10.06.12 Sunday Session.

I have a relative sleep in (8am) and wouldn't you know it Lachlan is awake.  Lucky Nana is here and looks after him while I cook her some breakfast and Victoria has a much needed sleep in.  After a bit of a relax I decide at 11am that it is time to go for a run.  I log onto Google Maps and devise a run that is relatively flat but will also allow me to reach around 10km.  I start the run and the first part of it is downhill.  Whilst I wish that it wasn't, unfortunately when you live on top of a hill it is very hard to find a slight decline down to the bottom.  I go on a bit of an adventure through some old streets that I have not been down before and eventually make it down to Johnsonville.

I begin my flat run and notice that I am not feeling sore from yesterday which is good.  I am running along and keep looking at my watch and realize that I am doing around 12.3km an hour on the flats, around 11km an hour on the hills and 10km on the downhills.  I find that is really strange that I am slowing down when I am going down hill and think back to the youtube video that I watched that said Vibram's are not fast.  I can now see how this can be the case but I also don't think I have ever run this fast on the hills and the flats so that makes up for my slow downhill running that I know I can improve when I am truly used to the shoes.  I hit some flat sections and run onto the grass that is parallel to the pavement and for some reason it feels like I am running on pillows.  The grass feels very soft today, it actually feels amazing.  I run back onto the pavement and can feel the difference of the hard surface but it is not painful in any way.  I run to a turnaround point about 5km and do a long turnaround through some streets before heading back onto the course I was just on.  As I am about to start the climb of a hill I notice another run in the distance.  He had been coming the other way prior to me reaching the turnaround and I decide that I am going to try and catch him.

The course is undulating and I know there are several hills to come so I aim to push on the hills and maintain on the flats and really concentrate on increasing my speed on the downhills.  I want to take my shoes off and experience true barefoot running but realize that this may not be a good idea so soon after yesterday and plus, I don't have time if I want to catch the runner in front of me!  I am getting closer and closer to him and eventually as I am about to pass him whilst crossing a street he stops and turns around, he must have hit his turnaround point also.  I now relax a little and really concentrate on landing in the centre of my foot with my toes stretched out to maximize the cushioning.  I am stretching out my toes in my Vibram's before the strike on the ground and whilst it feels a little weird, it also feels comfortable.  I am coming home now and have the "Hill of Death" to run up.

The Hill of Death

I am feeling a little tired by this stage and start to notice an almost rubbing sensation on the outside of my right foot.  It feels like the shoe is rubbing below my little toe and it is starting to hurt a little.  I keep running up the hill and fitness wise feel fine but along with my foot, my calves are starting to now hurt also as they begin to tire.  I finally make it home and go for a warm down walk.  I take off my shoe and although there is not blister, there was definitely something rubbing in my Vibram on my right foot.  This is the first rubbing of any kind and I wonder if it is due to me trying to stretch my toes out and landing in an odd way.  I will have to test the theory on my next run. Below is the tracked run with the 'Hill of Death' at the end.