PV = nRT

Boulder CO, got some vibram five finger sprints and tested them out on a short run on a dirt trail. they are pretty fun, except the dirt was actually mud from all the rain so they got broke in and dirty fast

ran the bolder boulder 10K with my brother. not going to count it as a race report because I didn't race, I just ran with him for his 50th birthday, trying to pace him to a PR. I had an A wave bib but ran with him out of the B wave, which is the fourth wave and has a 44 minute qualifier (the A wave is a sub 38 qualifier). I was pretty annoying, egging him on and trying to push him, trying to get him to follow me on surges, bouncing around, we ended up finishing in 43:47 whcih was his second best time so we did OK. Had alot of energy left at the end so I ran about the same pace back to my bike near the start.

Foot and shin splint still aggravating me a little, now I am going to have to decide whether to quit for a couple months and heal them completely and start up fresh for the fall or try to run through this so I can do July 4 and 24. Upside of taking a couple months off is I can just go hiking and camping with the kids, which I prefer to do in the summer anyway, while I heal properly.

After reading "Born to Run", a kind gift from Rocinante, and seeing his initial success with five fingers, as well as Sasha, I have decided to put the barefoot running philosophy to the test. The idea is that high end running shoes are causing our injuries and running in a minimalist fashion will actually strengthen us and prevent injuries. What do I have to lose? OK- so I bought the vibram five fingers, got the sprint which has a strap. They are bright red and ugly. Breaking into this slowly- maybe two days a week unless my foot feels worse then I will stop completely. So here is data from test day 2:

4 miles up and back on river trail, with about 0.3 of that on single track to see how they perform off road. I am not brave enough to try these things on pavement.  The five fingers feel good, they are comfortable. I could feel the rocks under my feet but nothing painful. The idea is your feet get the input from the ground, with no shoe padding to interfere, and adjust/adapt accordingly, and without cushioning your feet and calves strengthen naturally. I was definitely landing on the ball of my foot, no heel striking. I counted my foot turnover at random points going up and down and found I automatically had increased turnover by about 12 fpm, from 180 to about 192. No obvious pain in foot, sore spot in shin did not increase.  If I feel OK I will do a little track work tomorrow in light trainers. I am ditching all the cushioned trainers for the bulk of this experiment I am performing, will only use them when (if) I can do long runs.I am just playing around for awhile to see what happens.

easy pace not really affected by the "shoes": up at 8:12, down at 7:35, I wouldn't have dared go faster than that. My guess is these are best suited for easy runs- which is what I intend to use them for.

important update: just realized I carry the exact same brooks water bottle as Scott Jurek and also have the same protec IT band he has. Maybe a sign it is time to make the leap to ultras??

day 4 of rooster light shoe/five fingers running experiment.... 5  x 600 in asics speedstars with 300 recoveries. Thought I ran 6 x 600 but can't find a 6th lap on my watch (??) so I will count it as 5 x 600. who cares.  Ran to track and back on grass as much as possible, on park strips and cemetary, avoiding asphalt and concrete like the plague.

Splits: 2:04, 2:04, 2:05, 2:08, 2:06 averages out to 5:36 pace.

speedstars are kind of a lightweight trainer or borderline flat for mid range road races. no foot or shin pain to speak of. calves are really sore though, probably from the five fingers and all the heel raises I am doing to boost my calf strength.  tomorrow I think I will do a long bike ride as a recovery day.

ummm... I rode my bike to work. and home again. and went to cub scout pack meeting. and helped my man-servant son mow the lawn. and whacked some weeds. that's about it. I also joined the group "barefoot ted" on facebook.

track and band practice field. 2 mile warmup five fingers. 5000 m  tempo in shoes on track, 20:08, 6:30 pace. 2 mile cooldown five fingers, using a loop spanning track and band practice field (grass). five fingers are more comfortable on grass than on track, or a gravel trail like river trail. I will probably stick to grass and track with them from here on.

first dam parking lot to Spring hollow campground and back with Joe Furse, beautiful morning, lots of runners on the trail but we passed em all. we would have passed Cody and Jon too if they were going the same way, good thing they were coming down as we were going up. Joe pushed me good, wore me out, good run, perfect weather.

1st dam to single track: 2.62 miles@7:46
single track secton up, 0.95 miles @8:55
single track to spring hollow CG and back to single track, 1.38 miles@7:16
single track section down, 0.95 miles @8:50
single track to first dam, 2.62 miles@ 6:57
overall pace 7:41