Week 6, Run 3

Last night's run was a barefoot 6.2km, and... educational.

The biggest lesson I learned was in preparation. My distance for this run was going to be a new peak for me for this year. As a result, I had to expand my route. I'd drawn up on a map what looked like a good route, and proceeded to follow it.

My feet weren't ready for what I threw at them. It wasn't the distance, it was the terrain that doesn't show up on Goole Maps. Several blocks of new construction means a mix of nice new sidewalks, and nice new sidewalks covered in debris. Then there's the older houses which have sidewalks made rough by years of erosion. And then there were sections where the just was no sidewalk where I expected it! My only choice was to share the gravel littered street with vehicles. Not fun.

Because of my feet, I ended up cutting some of my intervals short. It was supposed to be 3 minutes running, 1 minute walking, 10 times. A few of my runs were 2 minutes and a few of my walks were 2 minutes. But some of my runs were 4, and I did about 13 intervals in total. So I think I made up for the 2 or three cheat intervals.

As this is my 5th run using RunKeeper, I can now start seeing patterns in my results. It looks like my first and second intervals are by far my fastest. During these intervals I actually reach my goal speed of 10km/h. Based on my notes, it seems the longer I maintain that pace during the run, the more likely I am to refer to it as "brutal". In other words, I'm not quite at the point where I could sustain that pace comfortably. It's hard to be building up distance while also trying to increase my speed. Things will get better. I'll be making sure I pack my VFFs when I'm uncertain about the terrain. My goal of finishing the Sun Run in an hour is higher priority than finishing it barefoot. Besides, FiveFingers get enough funny looks and comments already.