24 weeks to Fargo!

Thursdays are run in Vibrams day? I ran in mine again this last Thursday so perhaps I'll start a habit. I did some more trails in light snow, not quite 4 miles worth, I think. I figured it was a good test of warmth since I haven't bought myself socks for them yet. I had my normal running shoes as back up in case my feet showed signs of freezing off right away but somewhat surprisingly, my feet stayed completely warm! Granted, it wasn't all that cold but I was running on/through snow the whole time. So maybe there's a chance of keeping in them all winter once I add some merino wool to my feet. My feet get cold super easy but since Vibrams let them move and flex so much, perhaps they have a shot at staying warm. So far, nothing in my body seems upset with running in them, which is great. I'm slower going downhill, right now, and tried to work on that last time. In high school, I was taught to stretch out my legs and kick out my heel as far as I could, in order to get a longer stride. We used to measure out stride length on flat and on downhills and I was always told that my stride wasn't long enough. I've since gotten rid of that habit but it's still strange to land in Vibrams right when going downhill. I have to think about it too much. My right heel started, well, not really hurting but just sort of feeling the impacts so I know I'm still doing some heel striking. Wearing them definitely help me have quick feet, though.

So . . . the plans for next year start already! Saturday marked 24 weeks to Fargo and time for my training plan to 'officially' start. I'm going to be using one of the plans from Pfitziger's Advanced Marathoning again since it worked so well for me for Green Bay. The plan has the first long run next Saturday at 11 miles. Well, this Saturday I run just over 16. And then I did a two hour run on the SHT today, though I kept that nice and easy. So perhaps I won't be following their long run progression for a while . . . It's exciting to be ready to start a plan instead of being behind. I'm slower than I want to be but there's plenty of time for speed to come.

I'm also trying a different method for logging my runs as well as having my plan written down. I'm using Google Calendar since I have access to it at work, too. It also will send me email reminders for what's coming up the next day. I've been messing with the order of days, though since I'm doing an additional long run and I'm still nailing that down. We'll see how this works!