Trail Race One Year Later: Half the Distance and Barefoot

Ok, you've got me. I wore the VFFs. I wasn't technically barefoot and real barefooters might take me to task for that.

On Sunday, I ran the Harmon Farms Trail Race. Last year I ran the 10 mile version, but this year I opted for the 5 mile. I figured my first time on trails with the VFFs shouldn't be a 10 miler. Trail runners are an odd bunch, generally more diverse and more strange (eccentric, perhaps?) than road runners. Besides me with the weird shoes, there were people of every size and shape as well as a wedding party, gowns and all. Old dudes seem to love to talk to me about my footwear. Other people just do doubletakes and then stare sideways at my feet. This is Minnesota, after all.

It has been one of the driest Septembers on record, so there was no mud at all, just lots of dry, dusty and rocky singletrack. I'd forgotten that this course has more ups than I tend to prefer. However, I've found that one of the benefits to running with crazy non-shoes is that I find it much, much easier to run uphill. No more plodding, just lots of light quick steps that seem to get me up the hills much faster than before. I can't thunder down the hills like I used to because it's too hard on the feets without all that cushioning, but that's probably for the best. You have to be completely present in the moment to run trails in VFFs. No wandering minds or eyes allowed! I had one stumble when I was paying attention to the 1 mile marker instead of the trail and then another one because I just wasn't paying enough attention at all and ended up jamming my left little toe enough to bruise it. Beyond that, other than landing badly on a rock and making my left foot cranky, I was no worse for wear after the race. I might have attended a little too closely to the guy who was on my tail for the first four miles; he was a heavy breather and I wanted to stay ahead of him so I might have been running a little faster than I wanted to. We kept passing people the entire race and I think I was only dropped once. I lost him after mile 4 or so. By then I was tired, though, and it was more difficult to pay attention and stay in the moment. Rocks, however, are an excellent reminder to watch what you're doing!

I don't believe I've run a 5 mile trail race before, so this counts as a PR for this type of race (plus, in VFFs there are a whole new set of PRs to collect!). I finished in 48:08 and was 15th overall out of 50 (and yes, that sounds much more impressive than it actually is).

Slightly unreal

I've not been sleeping well lately and by "lately" I mean for a couple of years. I was training for a marathon in 2007 when I really started to notice it. I chalked it up to working full time, having two teenagers and running 50+ mile weeks. After having been able to sleep through my ex's high decibel snoring for about five years, I didn't think it was that, although she got a lot louder at the end.

Now I'm the adult resulting from the little blond girl who resented going to kindergarten not because of having to sit still and learn how to read (I could already do that), but because she had to give up her second nap of the day. That's right, at a couple months shy of 5, I still took two naps a day. That wasn't nearly so incredible until I had Big Boy who gave up that second nap right about the time he learned to walk. Even little boy, who also loves his sleep, gave up his second nap around the age of one. College was only hard when I had to stay up all night to finish a paper (that lawyer procrastination trait is firmly ingrained!).

I would tell people that my preferred amount of sleep was 9 hours. Ten was better. I believe this is still true. In my 20s I had problems with early waking - being wide awake at 4 or 5 and not knowing what to do with myself. Part of that was having an infant and a toddler and some brain chemistry issues which have since been resolved. Now I have to get up at 5 in order to get my day on. It's the last school year that I will have to do this and I'm actually quite happy to. I like having a schedule that's predictable. But, I've been dealing with broken sleep - getting to sleep alright, but then after a bit, waking and tossing and turning in something of a daze - for over two years.

I practice good sleep hygiene. I generally go to bed at the same time every night and wake up just before the alarm, except that I've been tossing and turning for hours by that time. I experimented with getting up and reading, but then I would just stay up all night and read. I tried melatonin, but it didn't seem to make a difference. I'm afraid of Ambien. There's too much weird stuff that happens to people when they take that. Valerian root is up next. I tried it awhile back, but that stuff tastes terrible.

