Vibram Five Finger Shoes: Making people go "what the F@&%" since...whenever Muammar Gaddafi invented them. Topical and political.I am happy to say I have 3 runs to talk about, one with some ups and downs, one that's just kind of boring, and one that is...gross. But get ready, because in the next week I think I am going to be getting new running shoes, and UNFORTUNATELY I think I have to get one of those running belts (that are really just glorified fanny packs...wait, maybe I'll just try a fanny pack! I smell a trip to Goodwill) because with all the miles I'll be logging in I need to be able to take in water and foods (read: energy boosting and glorious calories) (and now that I'm re-reading the previous parenthetical sidenote, "smelling" a trip to Goodwill sounds...gross).
Saturday, 11 miles, rain/snow with overcast sky, sidewalks awful
So I set up this run in my last post about what route I would take: one long out and back, or 2 loops of 5.5miles. I choose the long out and back, which meant John had to meet me out at the halfway point with water and Gatorade (stupid future fanny pack), which I'm sure was SO excited about doing—it cut into his "River Monsters" watching. But MAN this run was terrible. The past 2 long runs I've done have been great because
I cropped the picture because the face I was making was kind of hilarious, but when it's all close up on just the eyes it takes some of the "oomph" out of it. Oh well.
Actually, funny story about this picture, at the end of this particular run (early January I think) I was doing my normal 3-block cool down walk to my house, and this guy in a jeep drove past me and gave me some EYES. He was craning his neck like crazy as he drove past me, and of course all I can think is "of course he's looking at me! Even though I've got 3 layers of clothes on I STILL look geud." Now I understand he drove past thinking "that poor girl, walking around in the snow in tights and 2 black eyes, maybe she needs a ride somewhere, or some non-perishable food."
But back to the current 11 mile run. I could never really get into this run. The weather was terrible out, my foot REALLY hurt from the blister (on my arch, of course), and it was just really difficult for me. I DRAGGED myself the first 5.5 miles to the halfway point to meet john with my refreshments, and it took me over an hour. He was waiting for me for like 20 min (yikes). All I wanted to do was get in the back of his car, sprawl out across the seat, and silently sob. When the water was in my hand, I practically collapsed into the side of his car, and stayed that way for a good 5 minutes. After he drove off, I literally thought to myself "there is no way I can run the rest of the way back. No way." This is what you NEVER want to do as a runner (or as anything you're trying to accomplish, really). You can never get down on yourself, because once you do, it's allll over. I walked for about 5 minutes until I FORCED myself to start running again. With the weather, my blister, and my bad attitude, I was (sorry for the girl term) emotionally fragile. Everytime I stepped into a puddle with one foot, the water would not only soak into my shoe, but it would also splash my other shoe. And everytime I did this, I was about .005% away from crying, so I would let out a little painful and anguished sob/sigh. For some reason by the time I was at 2 miles to go (so after 9 miles under my belt) I was feeling much better, and was even ready to gun it to the end. I. Don't. Get It. I wanted to die during the majority of this run, yet I felt good enough to pick it up during the last 2 miles, and I wasn't even dying at that point. Ugh, whatever. I finished, I felt good that I ran the 11 miles, and I could finally enjoy some Robert the Bruce.
Monday, 4 miles, sidewalks just ok
This run was BORING. It was nice considering that at this point in my training a 4 mile run is really nothing (ew, I think I am turning into one of "those" runners). I did make a conscious effort to go faster than I normally do during this run because hey! just 4 miles.
Wednesday, 6 miles, sidewalks complicated
And complicated they were. Remember that ice storm we had last week? Well that not only added lots of snow and ice to the roads, but it also made most people say "well I'm not going to go out of my way to shovel my sidewalks, what with all the ice and all." So I encountered a mixture of sidewalks today. We have the OVER salted sidewalks in front of the WMU buildings and professional buildings, which was nice because I could at least see the cement, but there was not a square inch of sidewalk that wasn't covered in these gross clumps of brown/yellowish giant salt crystals. I almost rolled my ankle on those damn things. We also have the un-shoveled sidewalks that have a solid 4 inches of pure ice that is IMPOSSIBLE to run over. It was originally about a foot of snow and ice, that due to the sunny days we've had has caused the snow to melt down, freeze at night, melt down more the next day, and then freeze more at night. Pure Ice.
