mile pick-ups

Snow fell again, piling half a foot on top of the few inches we already had. And it ain't melting. On top of that the wind really picked up last night making outdoor running, well, an adventurous proposition. It might have been fun, but after my b2b on snowy trails over the weekend I was ready for firmer surface, not to mention a warmer place to do some barefoot running-- well, VFF running.

Legs were still sore from Sunday, but I felt like picking up the pace, so I committed to a fartlek run, which allows me to customize pacing on the run. I ended up warming up for a mile at a steady 7:17 pace after jogging 1/4 mi, then doing mile pick-ups. The idea is you start each mile easy and gradually pick up the pace, finishing strong. Those were a fun change and, since you really only focus on one mile at a time, they broke up the monotony of running around and around the 1/8 mi track. I just counted laps, hit the split button on my watch after each set of 8, and let the watch count miles. I ended up doing 6 of these, for 8.25 total miles, but I didn't know that until looking at my watch later as I was leaving. Juan had a time constraint and we went by that as to when to quit.

It was especially fun to get back into the Vibrams. I felt like I could really stretch into my stride and just run naturally.

I've taken to wearing Injini socks under my Vibrams. Last night I wore a pair of the rainbow colored Injinis for the first time. I had been reluctant to wear these except casually since I noticed that when the colors of the socks change, there is a little knot in the thread tying the two different colored threads together. I was afraid the knots would irritate my feet. I was right. After the run my feet felt like they had lots of tiny little hotspots on them and it hurt to walk around. Today they're better-- thankfully they hadn't blistered. Lesson learned.