Day 23

Today was a great day. I did the X Stretch dvd, from P90X, and walked two miles in my barefoot shoes.

They seemed to work really well, handling the terrain following a good rain really well, and not causing any issues being wet, or causing chafing or blisters.

Tomorrow is a 4 day run, I don't think I am gonna take them out for that, but the follow day is a 2 day run, and it will be a good time to take them out and really test them

Will let you guys know about that when it happens.

I finished the Impossible List. I am gonna dedicate an entire post to it. I will post that here shortly.

Day 22

Alright, so as I said, I skipped a few days since my last run. And today I definitely felt it.

I went out running around 6:30 p.m. I met up with Ashlynn (The cute girl I have mentioned, who I now know is married with a baby) We ran the 2 mile loop, and that went alright, I have to say, I am pretty darn sure I slowed her down, but she was patient and kept my pace. Then after that, we stretched a bit, and she was all like "Lets go do the other loop."

Let me tell you about this other loop. Its only 1.65 miles long. But its all hills, and a long stretch of its is right out in the sun. I tend to avoid it in my runs, cause quite frankly I hate it. But Ashlynn wanted to run it, and I figured since I had already taken away from her workout, I could at least give it a go.

It was tough guys, I should be able to knock 3.65 miles out like its nothing, even with hills. But taking nearly a week off really killed me guys. But after all was said and done, I felt a lot better for having gone out and ran. So I think I will begin to do better again. I am hoping to be ready for my 7 mile long run on sunday.

In other news. I actually purchased a pair of barefoot running shoes today. They aren't the Vibram brand I posted a picture of previously. They are Fila brand. They are pretty nifty and about half the price of the Vibrams. Of course, you get what you pay for. They are a lot lower in quality, but they are great for getting me into it. So after my run earlier, I went back out around my neighborhood, and ran a mile in them. It was definitely different. But I liked it, and it felt pretty good, so I am definitely gonna start easing them into my workouts on a normal basis.

Update for tomorrow will be my "Impossible List" which I have been working on for a few days now. It's a pretty exciting prospect.

Sorry Guys

Sorry I haven't been updating in a few days, or being sociable to any of my blogger friends. I had a lot going on, then I got really lazy right afterwards. Not an excuse really, but its what happened.

In the midst of all that, I haven't gotten around to running or doing anything really in the last like 3 or 4 days. I feel like a bum, and I am already noticing backwards progress. So I kinda of kicked myself in the rear today, and decided that its really time to buckle down and get this thing in motion.

The cute girl that I ran with for a few miles the other week came into Starbucks today. I chitchatted with her for a while about running and stuff, and why she hadn't seen me out there, and she said we could run together more often, so thats definitely a motivation. Although, I did find out she's married with a child, so that kind of dampers anything that could go on there. But still its good to have a friendly face to look forward to on some of the tougher runs.

Another project I am working on is making my "Impossible List". The list of all the 'impossible' things I want to accomplish in my lifetime. Its basically a glorified bucket list. But still, sitting down the last few days to make it, has been a motivation in and of itself. I will write a whole post dedicated to it when I get it done tonight or tomorrow.

Other than that, I could use some emotional cheering on to not be lazy and get out there and work my butt off in preparation. Thanks guys!

Day 16

So today I had to contend with these blisters on my feet. I cleaned and dressed them when I got home from work, and they seemed to be doing alright.

I decided to go ahead and do a light workout on them, so my Aunt and I walked a mile, then I went back out and ran a mile. There was a little mild discomfort from the blisters, but nothing more than I had felt all day, and I didn't think anything of it. However, due to a pretty major allergy attack, my run was only cut at 2 total miles today instead of the 4 I was scheduled to do.

When I got home I stripped my shoes off to check on my blisters, and I found that my left shoe had blood in it, and the dressing was soaked through.

This is what I was greeted with.

So yeah, I was pretty surprised about that. I took a shower to rinse it off and clean it with soap and stuff, and when I got out I used some rubbing alcohol on both of them. It hurt like hell, but it got em really clean and cleared out. I covered them again with neosporin and gauze to sit over night. When I got the left one cleaned up, I inspected it to see what was wrong, and there was just one tiny little spot that was a deeper layer than the rest of the blister, so I imagine that is where the blood came from. Now that its cleaned and I am off of it, its not bleeding or anything, so hopefully if I take it easy on them, it will help heal them really good. That being said, I am taking tomorrow off of my running schedule as well. I am gonna do a strength training and stretching day instead, so that I am still burning calories and getting a workout in. Thursday may be another workout as well, and Friday, being my off day, won't change. Hopefully I am ready to at least attempt a few miles by saturday without complicating my feet any further.

Here are some pictures of the blisters all cleaned up.

My right foot.

My left foot.

They are pretty gnarly. But I've had worse. It's just another set back. I am seriously hoping that things go a little better from here on out, I really want to train for this thing right.

