I love three day weekends, but that should go without saying. Everyone loves three day weekends. I have decided to thoroughly enjoy the time I have over the next few days. I didn't make any plans, but that was intentional.
A fella came and mowed down the empty lot next to my house, which meant I was able to get over in the empty yard and cut all the vines and baby trees that are growing up and in my chain-link fence behind my wooden fence. So, there I am, grabbing these vines and pulling and pulling and pulling and walking backwards and it just keeps going and going. Seriously. These are some massive vines! Most of them are basically living barbed wire. I managed to get cut quite a few times, and my legs had dried blood trickles all over them when I came inside. Anyway, the work is far from done. I am charging my little battery powered chainsaw so I can go out there and make short work of some baby trees. Oh the joys of homeownership!
I wanted to give an update on my experiences with my Vibram Five Fingers (VFF). I have worn them some part of each day since I bought them. I really have enjoyed them in the yard. They aren't hot or bulky, they don't come off my feet like the clogs I sometimes wear in the yard. I generally don't like wearing shoes if I don't have to, so the first thing I do when I get inside is take off whatever is on my feet. I decided to leave the VFFs on and see if my feet protested the obstruction. After an hour or two of wearing them inside, I wasn't uncomfortable at all. They meld so well with my feet that while I was obviously not barefoot, I was pretty darn close. I have gone on two walks and two jogs with them on. The first jog was just over a mile around my neighborhood. The first thing I noticed was a very distinct and loud slapping noise every time my foot hit the pavement. Immediately after the run I could feel a little tightness in my calves, but otherwise I felt fine. I later did some research, which I should have done prior to the run, on proper running form while wearing these suckers. It turns out the reason my feet were making the loud slapping noise was because I was doing it all wrong. I was still running as I would if I were wearing my running shoes: heel - toe. In the VFFs, you are supposed to run on the balls of your feet, with your heel barely touching the pavement. hmm. So, I tried that yesterday. I ran another mile, this time on the balls of my feet. I gotta say, this did not come naturally to me. I felt sorta like I was prancing the entire time. I mean, try it sometime. It's odd. At the end of the run I felt my big toe on my right foot wanted to form a blister something fierce. Luckily it's holding out so far. My ankle took a little of a beating as well. The most noticeable result of running this way was what happened when I woke up this morning, a mere 24 hours after this prancing run. I could barely bend my ankles to 90 degrees, and the tops of my feet were sore, and my calves, oh good lord, I have never felt such tightness before!! Holy smokes! Well, apparently all these things are normal and are a result of me using better form while on my job. Hrmmm. We shall see. For now, I am unable to go for another jog. It might be a few days. Everyone says to ease into it, not to get crazy with it. I might have overdone it. Who knows. I will keep you posted.
In other news, I managed to wake up by 6:30AM every weekday this week. Today I slept in until 7:30, but that's okay. I was pretty tired though, because I wasn't able to get to bed by 11, which was my goal. Ideally I would be going to bed at 10, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I will see if another week will even me out.
I am off to run some errand. I have a big trip in the woods planned for next weekend, so I have to venture out into commerce to secure supplies. Oh yeah.
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