Love Hurts

Posted in barefoot, fivefingers, trail by Nate

Finally getting back on track. A handful of 10+ milers last week and some fairly strong shorter runs and I’m feeling pretty alright, bruises aside.

The image to the right is the result of a completely barefoot (sans FFs, even) 4 mile trail run and apparently invisible jagged rocks. I’m all into purity and all, but that might be enough to keep me away from that notion for the foreseeable future.

Not much happened over the last few days on account of insane sleeping schedules and working on new magazine templates (I was working until 8am, Saturday night to Sunday morning), but I got my payback today in the form of the best 10 miles I’ve run to-date. My first double-digits run in the FiveFingers and honest to God the most enjoyable miles I’ve ever run. It didn’t hurt that Lakeshore Park is hands down the most curvaceous trail I’ve seen, and the terrain is technical-ish without being too steep. Basically 10 miles of gorgeous single track, surprisingly located just down the street from Twelve Oaks. On account of the thick tree cover, you can faintly hear traffic, and only here-and-there. The only other noises are the wildlife and every now and then the gear-changing of passing bikers.



The completely lightweight FiveFingers kept me reasonably fresh well into the final mile, which I churned out at an 8 minute pace. There are still some coping issues in the form of toe-stubbing and blisters on the ball of my foot, but my joints and muscles feel amazing. I could have easily thrown on a few more miles – will bump it up to 15 next week and see if I feel as good. Hoping to be back up into the 20’s by the end of June – and feeling as great.

I’m really digging the FiveFingers and it’s getting harder for me to imagine wearing regular shoes again – at least on trails. The extra padding of conventional shoes helps a lot on pavement, even when I’m running with (what I believe to be) good form. We’ll see. Ongoing process, but as an update these things continue to amaze me.