So before we get to my gross feet, I encountered something I haven't experienced since my days in high school cross country. I had to use the facilities about 1 mile into my run, but it wasn't in the pee sort of way...if you catch my drift. What makes it terrible is as you run, you're bouncing up and down with each step, and when you're in a state of...near evacuation, that jossling around is NOT what the doctor ordered. It was looming the ENTIRE run and it was uncomfortable and it's all I could think about. Of course by the time I got back to my house the feeling had passed, and I didn't even get the satisfaction of sending it to hell. Now, back to my gross feet.
During the last 2 miles of this run I started feeling a sharp pain on my right foot, but I wasn't too alarmed, because it was the normal blister feeling I was used to, and on the same foot I'm used to. It took a few minutes for me to realize that the feeling was further to the right than I'm used to. It almost felt like it was in the middle of the bottom of my foot. By the time I got to my "cool down" walk, I was walking on the outside of my right foot because it hurt so much to have the skin move at all. I couldn't even stretch my calves because I could feel the blister liquid move around on my foot which is SUCH an unsettling feeling. I got inside and immediately took off my shoe and sock to see what was going on. The original blister I had in my arch had been callousing up the past few weeks, but still had the old white dead-skinned blister on top, which apparently had ripped during the run. This rip had caused a weird pull on the skin which started some type of chain reaction where the rightmost part of the original blister starting moving around and therefore started to develop a blister. It's hard to explain, so that's why I started in with the 8 minutes of pictures. But really, you don't get enough out of them for being subjected to the horror, so I'll just keep the 30 (yes 30) pictures on my camera, and hope I delete them before someone accidentally scrolls through them.
Also, another big part of the past week has been ZZ Top's hit single "Sharp Dressed Man" because for some reason I think that song is hilarious, and has been rightfully stuck in my head.
I'm thinking of dedicating some time soon to actually making this look less template-y and more personal blog-y. I DO do Graphic Design as most of my job, afterall (believe it or not). If you have any ideas, tips, or requests, let me know!
Saturday, 11 miles, rain/snow with overcast sky, sidewalks awful
So I set up this run in my last post about what route I would take: one long out and back, or 2 loops of 5.5miles. I choose the long out and back, which meant John had to meet me out at the halfway point with water and Gatorade (stupid future fanny pack), which I'm sure was SO excited about doing—it cut into his "River Monsters" watching. But MAN this run was terrible. The past 2 long runs I've done have been great because
- the 8 mile run I did 2 weeks ago was my first "real" long distance run, so I was proud of myself and
- the 10 mile run I did a week ago was on a beautiful warm sunny day, so I had no reason but to enjoy myself!
I cropped the picture because the face I was making was kind of hilarious, but when it's all close up on just the eyes it takes some of the "oomph" out of it. Oh well.Actually, funny story about this picture, at the end of this particular run (early January I think) I was doing my normal 3-block cool down walk to my house, and this guy in a jeep drove past me and gave me some EYES. He was craning his neck like crazy as he drove past me, and of course all I can think is "of course he's looking at me! Even though I've got 3 layers of clothes on I STILL look geud." Now I understand he drove past thinking "that poor girl, walking around in the snow in tights and 2 black eyes, maybe she needs a ride somewhere, or some non-perishable food."
