Rocinante

Today ran without the socks. It keeps one honest, much less cushioning and so have to run even more carefully on the ball of the foot. Felt great though. The worst surface is gravel where there are pieces of gravel that are roughly foot or toe sized. Fine gravel is fine - but it seems that you get used to whatever the ground throws at the KSOs.

Got up a little late this morning and so didn't have time to do the longer run that I'd planned - also, I didn't do the barefoot trial mainly because of time constraints. Will try that in the next few days - unfortunately the road crew put some coarser gravel on top of the perfect surface I saw yesterday...should have grabbed my chance then.

Fives holding up well. Am wearing the injinji socks during the day since I no longer use them to run in. Have a pair of Nike Free 5.0s which I wouldn't recommend for running - at least not as a substitute for the Fives or barefoot - I've removed the insoles and have run in them a couple of times, and, while they are very nice they still running shoes with all the usual problems associated with too much support and padding. But they are light and with the injinji socks are very comfortable for walking around in. No tengo el coraje ir andando descalzo en el Metro de Madrid!

Autonoma

Autónoma loop again. I'm starting to feel a noticeable improvement in my running. Today a group of runners entered the main trail just ahead of me and were going at more or less my pace. Decided to try to pass them by upping the cadence on the Fives and blew by them with no problems on a hill. A bit later there is a bit you have to walk - basically there are steps down to a small bridge over a stream and then up again. After I had just reentered the trail a runner blasted past me so decided to chase him. Kept up with no effort but he lost me after about a mile when I had to slow down for a very gravelly patch. It literally felt like having another gear to switch up into.

I'm starting to think that the barefoot/fivefinger thing is 50% mental . Although the physical side - improved running form etc. is clearly important - I also feel much more in touch with the running and am not getting bored which has been a big problem for me in the past. I didn't have the GPS with me today so I have no idea if I actually have improved my pace, or what it was during the two roughly 3/4 mile sprints...but it certainly felt much better and if not much faster, I felt a lot stronger. With conventional running shoes I have never really been able to improve my performance significantly, even without injuries. This type of "pose" running seems to be the key.

It might all be wishful thinking but at least it's fun!

On another note - I managed to hold a conversation with the Portero in the Residencia about cleaning schedules, when the sheets and towels get changed, and how to connect to the internet entirely in Spanish. Not great Spanish but they didn't try to switch into English - maybe they didn't speak English but in any case it felt like a minor victory. Then I had to go to the bank because my Caja Madrid ATM card stopped working yesterday - again, the transaction was conducted entirely in Spanish. I am thinking that I have the Fives to thank for that too but maybe that's a step too far :-)

Very tired this morning. Yesterday was the election for the Rector (President) of the Autónoma. Why don't we have a system like that instead of the hierarchical dictatorship we "enjoy" all the way up from the DH to the President. Anyway, each candidate has a team and my collaborator here was part of one of them - he was running for Vice Rector of Research. The idea was to go out for dinner to celebrate or commiserate depending on the results, which were supposed to come in around 9:30 pm. Well, "our team" made a reasonable showing but didn't make the next stage - since no one candidate got 50% the two top teams are in a runoff. The percentages were something like 35, 30, 28, 7. So, this being Madrid, we got to the restaurant at 10:30 pm and we were early. Hamilton's in Logan is usually closed by 9:30 -  places here are barely open so early. We finally sat down around 11:30 and the food started arriving around midnight. It was a great place, typically Spanish, everyone squeezed together with lots of noise, smoking, wine, etc. The Spanish can hold 5 or 6 different conversations simultaneously and a lot of them are also on their cell phones at the same time. My Spanish simply shuts down completely under such circumstances. Being a vegetarian here is not easy - even the vegetarian looking things like beans have industrial quantities of chorizo in them. Some Spanish vegetarians  consider jamón to be a vegetable. Anyway, I settled for bread and some very nice roasted veggies (which is what you always get if you're a veggie here, except in actual vegetarian restaurants). Ended up leaving at 2 pm and got to bed just a bit before 3. So when the alarm went off at 7 it was hard to get up but I imagined that empty entry in the blog and bit the bullet.

Took the GPS and managed to do 1 mile at 8:30 pace with 1/2 of that at 8:00 (it was slightly downhill). Overall pace just below 10 but that included a couple of stops and there was a strong headwind for the first couple of miles.

Well, I had planned to do 10 today but 3 miles in an old injury suddenly reocurred which was a major disappointment - basically it's a pain on the top of the right foot. I was really surprised because yesterday all felt really good and strong - in fact I was walking up and down the steep steps in the Madrid Metro more or less on my toes for extra practice.

So, I decided to cut to the usual 6.5 loop short and take a short cut that I had never done before and which I was sure would cut an extra mile or so out of that - it would have but it ended at a chain link fence at the local shooting club. Obviously it would be a mistake to bushwhack through that given that they were shooting in full force. So I backtracked and, like an idiot, took a wrong turn. So it ended up being almost 10 anyway.

I was hoping to have a more positive report after a 50 mile week. Usually this thing just lasts a day or so and tomorrow is a rest day anyway - I'm off to El Escorial for paella with a friend. I think I've overdone it but we'll see.

 Also, I took a leaf out of Sasha's book and cut the front off some socks to help with the blister on my left heel. That worked great and left the toes freer than in the injinjis.

Well, the paella was good but the foot was quite sore. I probably walked about 5 miles yesterday, including some steepish hills. Today it feels better but it isn't runnable. It could be a stress fracture - I have had this before, a number of years ago, and so maybe running in the KSOs brought it out because there was a weakness there already.  The left foot is fine. I did edge into the KSOs relatively slowly (I thought) but maybe last week was just too big of a jump up in distance in them - but it was just so much fun.

Well, three weeks later and a shadow of my former self, I managed to put in a full 2 miles. Three weeks off takes its toll, especially while being daily tempted by the food and fun of Madrid. Anyway, decided to run around the playing field next to the Residencia in case things went wrong - for example, foot giving out half way through a 10 miler while getting also getting lost (see previous run entry). I wore the Nike 5 Frees - I don't really recommend them but I couldn't face going in my "Asics Gel Care Foot Coffins" which, incidentally, I bought here as walking shoes - they have at least helped the foot to heal and allowed me to walk quite a bit.

So far so good - tocar madera.

Managed 5 around the "short bosque loop" with a couple on the field. Foot feels a bit sore today but I nursed it and am hoping that it has bottomed out.