Crunchy granola

I don't think of myself as being the "crunchy granola" type (though my brief stint of long hair in college may say otherwise...). Maybe that changed somewhat today. After doing a lot of reading/research about it, I decided I need to start strengthening my feet with some barefoot running. I bought a pair of the Vibram Five Fingers shoes today. They basically look like water shoes, and only protect your feet from sharp rocks, glass, etc. They don't provide any support. I'm not sure if my eventual goal is to use only these, but for the next few weeks I will begin walking/light running in them. I expect to have very sore legs as they adjust to walking/running the correct way. We'll see. If you are interested in hearing more about why I want to work on barefoot running (strengthen the feet, less chance of injury, etc), let me know and I can send you some articles to read.

This has been a great week for running. The weather has been perfect. I did my long run of 14 miles Tuesday night after work. I felt good only two days after the 5k, and kept an 8:30/mile pace. I then ran 6 miles Friday on the bike path and then 4.5 miles of trail running today. I will likely do another easy run tomorrow - just because it is supposed to be nice again. That will put this week's mileage up around 30, which is a good place to be.

My yearly total is climbing more and more. I'm almost up to 250 miles, so I have raised $25 of my own money, plus the contributions of others. It's been very exciting. I hope to raise even more money as I hit some of my race goals!