Springtime

I have been quite slack posting on here lately, but it is because I've actually been pretty slack with my running. But I'm back with some renewed enthusiasm which has been brought on by the advent of Spring here in Melbourne and a brand new toy. The Garmin FR 610 was baptised this morning and more on that in a moment.

The reason there hasn't been more running is simply not making the time to do it. Whereas I have been doing alot of my running in my lunch break, I have simply been too busy at work so I haven't found time in the morning or after work. This has to change otherwise I will make no progress at all. August was only half the kms I'd done in July and I had actually gained 1.5 kgs, so September is going to mean some action.
The weather will start to get warmer and it will be lighter earlier in the morning so I will be setting my alarm to wake me and go from there.

Here are details of my run from Garmin Connect:

My right calf still hasn't caught up with my left in terms of recovering after a run, but other than a recurring blood blister under my middle right toe, no injuries.

Happy Happy Bastille Day

I normally do most of my running during the week in my lunch hour, but yesterday I just had to much to do to take that time during lunch. I decided to bite the bullet and run home after work. The only problem with this was that the distance from work to my home is roughly twice the longest distance I had run as a minimalist. With the mantra of TMTS ringing in my head, I told myself that if I wasn't feeling good by the 6km mark I would simply walk or catch a train as the path I was running was along my train line.
Well, under some beautiful late-afternoon winter sunshine I got home running all the way. According to my Garmin, 10km in 62 minutes and I felt great. The most pleasing thing about the run was that for the first time in a long time I actually forgot about my knee because it felt like there was nothing wrong with it at all. Today, I am feeling surprisingly good considering the length of the run, but I think this is a result of listening to my body during the run and not worry about how far or fast but just keeping myself comfortable. The only thing that could have made my run more enjoyable was if I didn't have a sloshing in my intestines the whole way. I have also got a blood blister under my middle right toe which isn't painful. I'll take today and tomorrow as a rest and attempt a similar length run on Sunday. Happy days.

Sunday Morning

It seems that during my transition to minimalism I reach certain points of frustration. I'm talking about calves being constantly sore, pace not getting quicker, distances not getting longer, and everything just taking longer to adapt. Over the last couple of months there have been several of these moments and each time I have one I always start to doubt whether I can make the full transition to minimalism. And then I have days like today. After having a couple of rest days nursing a sore calf from my last run, I woke up with no pain and I decided I would head out and see if I could just run for at least as long as 35 minutes (this being my longest in VFF), and maybe get to 40 minutes. I made a conscious decision to not look at my garmin and just concentrate on form and enjoy the beautiful weather. It turns out I had my best minimalist run yet (6.66 km in 40 minutes) and I actually felt like a runner again instead of some experimental runner. Today really made me think that I will be able to this.
My great morning continued and I even taught my daughter how to ride a bike.