Sooo....uh yeah...Day 15

Yesterday was a bit of a bust.

So I am an idiot, and its totally my fault. But I got all jazzed up about going out and doing my first barefoot running that I didn't really think any of it through. At 2 in the afternoon in 95+ temperatures, I decide its a good time to go put in a good 2 mile barefoot run. I get to the path, and I am all excited for it. Man I am ready to do this...

I start running down this nice bright sunny path in the heat. I am already trying to pay attention to my new stride, and how my feet are falling, its going great for about the first 20 steps. Then I notice a weird and sudden pain in the balls of my feet. I stop and look down, and already my feet are blistering. I didn't even think about the pavement being an issue, I just was focused on not stubbing my toes or stepping on anything. So I hobble back to the car, and drive home. Assessing the damage, I have two silver dollar sized blisters on the balls of my foot. So I immediately pop them and drain them to alleviate the pressure, and then doctor them up with hydrogen peroxide and neosporin.

Today, they didn't hurt terribly, but I definitely noticed them at work standing around all day. When I got home just a little while ago, I reopened them, drained them again, then cut off all the excess skin. I cleaned em out good with peroxide, and covered them with gauze and medical tape. Now I can walk on them just fine, and I plan on still running my 4 miles tonight, but with shoes on. I won't be down in miles for this week though, cause I walked those 2 the other night, but I just switched the days I would be running them on. So it all works out. But I think I am just gonna wait til next week when I get my shoes to start the barefoot process.

Day 14, Stretching and recovery.

Today I was really sore. I woke up this morning at 5:00 a.m. to go to work, and man, my legs were killing me. My knees and quads were really tight and sore feeling. I am definitely looking forward to acclimatizing to barefoot running, cause its supposed to eliminate a lot of that pain. But as the day went on, it was bearable.

I ended up not running the mile today like I planned on, since my legs were shot, and since it wasn't really part of my training schedule, I don't feel too bad about it.

I did go out for a nice 2 mile walk though just to do a little something. Once my muscles were warmed up, my legs stopped hurting for the most part.

When I got back home, I popped in the P90X Stretch dvd. It was an hour of intense full body stretching. Starting at the neck and going all the way down to the ankles. It was amazing, exactly what the doctor ordered. I feel refreshed, recharged and ready for the 4 miles tomorrow. I am probably going to try and do them barefoot in order to start getting my self into that. I am looking to buy my shoes in the next two weeks, which works out pretty good, because a lot of the research I have been doing into barefoot/minimalism says that for the first two weeks you should go completely barefoot in order to allow your body to relearn its proper movement and how its feels to be active on them again. So hopefully thats how it all works out. I will definitely update you all tomorrow on how that goes.

For now, I am gonna hit the hay early, cause I didn't get enough sleep last night, and I need to be refreshed and get a good nights sleep. Have a great night and day tomorrow guys!

Hell yeah day 13

Today was freaking awesome!

So I worked this morning, it was freaking killer. We were slammed from 6:45 a.m. til around 11:00 a.m. with a line out the parking lot in our drive thru. But it was fun, and we had a killer team there today, so we rocked it out. I was in a great mood all morning long, and came home feeling great!
Once I got home nothing really happened, I sat around for a couple of hours waiting for my aunt and uncle. We went to see that last Harry Potter movie, since they hadn't seen it yet. So that was exciting. I ate a lot of popcorn, so I was kinda worried that those starchy empty calories might ruin my run. Then on the way home, my uncle stopped by McDonalds. I got a 10-piece chicken nuggets to eat when I got done with my run.
So pre-run, I am in a great mood, a lil worried about my eating for the day, but all in all, ready to get back into it after my two days of recovery.

I get going into my first mile, and I notice that I am running a little bit faster than usual, but it feels good, so I keep it up. I round the post at the end of the mile and think to myself "I feel great!", so I don't stop to stretch or anything like I usually do. I run the whole mile back to the start of the path, and I still felt really good, so I turned back and ran the two mile path again. As I neared the end of my 4th mile, I was hurting a little bit. But a lot of motivational stuff I had found over my recovery day came to mind, and as I ended the second 2 mile loop, I was like "What the hell" and I turned back around and ran halfway up the loop and then back, making an even 5 miles which was my training goal for the day. I ran 5 consecutive miles today. Without walking a single step. I am ecstatic! Today really really really encouraged me for the rest of my training season. Thank you guys so much for you support on here, and your encouraging comments, a lot of them actually came to mind as I was running, and sort of gave me some boosts. One thing that also spurred me on is thinking of what @That Bastard From Bellingham would say when he read that I ran 5 miles without walking. He's always got a lot of good stuff to say in his comments.

Tomorrow I am gonna do a mile barefoot to get started on that realm, and its also a recovery and strength/stretching day.