So I was up last night until 2:15am or so. I was awake when the alarm went off at 5. I got up after little boy got out of the shower, say 6. I still remember tossing and turning. The world has a slightly unrealistic haze to it, but honestly, I'm really not any more tired than I am every day. It feels a little like the jet lag I had when we landed in Moscow and hung out with Tara for an evening before taking the train to St. Pete. Just slightly unreal.


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Accidents happen

Don't let the title freak you out, nothing bad happened.

The school year is off to a great start - little boy has had two great cross country meets (he placed fifth in the second one of the year), a letter in the mail declaring him to be an AP Scholar (he scored 3 or higher on three AP exams), and he likes his two philosophy-themed classes (along with all 6 of his other classes, yeah those are good, too).

I got hideously busy at work, which tends to happen intermittently, but still takes me a bit off guard until I get used to it. As always, when it's really busy and the deadline looms, the attention to detail requirement is through the roof. Get it done NOW! But make sure it's perfect!!! I got to write a decision on an issue that hasn't yet come up (I checked the database, there wasn't anything that I could find). Love that case of first impression.

And now back to studiously avoiding talking about my job.

Running has been an adventure. One of the reasons for the lack of posting is there just wasn't much running going on because of my stupid foot. little boy thinks I shouldn't run any more marathons, but I think I want one more go at it. Next year. Because of moving, I only ran one 4 miler in my new 'hood in June. My stupid foot hurt for days afterward. Instead of buying yet another pair of shoes, I went in the opposite direction. I tried a 2 mile run on my treadmill in bare feet. My foot didn't hurt. Well, to be perfectly honest, the skin on the bottoms of my feet hurt like hell, but my cuboid problem was not an issue. Barefoot running also makes your legs work differently (some would say they way they're supposed to), because you really do have to land on your midfoot and roll forward through the toes. My calves had a lot to get used to (and then bulked up like crazy after awhile).

We have a "no shoes in the house" rule (more like a guideline than a rule, per se), so I'm going barefoot all the time at home. But obviously that doesn't work in situations outside my own back yard. I've not gone totally nuts: I'm afraid of stepping on glass, various gross things and the occasional dangerous thing. So I ordered some of these for running:

Just a couple of millimeters of vibram outsole between your feets and the ground. No arch support, no heel lift and your toes get to move independently. Your feet get a lot stronger very quickly. I'm still only running every other day, and up until last week, my long run was only 5 miles. I got to accompany two of my very cool runner buddies Melis & Jen for what I thought would be the last 6 miles of their 19 mile training run (they're both running Chicago). They sort of picked me up at mile 10 of their run and I'd already run a mile and a half to our planned meeting place. Oops.

I got through it with surprisingly little complaining. My cuboid felt a little weird in the last couple of miles, but nothing actually hurt. I paid for it later on, though. I spent the evening lurching around not being able to make my feet work and cursing the day I'd ever agreed to run with M & J (just kidding, ladies!). But the next day I was fine, even my calves. (Anyone keeping a tally, I haven't done a 10 mile run since November 1st of last year.) And, just because I'm a glutton for punishment (or just a glutton in general), I volunteered to run the last half of M's 20 miler on Saturday. It was hotter that day and I stopped sweating about mile 8 (uh oh), but the after effects were not like the week before. Of course, I sat around more, iced my feet and had a beer, so I just have to remember that recovery is important!

1st Cross Country Meet

little boy came in 6th! The course was oddly soft, bumpy, full of holes and the grass was long; no one had a particularly fast time.

Thursday's high school results, Sept. 3, 2009
Boys cross country

NOKOMIS INVITATIONAL 5K

Burnsville 63, Central 70, Osseo 78, Shakopee 126, Sibley 127, Minneapolis South 151, Richfield 180, Trinity 208, Spring Lake Park 230, South St. Paul 263, Harding 336. Medalist—Kemal Jarso, Central, 16:58.