Sunday, October 30, 2011

Kyle: A win and a fail

Saturday was a very busy day. Rebekah, our eldest, had to be at a friend house early in the day for a day camp with her friend. Right after that the two little girls had a ballerina class. We had enough time after they got home from that to quickly eat lunch and then the two older boys had a birthday party to go to. In and out of the house all day long. So thankfully I was able to take advantage of some time while the boys were at the party.

Ready for a run!!!
Forgot my carabiner. Did Paul's method of tucking it into my belt. Worked great. Can't do that with marshmallow shoes though.
I was able to take just over an hour to have a run. My feet were feeling all better now so I was looking to have a good run. We have been talking about running in confederation park for a while so. Apparently the paths there are freshly paved and are lovely for going barefoot on. So with that in mind, I totally forgot about that and ran down the pathway by the Deerfoot instead. Silly Kyle. My wife is currently running in Confed so she will have to tell me how great the paths are there.
I love running on the paths by deerfoot. It's nice and long and not too crowded. However I now notice going barefoot that the path condition is pretty crappy. The pavement is quite rough. I welcomed every single bridge that came along because the pavement on the bridges is smooth and lovely.

Pathway along Deerfoot.
Pathway in a natural area around Beddington trail and Center Street.
Got a couple of weird looks, but no comments about my barefootedness. But I didn't care. It felt so good to be out running, feeling the ground under my feet. I loved it. I was having so much fun that when I came upon a gravel path I thought, Why not? Wow. I can't believe I was running on gravel. It didn't hurt my feet, but it did feel very sharp. Very intense. After a while it started to feel painful. Interesting because it never injured my feet. All said and done, my feet felt great, but the feeling was too intense.

Gravel Pathway? Don't mind if I do.
The gravel path I was on didn't quite go where I thought it was going. So I could either turn around and go back, go up the hill along the gravel path or go along a trail. I chose the trail. I apparently was feeling very adventurous that day. Running on the trail was lovely, except when there were stones along the way. My feet were still feeling very sensitive from the gravel. Got to the end of the trail and came upon...another gravel path. I wasn't feeling up to more gravel barefoot so that is when I put my Vibrams on. Amazing how much better it feels running on gravel with my Vibrams on. Almost effortless. Before it would have felt much harder, but now it was easy.

And then running barefoot along a trail. Lovely.
More gravel so on go my Vibrams.















All in all I did about 4 miles barefoot and it was great. My feet felt perfect and a day later (today) they still feel great. That was my win. Anyways so I was now running with my Vibrams on and just running back to pick up the boys. I was running short on time so I needed to go at a good pace. This was all good until my big fail. My left knee started to hurt at about 1.5 miles left to go (I ran about 6.5 miles that day). I couldn't walk, couldn't slow down, just had to push through the pain. Bad idea. Had I not needed to be back to get the boys I would have done this totally different. Alas I didn't have much choice. Running 1.5 miles with a hurt knee is not good. I wouldn't recommend it. My knee was super sore all yesterday and last night. It's a little better today but it will probably be a while until I can have a good run again. Aaarrrrgh!

My feet feel great. Knee, not so much.
I have never been good about taking care of myself when I get sore. But this time I'm going to follow RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) like a good little runner and see if that helps my knee to feel better quicker. You win some, you lose some. If anyone has other ideas on how to get better quicker, leave a comment and let me know. Thanks.

Kyle


Sarah needed to be a pothead too. Laff
Abigail comes up to me and says "I'm a pothead!!!"

2 comments:

  1. Hope the knee is better. Wow.. 6 kids, that will keep you running regardless! Anyway, what are your thoughts on the Vibrams? I am trying to figure out my best option for a minimalist shoe, primarily for the winter, and for some rugged chip seal we have in the neighborhood. I love my invisible shoe huaraches, but need something with foot coverage etc.. thanks!

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  2. Knee isn't better yet. Ah well. It's going slowly but it will heal. I love my KSO's but I'm not sure how good they will be for winter. The individual toes might not keep them very warm. A par of injinji socks might help. Barefoot Neil says that he uses them in the winter and then uses cheap water shoes once it gets colder. We shall see.
    We are thinking of getting a pair of huaraches for the spring. We are thinking maybe the Unshoes Wokola Feathers.

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