Breaking the 1 hour mark

Woohoo! Back from my run and I managed an hour comfortably! Still feeling strong and I reckon I could push longer, but decided to play safe and not overexert. Based on the sores I'm feeling, two days recovery at most! That said, I'm not too happy with my speed though, and seems like my cardio needs a lot more work.

I had been eagerly awaiting this run all week, as I wanted to put the new heart rate monitor to use. Despite my initial plan of running at 75% MHR, I ended up maintaining the run at roughly 85% instead, simply because the 75% MHR pace felt too slow. Even the 85% pace felt a little slow and it felt like I could maintain a slightly faster pace. I couldn't help but wonder if the HRM was a little inaccurate.

That said, I decided to stick with it, since exceeding the 85% MHR would switch the energy systems, while I still wanted to remain near my lactate thresholds. Made me wonder if my cardio was so bad that even a slow pace would get my heart rate up to 85%. Or maybe my running technique was not sufficiently energy efficient. Well, I also had a stuffy nose so that might be a contributing factor.

Regardless, the post-run feeling was good. It was so relaxing that I couldn't believe it. When I started out, I thought the one hour would kill me, or at least make my legs so sore that I couldn't feel them. Yet nothing of that sort! As I ran, I kept thinking about the first two things Caballo spoke about - running easy and running light. That was my focus all the way, keeping it easy and my footfalls light. It works great!

The only discomfort that's been eating me is the right ITB. At one point I had a sharp pain and had to stop for a quick stretch to loosen it up. But so far the pain goes away the next day, so it doesn't seem overly worrying.

For this run, I strapped on my KSOs with the toe socks, and I'm feeling more comfortable with the new gait of blade first then rolling inwards. After reading 'Born to Run', besides trying to remember to running easy and light, I'm also constantly feeling for how my body is reacting, whether my posture is right, and so on. It made the run go by a lot faster than I anticipated, and the one hour wasn't the drudgery I expected but actually turned out to be fun!

Onward and upward next week!

45 Minutes

Ok, after giving myself a week to recover from the right foot pain, I went back for another run. To be safe though, I wore my Injinji toe socks and the Treksports for more padding in case I hurt my right foot again.

Also, the experience taught me that maybe my gait was wrong and I should consider changing it up a bit. Instead of landing most of it on the ball of my foot and rolling it back, I tried landing on the blade of my foot and rolling it inwards. Seems to work better, and there's not much pounding sounds on the pavement either.

Decided to take it easy first, but after awhile I started to feel good, with just the occasional nagging pain of the right ITB, so I decided to extend my run and explored a new part of the neighbourhood. Tried to see if I could hit a longer running duration since I wasn't so focused on speed.

By the time I finished exploring the new area and cut back, it was almost 40 minutes, so I took a small detour and ended up reaching back to clock about 48 minutes. Not too bad I'd say. Legs were a little light after that, but based on the soreness levels I'd guess I'd only need one day to recover.

Also gingerly tested for the right foot pain, and it was mostly gone. I can feel the weakness there, but no flaring pain like what I initially experienced. Good sign that means I'll probably be fully recovered by the next run.

Overall, I'm happy with the progress. The goal here is to get to 1 hour plus runs and maintain those on a weekly basis. When I feel good enough, might try for 2 hours or longer to cop a feel for half-marathon lengths.

Toe Socks!

Shortly after getting my KSOs, I started hunting for toe socks.

I'm not exactly a barefoot purist, swinging much more to the practical and functional side of things. So wearing socks to reduce the infamous stink in my KSOs seemed a better idea than going for a thin as possible foot padding.

Despite having seen them around in some distant memory before, I couldn't for the life recall where they were sold. After searching around unsuccessfully, I decided to reach for my best friend eBay.

A quick search found me some Injinji micro crew socks with free international shipping, so I bit. The socks took a better part of two weeks to arrive.

If you've never worn toe socks before, these can be a little difficult to slide on at first. Even with practice, the process is still a little slow. Unfortunately, these are the only type of socks Vibrams will take.

The main difference between these and regular socks besides the obvious toe pockets is the extra material between each toe. Since there's essentially two layers between each toe, it feels like they are being spread a little wider.

The upside to that though, is the lack of the sticky feeling between your toes during perspiration, since the socks will pick up moisture between the toes, leaving a nice dry feeling. Guess it'll also help to reduce incidences of athlete's foot between the toes too.

The socks are thin enough that I can still squeeze my toes into my Vibrams without losing blood, although it does make them feel someone bloated and tight. The feeling fades away after awhile of walking around in them though.

Of course, they also fit into normal shoes. So now I have yet another item to add to my collection if curios!