Less than a week away . . .

If you click the title link, it'll take you to yesterdays run stats.  I had to edit it because I received a call mid run and the GPS freaked out and stopped recording the distance.

I wasn't sure if I was going to go out in my Bikilas, but I did.  I started the run a bit shakey.  I've been having foot and ankle soreness for the last couple of days before.  3 miles into the run, it all went away and I was able to finally relax and really enjoy the run.  I stopped several times, but that's fine.  I'm still building up for longer non-stop distances.  Once I got home I was definitely feeling tired.  I grabbed a couple of Kirkland Chocolate milks from the fridge and went to my backyard for a dip.

"Do you have a pool?", you ask.  No.  I have a 55 gallon barrel.

I work for a lab that receives samples from all across the country.  Several of those samples come with handy little ice packs that the shipper doesn't want returned.  We have a massive freezer in which we keep said packs ready for any other items that need to keep cool while being shipped.  Well, I grabbed about 30 of those ice packs and took them home and put them in my freezer.  They just fit in between my chicken, spinach, veggies and ice cream (cheat day).  Sunday morning, I threw on my running shorts, Bikilas, t-shirt and went to the back yard with ALL thirty ice packs and dumped them in the pre-filled barrel of water and took off for my run.

My dip was very uncomfortably cold . . . for 5 minutes.  Then I really enjoyed it.  Better than last week and I think it's really helped with my quicker next-day recovery.

I'm going to have a few more short runs this week just to "taper" before the biggie come Saturday.  I feel real confident about it.  The only thing I'm unsure of is what shoes to take that day.  Right now I'm thinking it'll be the Merrells.  They've only been a problem when I had the plantar fasciitis because it was stretching the foot and achilles more.  But I used them last Sunday for my long run and the nagging bruise I complain about wasn't really felt.  I'll still stick with the Bikilas for my shorter runs, and see how that goes.

I'm going to keep up with this running thing because I'm really enjoying the shit out of it now that I've gone "primitive" with the minimalist shoes.  To quote John Pinnette, "It's been a sojourn.  It's been a journey."  But in this case it's about my running experience.

And to quote another group of people out in the interwebs that have gone even more primitive than I, Run Smiley!

GD

p.s.
too lazy to check and 
run :)