy Penguins. I hit the first mile at a 7:08 and felt pretty comfortable. I didn’t look at my watch again until after mile three, where I saw a 6:59 split. Humm I thought, if I keep this up, I could hit something close to 70. But I knew I had the
When I hit the hills I felt I was moving through several of the runners even though my pace was slowing slightly. Up up up, down, up up up up, down down, up up up up, down, up up up and up. Finally, I reached the top of the hills and the end of mile 6. I decided to focus and try to run 7min miles for the last four. The only problem is that the blister on the bottom of my right heel was getting more and more insistent that it was extremely displeased with its current situation.
Somewhere around the start of mile 8 the blister felt like it exploded, and I felt like I was running on a soaked sponge. To say that this is a painful experience is to understate the experience greatly.
At mile 9 I decided to drop the hammer and ran a 6:24 mile. Because I was so focused, I missed the Redhead cheering for me, but she did manage to snap a picture of my final approach. Despite my goal, I managed to sneak in under 70 min. After the race I hobbled over to join the Redhead and double back to cheer on other runners—including my cousin.
When I finally took of my shoe to look at the damage…well, I’ll just let you see.
Home, and after a shower, the blister had to be addressed. So the Redhead donned her nurse outfit and played running nurse, cutting away the excess skin. It was hands down the most disgusting thing she has had to deal with since the beginning of our cohabitation (three months today!). The blister was so thick that it was like cutting leather. The result is…well…below…
Needless to say, such a mere flesh wound made my attempt at 22M less than 24 hours later idiotic. So, I bailed. And I’ll consider giving it another go tonight. Unfortunately, I’ll have to adjust my long runs accordingly because this could take a few days to heal.
Puntastic.
Or Gilding the Lilly
There are a few things I wanted to say before I espouse upon a musing left by my neighborhood hero. First, I failed to notice that this weekend’s 22M run must occur on Sunday, as I am running the 10M CRIM on Saturday. Well, race hard and enjoy a slow long run is what I say.
Also, I got up to do a 6M temp run this morning and it was 50deg. Beep yeah!!! I’m so ready to make out with Fall (as it wraps its cool- temperature arms around me) I might make the Redhead jealous.
But to the topic at hand; Nitmos’ post about just going out and running without a running plan. His post has been floating around in my heard for a few days now—and when you have a 4 hour car drive, that is a lot of time spent thinking about thing Nitmos has thought about. Additionally, I was recently inspired by Adam to review the graphs from my track workouts. Reviewing my track workouts I noticed how consistent my speed was for every interval. Regardless of distance, each graphed interval was flat line. Good if running, no so good if it is your EKG printout.
Nitmos’ post made me wonder: how does my body automatically know what pace to exert per any given distance? Doing 400m intervals, I hit about 80s. Doing 800m intervals, I hit 2:50min. But what I’m not doing is hitting the first 400m at 80s and then slowing to a 90s lap. I go 85s then 85s.
For some reason, I got an idea into my head this past Tuesday that I would add an extra 400m to my track session (I didn’t have a 400m interval scheduled that day). So, at the end of the workout I tried to burn out a 72s-75s 400m. I hit 80s flat. And, honestly, I was a little surprised. I felt like I was really pushing this one.* Yet, all I did was hit my normal 400m pace.
Now, I’m all for consistency, and running marathon miles at a consistent pace is a good thing (various course elevations may slightly alter this approach). Yet, am I doing the same thing as Nitmos and just running on feel and not fighting it? Shouldn’t I be trying to hit my 800m interval at 80s for the first lap and then trying to keep it close for the second lap? Is a 80s + 92s (1:52min) better than a 86s + 86s (1:52min) interval. Is there really more room to improve if I hit uneven spits?
I wonder....
*I know I was tired from doing an entire track workout, but it really wouldn’t be any different than the last 400m interval of a 2 x (6 x 400m) workout.
