Made my first attempt at a pair of huarache sandals, following the instructions on barefoot ted's website: http://barefootted.com/ Ran a mile in them right off the bat, and I have to say it was a fast, comfortable mile. Remember though what's "fast" for me is slow for other people. :-) Also running with barefoot technique (at least for me so far) it is harder to achieve the same pace as when wearing running shoes. But that said, I think I ran faster in the huraraches than in my VFFs. They felt quite nice! I didn't have the GPS with me but I would guess my pace was 10:00 or slightly even less. I then changed to my Asics and ran back to the lake, and in doing so logged 3 miles at an average pace of 9:33. I was pleased with this, as I spent the entire run focusing very hard on my form, and trying to emulate barefoot technique in my shoes. I tried "pawing" the ground much more this time, and the following morning my hamstrings were quite sore, so I think I hit them pretty good, and must have been working the technique correctly. It was very interesting to note that two times during this run, my "too fast" alarm went off on my Garmin -- this alarm is set at 7:30 pace. I hit that a couple of times on downhills or when I was thinking about my stride mechanics or cadence. All in all, a very good tempo-ish type of running today even though I just set out to do what felt good and wasn't thinking much about pacing, but rather form.
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