I wake up on Sunday and want to go for a run. These Vibram shoes must be working as I normally would not want to go for a flat run but it was a reasonably good day in Wellington and I thought I would take advantage of it with a huge 6km run!! I have been doing around 4km in my previous runs and I felt that it was time to increase it slightly so wanted to do around 6km. After a light breakfast and a coffee, I got changed and slipped on my Vibram's. Probably not the best nutritional start before a run but it was only a short one so was not too concerned. I devised a course in my head that would probably be around 6km. I ran from the house and as I started down the road I heard a snap of some kind come from my right ankle. This is the same snap that I sometimes hear when I wake up from bed. I have sprained this ankle on numerous times running through the bush and when it is cold it is really stiff and sometimes creaks whilst it gets warmed up. I was a little concerned this time though as I was running with little protection and thinking to myself, what if it's not my ankle, what if something else had snapped? I ran down the slight decline and after a while it felt better but also felt like it could giveaway at any moment. I decided to keep going and if it got worse would walk back home. I hit a slight hill before running down to the main road and my ankle was feeling good. I saw a path that I had not noticed before and ran up it to find a school oval. I ran onto the grass which was a welcome change to the concrete I had been pounding. Whilst I could feel the soft grass through my Vibram shoes, it was not a sense of relief I was feeling. I was not grateful to finally have soft ground under my feet, it just felt nice.
I made it back onto the main road and as I was running on the footpath, I noticed another runner on the other side of the road who had just gone past me. I decided that I would see how my pace was going compared to her and frustratingly, she was pulling away from me with ease. I felt disheartened but quickly realised that it was not my Vibram shoes that was stopping me from catching her, even in normal shoes I stood no chance. I hit the flat section of road and was running through town. I was still feeling good and had no further pain in my ankle. I looked at my watch and saw that I had done just over 4km so by the time I reached home I should hit the 6km mark. I began my climb home up the steep gradient I again noticed how upright my running style was. I finally made it home and had completed 5.9km. A little less than what I wanted to do but after the initial scare with my ankle, I was glad that I had not pushed it too much. I had a stretch and started my day with a deep inside feeling hoping my ankle was going to be okay tomorrow. Below is the graph of today's run. Notice the constant heart rate today and the constant speed.
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