VFF

Today we went back to Cathedral Hills and hiked a little over 5 miles. 
We got there a little after 12 and stuck to the outer trails.  Though I stopped several times to take a couple pictures, adjust my shoes and talk at Conker, we still made fairly good time.  Today is supposed to rain, dunno exactly when (weather site said 3 but it's past 3 now) but it did begin to drizzle a bit right as we were nearing the parking lot at 2:15.


The rest of this post is about my shoes, so skip if you want.



I've had my new orange and black Vibram Five Fingers KSO's (Keep Stuff Out) for three days now.  I wore them practically all day yesterday and for most of Friday night after they arrived.  I am totally in love with these shoes and the Injinji Micro Performance toe socks I got for free.  Since I've been going barefoot for six months now, I didn't really have to adjust to "going barefoot" like a lot of people do when they switch from "normal" shoes to Vibrams.  I did switch to barefoot properly though, and will write more on that later since it's important that you do it properly to avoid injury.

For the first half or so of the hike I went "barefoot" in my barefoot shoes.  While the Injinji socks add a bit of extra comfort, they also dull the sensation your foot gets from walking in these shoes.  It's very minimal but I noticed it while wearing the Injinji's and KSO's yesterday.
Also, the KSO's have a reputation of causing hot spots or blisters on the achilles tendon and in a couple places in the shoe where your foot might rub in the internal stitching which the socks also nullify.  So why did I want to not avoid getting those?
Blisters, after about 48 hours, turn into callouses.  And callouses are good once they exist since the rubbing won't affect you anymore.

The KSO's didn't rub my feet much during the first quarter of the hike.  Well, my heel tendon things were a bit sore but I ignored them.  Then I began to get a hotspot just behind the ball of my left foot.  Again I ignored it.  I pressed on, sometimes jogging or flat-out running (which I cannot do very well, still terribly out of shape) and by the halfway mark the blister on my left foot was driving me insane.

Left KSO and Injinji sock.

I broke out the Injinji socks which helped protect the blisters and continued to hike/jog/run-like-a-dumbass along the trail.  Somewhere along here my left calf and some other muscle really began to hurt, almost to the point of limping.  I had no friggin idea what I did wrong and I in no way attribute it to the shoes.  It was probably my "running" or something like that, but when I only had 1/4 of the way to go until the parking lot all the pain in both my feet and leg, completely disappeared.

I guess you can call that a second wind, and I took advantage of that.
Somewhere on this trail I came upon a group of older people who looked pretty serious about trekking with their packs and poles and all that.  Normally when I run into people they are going the other way, but these people were going the same direction as me.
Engage predator competition mode.
I had to catch them.  I had to beat them to the parking lot.  For some reason it was important and Conker agreed with me.  We took off down the trail and quickly came up behind the trekkers but slowed to pass them politely, then took off once we were clear.  We ran almost the entire way back to the parking lot but stopped about a hundred yards or so from it and walked, briskly, to the Jeep.

With all the pain and blisters, you might think that the first trail of my VFF's was a failure.  I see it totally differently.  I see it as a complete success.  Normally, my leathery feet will begin to ache around 3 miles and often I have to cut the hike short and use one of the "black" trails as a shortcut to the parking lot.  There was no aching today if you don't count the isolated hot spots and blisters.  My feet feel fine and almost as if they only went one mile instead of five. 
I'm not going to completely abandon going fully barefoot but for the time being, getting the callouses in the right places is a priority so I can go faster and farther in my new KSO's than I currently can.  Also, it's getting colder outside and my feet don't like cold, so the KSO's will help keep them in shape during the winter.