Few new things

I tried three new things during my today’s run in O’Neill park:

1) I tried my new injinji socks

These socks fit like a glove… quite literally :-)
I never tried them before and got my first three pairs this week.
At first they felt pretty funny and itchy between my toes – I am not used to have anything there. But a way before my Garmin beeped me the end of my first mile this morning, I stoped thinking about my toes and they did not bug me anymore.

I would not call it a test yet – let’s see what it will be like after a real race…

2) I got my feet seriously wet

Usually I am trying not to do it to avoid blisters. But when I reached the stream under the Oso bridge this morning there was no other way to cross it, run around it or jump over it. And I just ran through it. The water was pretty cold, but it felt good!

Of course after I got wet anyway, I ran through all the other stream crossings on my way.

One of the funniest was on the side trail that was going along the eastern trim of the park. It led me to a 25-feet-wide and about a knee-deep stream with a bungee rope hanging above it. I did not use the rope and just walked across the stream. The funny thing there was no trail whatsoever on the other side. Probably there are too very few crazy folks in O’Neill park that ever crossed the stream there :-)

My overall wet-feet experience is pretty positive and refreshing so far. When I got home I was sure my feet dried up but they just warmed up and I did not feel I was wet anymore.

Still I do understand it better right now why wet-feet running is not recommended. The skin on my feet became pinky and tender. After I got my feet wet I ran about 6 miles. If I had to run 20 miles like that I would have blisters all over my feet, despite my new cool injinji socks.



3) I ran on Pomegranate juice instead of Gatorade

This was a stupid idea! Running on O’Doul’s felt so much better :-)
Too acid and unbelievably sugary at the same time, pomegranate juice will not quench your thirst on the run, and even muddy puddles will seem a better alternative to whatever you've got in your hand-bottle in a little while :-)