Feeling confident

Yesterday I went for a 5 mile run in my trainers (I can't go that far yet in bare feet or FiveFingers). We averaged around 10 min miles, so a fairly leisurely pace. At the end I took off my trainers and did the last 0.3 miles in bare feet. I was able to almost maintain the same pace.

Today I've been for just over 2 miles in my Classics. Again, for the last 0.3 miles I took them off and ran barefoot. Overall, I managed an average pace of 10.06 min/miles. This is considerably faster than I was doing only a few weeks ago. I'm discovering that whilst I like my Classics (and there's no way I could go as far completely barefoot yet), I feel much more comfortable when my feet are bare. They don't feel restricted in any way (even my FiveFingers are a little restricting), and I feel more confident that I can avoid injury when my feet are bare. It's like they are communicating with me as I run, and this feedback is definitely more muffled even when I've just got FiveFingers on.

On another note, I have had a little Top Of Foot Pain this week on my right foot (hence the five day break from running). This is still apparent, albeit it very minimal. Interestingly, I notice that when I get back, there is almost always a bit of redness on my second and third toe joints (highlighted on the pic - excuse the terrible nail varnish, I really must take it off!).

I think this is a throw back from my stress fracture. It's not on my left foot. I guess there must still be a bit of weakness there, so I do need to be careful.