And The Shoes Come Off AGAIN

Today was beautiful out...My energy level on the other hand, not pretty.

I started the morning around 7:30am where I had to force myself out of bed. I then had some scrambled eggs and a wheat bagel for breakfast. I'm not sure if it's because I forgot to have coffee, or what, but I was feeling so tired...plus my shins were still a bit sore from last Friday.

It definitely impacted my work out. I was tired just from the 2 lap running warm up and my shins were not happy either. We then learned most of the work out was going to include running, since it's supposed to rain for the rest of the week, and the instructor wanted to take advantage of the nice weather out. So running we did. Here's what we had to do: 

21 ball slams

21 box jumps

21 star jumps

Run 200m

16 ball slams

16 box jumps

16 star jumps

Run 400m

9 ball slams

9 box jumps

9 star jumps

Run 600m

6 ball slams

7 box jumps

6 star jumps

Run 800m

Oh. My. God. Those last two rounds of running were excruciating. On my last 200m, I was about to give up and start walking, when I remembered the last time I ran without my shoes. I decided to take my shoes off and run with my socks on. And that worked, again! I ran faster and more easily and finished the work out like a champ. The only reason I don't run barefoot longer is because I'm not very used to it yet. Although it feels good the first couple of minutes, it becomes straining afterwards..at least that's what I noticed from the last time I did that. My brother, who is a pro barefoot runner, told me you have to start small so that's what I am doing. 

Anyway, that was a 800 calories worth of sweat. Totally worth it! I just had to roll my shins and calves afterwards..

Socks on, Shoes off

So after today's workout in the morning, I decided to have a nice Spa Pedicure, a manicure, do a little shopping and relax... Which I did, until around 3pm when my brother stopped by my place after running the Broadstreet Marathon, and asked if I wanted to run the last 4 miles back to his house. And by the way, he had also ran TO Broadstreet and ran back.. So he was running close to 40 miles by then. So I was like, "I just did Crossfit this morning, but what the hell..You just ran to the city, ran a marathon, and ran back, so yeah, sure!". I put on my work out clothes and went. I was surprised how long I was able to run without stopping. We would run until my heart rate went over 180 then we would walk until it went below 160. We ran a total of 3 miles and walked about 1 mile. Toward the end, my ankles and achilles tendons were hurting so bad. I was losing strenght in my legs, they felt heavy. He told me to take my sneakers off. So before I ran the last mile, I took them off and only ran with my socks on. I couldn't believe the difference it made. Suddenly I was running faster, my body was lighter and my feet didn't hurt so much. I actually ran the last mile without stopping. The only thing that felt uncomfortable was the bottom of my feet, the cushion right before the toes.My brother is a barefoot runner and he told me it takes a while for the feet to get used to the pavement. But I didn't care about that small pain. That was nothing compared to the relief I felt by taking my shoes off.

So in a little less than 1 hour, we ran/walked 4 miles. My legs were hurting so bad afterwards, but it felt great. I definitely notice the difference from when I first started running.

I haven't actually ran until I'm not able anymore, so I'm curious to see how long I can run without stopping. Maybe sometimes this week I will have to try it.