Treadmill Training Run - Monday, July 12

Today's workout was separated into two parts. I had been wearing my new Vibram FiveFingers around the house over the weekend and all day at work. Once I got past the fact that my feet sorta look like those of a gorilla, I decided they are sorta cute:

I had planned on just a short jog on the treadmill to see how they feel while running. Even though I wore them most of the weekend, I never ran in them. The plan? Ten minutes. They feel pretty good while running! First thing I noticed is that running how I normally would, my heel was hitting the treadmill fairly hard, which was loud. I think I was already compensating and trying to run differently so that wouldn't happen. I think I'll really have to test these babies out on the trail, I don't think I can get a good feel for these on the treadmill. But, it went well:

Then I swapped out for my regular New Balance shoes and settled into the random hill workout. Oh.My.God. This was going to be ridiculously tough, I could tell right away. My calves felt tired, tight, and a bit sore. Not sure if that was because of the Vibrams, although I have heard that running barefoot does work muscles you don't use (as much) while running in shoes. The hill workout was hard. And it was hot. I had to lower the incline once it got past 3.5, it was just too much for me. Somehow managed to get through with only a few short water breaks:

Once that was done I walked for a few minutes and then did a slow(ish) jog for the cool down - on NO incline. That felt MUCH better.

In other sorta-but-not-really fitness related news. I actually started to scrapbook my half marathon pictures. I haven't done any scrapbooking in probably two years, but I wanted a hard copy souvenir of all my races - and my stack of race bibs isn't getting any smaller! First two races are already done!