Walk (almost) a mile in my (not) shoes

Well, jog at a walking pace, really. 
So, adding in some actual barefoot training to my running schedule has been on my list pretty much since I started running in Vibrams.  And I've done very little so far, because we live in Arizona where the weather ranges from bitterly cold (read: balmy, to most actual winter-dwellers) to sun-surface hot, and takes the grass with it from frost-killed summer grass to scorched-brown winter rye.  (Getting the timing right every year on when to switch from one to the other is an art you'd think we'd collectively master on of these days...And please can someone explain to me why we can inject salmon genes into strawberries but yet can't breed a single species of grass capable of living through both our harsh (balmy) winters and horrifying (true) summers?? This cannot be as complex as sequencing the human genome.  Thanks, Science Fairy!  -Love, Me.)  So, mostly my choices have been searing pavement or searing razor-wire dead grass (ps- shouldn't it be cooler just by virtue of being organic matter? Evaporation? Bueller?) and factoring in the ants and goose poo I've not been too inspired.  Anyway: so far, very little barefoot time. 

So I went out barefoot tonight.  It must have been warmer because my lungs burned significantly less, even in spite of the bag of jalapeno potato chips I had for dinner.  (yes, Training: going well.) Miraculously, the sidewalk was relatively free of its usual gravel and goose gifts, and I made a good .87 miles before I gave it up.  (Didn't I want to round it out to a mile, at least? What am I, lazy?  Yes, and no: I suddenly noticed that it was a bit too cold for me to know exactly how much I was tearing up my feet on their first run in who-knows-how-long, and caution won out over bravado (a first-?) in thinking about the viability of running 13 miles on glass-embedded feet this weekend.  Thus, I return, somewhat vanquished. (Can you be just "a bit" vanquished?) )  Pulled-calf was mighty cooperative, and I must say "Fine"-calf was a durn sight too squawky for my taste!  I have just the girl to set that varmint straight tomorrow though, just see if I don't!...


Ooooh-- I did notice (okay I got an email) that it was 1-11-11 today, and I felt a bit grinchy that I didn't have any cool thoughts to mark the occasion with.  But then I realized, come November, at 11:11 on 11-11-11 WHOA, watch out because I have a whole ten months to come up with commemorative thoughts and you bet I'll be there with bells on!  Especially since I realized if I come up short in the morning there's a re-do built in just before midnight.  That's right, two chances!  Who the man now, huh?  (And who hedges bets inside their own head?  That's right, I do.  And I'ma leave that grammar just like that, too, just 'cause.  Who always wins? Hah!)