Allison's Big Toe

3rd Half Marathon Training—Officially Begun!

That’s right! I registered for another race. Yesterday I did an easy pace 6-mile run to kick off training for my third half marathon on June 25, 2011, which will be totally awesome for (at least) three reasons:

1. The event is in Hungary (my husband’s birthplace)
2. It is a trail race (never competed longer than 7 miles on trail)
3. I am going to wear my new kangaroo leather Vibram KSO Treks

Hungary
I am a high school teacher, and one of the perks is obviously the summer break. This year, my husband and I are taking full advantage of the time off and traveling to Hungary for nine weeks! (He is a web programmer and can work anywhere with an internet connection) We will stay with his parents, who still live there, and do a bunch of trips around the area and hopefully other locations in Europe. Typical to our lifestyle, we’ve already signed up for some big athletic events: he’s doing a 5000 meter swim across the biggest lake in the country, and I’m going to run the trail half marathon. There’s also a half marathon bike ride on the same trail that day, which he’ll do. Does that count as a triathlon between the two of us?

Trail Race
The only trail race I’ve competed in was the Xterra Point Mugu Trail Run in September 2009. It was a lot of fun, but I injured my knee on the extremely steep extended downhill at the end of the race. It was because of that injury that I bought the book ChiRunning and started my whole transition into natural running form. The Hungarian trail half marathon has an elevation profile (find link) that’s not too intense, although it looks like rolling hills through the forest the whole way. My First half marathon at Lake Casitas in April 2010 was trail the last 5 miles over rolling hills, and it was pretty intense, so I know a little of what to expect.

KSO Treks
I got these shoes one month ago and so far have run about 15 miles total in them on trails around where I live. I was super excited and pleased with them until realizing after the most recent run that they’re really too big. Major bummer! I couldn’t really tell at first because the 4mm sole is so much more stiff than the 2mm KSOs that I’m used to, and they fit different, but I thought that was normal.

However, I’ve been getting blisters on the balls of my feet that I think is because my foot slips around too much in the Treks. When I push my heel to the very back of the shoe, I have a lot of gap at the toe, but when I cinch the strap up tight, the heel comes away from the back of the shoe and the toe comes to the front. Because of this, I didn’t think they were too small at first.

I called the store that I bought them from, KayakShed.com and the helpful young man who answered the phone suggested wearing Injinji toe socks to prevent blistering. Thankfully, I did buy these at the same time I bought the Treks, so I’ll try it. He said I could also return the shoes dirty for 1/2 price off another new pair. I’m going to see if I can clean them up enough to count as “new” (I doubt it), but if the socks don’t help I’m not going to risk blisters on the half marathon and should probably get a new size. $125 was steep enough, though, and I really don’t want to bring the total cost to $185 with a return. Ouch.

My suggestion to any of you buying the KSO Treks: try them on in a store first if you can find them! (Not so necessary with the regular KSOs, which fit fine from the size guidelines)

Race Training
I’ve been a little sick with a cold since last week, so didn’t push the 6-mile pace at all yesterday and finished with a 10:04 average pace. To keep me honest, on my calendar I scheduled in each of my three runs per week in the exactly two months from today I have until the race. It’s too easy for me to say, “Well, I’m a little tired today”, if it’s not on my calendar. Hopefully everything goes well!