It’s official! I’m running the Iron Girl 5K again this year on Sunday, September 11, 2011 (my cousin’s birthday :-)). Last year, this was a huge deal because I had not run 3 miles all together. Well, I’m back to working up to 3 miles from 1 mile, but I have one HUGE difference – I’m running in the Vibram Five Fingers!
Remember the post where I said I stopped wearing my orthotics on May 10, 2011. Well, I am still sans orthotics, and I am almost exclusively (barring having to wear dress shoes for special events) wearing the Vibram Five Fingers. What a difference it has made.
Observations:
1. My calf muscles are more defined than they have ever been in my life! This is because when you run on your forefoot, you, consequently, use the calf muscles much more. Duh!
2. My feet and ankles are likewise stronger – visibly so. I will post more pictures very soon! My left foot is almost as sturdy-looking as my right foot. 🙂
3. I can now move my toes in ways I never imagined. I noticed the other night that I could completely spread my toes apart and hold them to where they are not touching. I have never been able to do this. I am working to be able to move my big toe out (toward the inside of the foot). I can do this on my right foot, but not on the left, yet, because it requires a lot of strength from the tendon running under the arch.
I am now working toward greater mobility in my feet, specifically my toes. I would like to be able to flex and bend the toes more than I can currently. I believe that with greater mobility, I will have better strides when running and walking.
My training has been mostly inside on the treadmill, which I am finding is a great disservice to myself for whenever I train outside. Propelling yourself forward is a much more demanding business than merely keeping up with the band under your feet. I will say that I ran on Friday of last week at Greenlake a 9’25” mile on the gravel path!!! Woohoo! I also completed 1.2 miles that day, which was my goal.
I ran again on Monday on the treadmill with a 8’55” mile – I then proceeded to run using time as my goal to reach 20 minutes of intermittent running/walking. I pretty much ran one minute a little faster than the one mile pace, then walked for 2 minutes and ran one minute, etc. until the 20 minutes was up.
Today, Wednesday, my calves were still very sore from the run Monday. So, I found that I had to run/walk for the mile, which put me at an eleven minute mile. I am not bothered by this seeing as how my posterior tibial tendon is doing GREAT! It’s just calf muscles adjusting in that building new muscle kind of way. Woohoo!!! Progress! It’s feels so good.
Oh, I should say that I did all of these runs in the Vibram Five Fingers 🙂
Tags: 5k, barefoot running, outdoor running, running, treadmill running, Vibram 5 Fingersâ„¢