Okay.. I'm feeling it now!

I was feeling strangely wired after laying down this lunch hour, so got up, put on some shorts and a tshirt and my Vibrams, and went for a nice 40 minute trail run / hike. I didn't have a ton of time as a couple of our Association office folks were coming out to do a training for me, but Hop and Georgia and I made pretty good pace and took a couple of stops to jam out to a particularly good iPod selection and snap a camera phone picture.

It was the first time in awhile (a) I've made the time to run and (b) I've had so much fun doing it! The initial uphill struggle always wears me down to a quick trudge, but once we started weaving around the hills and I got to accelerate through some turns and really stretch my toes out and grab some trail.. oye. It just felt grand, and very natural. Granted, I'm still terribly slow in the grand scheme of things, and my wind runs out much faster than my legs do, but the enjoyment is there with this particularly great weather. The difference with the VFFs really kicks in during the downhill. After leaving Mount Vesper, I took the rocky ridgeline trail down, which (when I'm in normal trail shoes, like my Salomons or something) generally means stopping, shimmying, grabbing a branch for support, etc. I'm terrible un-surefooted when headed downhill. But the Vibrams allow me to pitter-patter to the edge of a rock, grip, look forward and keep my movement going (though not always at a run, obviously) as I scampered down from boulder to trail to another boulder.

And then I hit a last stretch of paved road from the cabins to the river and then up to the office and our house and got moving about as fast as I could without truly pushing myself for speed. It was tiring and I practially collapsed into the house with my heart racing, but felt so good.

I just need to learn to hold on to that feeling!

After a shower, and some more work, I just ate my lunch of banana, Stonyfield Organic's probiotic vanilla yogurt, and half a handful of Kashi Go-Lean Crunch. (Thanks for leaving your box, Natalie. Hehe.)