25 K Barefoot Run

Today is Sunday. After days of hard work I finally have all day to myself. I slept late this morning, giving myself a good rest. I enjoyed cooking spicy noodles with minced pork and beaten egg. After that I relaxed as I watched my favorite programs on TV. It was almost 1 p.m. that I was finally in a mood to do something. I changed into my running gear and hit the road.

Today's goal is running over 25 K. I added four laps of a 650 M loop to my favorite 6 K shuttle course to make a 8.6 K course. I aimed at running it three times.

I started off slowly to warm up, and finished the first lap between 45 and 46 minutes. After getting some water from a bottle I left for the second lap. I kept the steady pace to finish it at almost the same time as the first lap. In the last lap I picked up the pace. While running the second lap I felt a blister developed in the ball of my right foot. Compared with the shuttle course the 650 M loop has a much worse road condition. I ran carefully to minimize damage to the sole, but couldn't completely avoid the development of a blister. Although the blister caused a little discomfort, that didn't stop me from accelerating where the road condition was good. I steadily increased the pace until I hit the turning point of the shuttle course. But then when I came to the last steep uphill after leaving behind the turning point, I felt I was running out of gas, and had no choice but to slow down. I took smaller steps to minimize energy loss to climb it. When I finally reached the top, I felt renewed motivation well up in me. I accelerated. Ten minutes later I was back to the 650 M loop. Four more laps around it and it's over. But this is the hardest part. The discomfort in the right sole had turned into pain. I had to use the knee to buffer the landing shock, and ran even more carefully to be protective the damaged area. One lap is done. And then another. When the last lap finally came, I mustered up what little energy left in me and kicked while ignoring the building pain in the sole. When I finally reached home and stopped my watch, the time was way better than the first two. Almost unthinkably better. So I thought that probably I lost count somewhere. Probably while running the third lap, I thought it was the fourth and came home after it. Anyhow, even without including it, I covered 25 K, so I think that's OK.

The times of the training today are shown below:
1st lap (8.6 K): 45:43.02
2nd lap (8.6 K): 45:50.47
3rd lap (7.95 K): 40:39.92
Total 25.15 K: 2:12:13