But back to the current 11 mile run. I could never really get into this run. The weather was terrible out, my foot REALLY hurt from the blister (on my arch, of course), and it was just really difficult for me. I DRAGGED myself the first 5.5 miles to the halfway point to meet john with my refreshments, and it took me over an hour. He was waiting for me for like 20 min (yikes). All I wanted to do was get in the back of his car, sprawl out across the seat, and silently sob. When the water was in my hand, I practically collapsed into the side of his car, and stayed that way for a good 5 minutes. After he drove off, I literally thought to myself "there is no way I can run the rest of the way back. No way." This is what you NEVER want to do as a runner (or as anything you're trying to accomplish, really). You can never get down on yourself, because once you do, it's allll over. I walked for about 5 minutes until I FORCED myself to start running again. With the weather, my blister, and my bad attitude, I was (sorry for the girl term) emotionally fragile. Everytime I stepped into a puddle with one foot, the water would not only soak into my shoe, but it would also splash my other shoe. And everytime I did this, I was about .005% away from crying, so I would let out a little painful and anguished sob/sigh. For some reason by the time I was at 2 miles to go (so after 9 miles under my belt) I was feeling much better, and was even ready to gun it to the end. I. Don't. Get It. I wanted to die during the majority of this run, yet I felt good enough to pick it up during the last 2 miles, and I wasn't even dying at that point. Ugh, whatever. I finished, I felt good that I ran the 11 miles, and I could finally enjoy some Robert the Bruce.
Monday, 4 miles, sidewalks just ok
This run was BORING. It was nice considering that at this point in my training a 4 mile run is really nothing (ew, I think I am turning into one of "those" runners). I did make a conscious effort to go faster than I normally do during this run because hey! just 4 miles.
Wednesday, 6 miles, sidewalks complicated
And complicated they were. Remember that ice storm we had last week? Well that not only added lots of snow and ice to the roads, but it also made most people say "well I'm not going to go out of my way to shovel my sidewalks, what with all the ice and all." So I encountered a mixture of sidewalks today. We have the OVER salted sidewalks in front of the WMU buildings and professional buildings, which was nice because I could at least see the cement, but there was not a square inch of sidewalk that wasn't covered in these gross clumps of brown/yellowish giant salt crystals. I almost rolled my ankle on those damn things. We also have the un-shoveled sidewalks that have a solid 4 inches of pure ice that is IMPOSSIBLE to run over. It was originally about a foot of snow and ice, that due to the sunny days we've had has caused the snow to melt down, freeze at night, melt down more the next day, and then freeze more at night. Pure Ice.
So before we get to my gross feet, I encountered something I haven't experienced since my days in high school cross country. I had to use the facilities about 1 mile into my run, but it wasn't in the pee sort of way...if you catch my drift. What makes it terrible is as you run, you're bouncing up and down with each step, and when you're in a state of...near evacuation, that jossling around is NOT what the doctor ordered. It was looming the ENTIRE run and it was uncomfortable and it's all I could think about. Of course by the time I got back to my house the feeling had passed, and I didn't even get the satisfaction of sending it to hell. Now, back to my gross feet.
During the last 2 miles of this run I started feeling a sharp pain on my right foot, but I wasn't too alarmed, because it was the normal blister feeling I was used to, and on the same foot I'm used to. It took a few minutes for me to realize that the feeling was further to the right than I'm used to. It almost felt like it was in the middle of the bottom of my foot. By the time I got to my "cool down" walk, I was walking on the outside of my right foot because it hurt so much to have the skin move at all. I couldn't even stretch my calves because I could feel the blister liquid move around on my foot which is SUCH an unsettling feeling. I got inside and immediately took off my shoe and sock to see what was going on. The original blister I had in my arch had been callousing up the past few weeks, but still had the old white dead-skinned blister on top, which apparently had ripped during the run. This rip had caused a weird pull on the skin which started some type of chain reaction where the rightmost part of the original blister starting moving around and therefore started to develop a blister. It's hard to explain, so that's why I started in with the 8 minutes of pictures. But really, you don't get enough out of them for being subjected to the horror, so I'll just keep the 30 (yes 30) pictures on my camera, and hope I delete them before someone accidentally scrolls through them.
Also, another big part of the past week has been ZZ Top's hit single "Sharp Dressed Man" because for some reason I think that song is hilarious, and has been rightfully stuck in my head.
I'm thinking of dedicating some time soon to actually making this look less template-y and more personal blog-y. I DO do Graphic Design as most of my job, afterall (believe it or not). If you have any ideas, tips, or requests, let me know!
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