After taking a few days off from walking after our trip we went back to the gym on Thursday, hop on the tread mill for an hour and have it timed right that I can watch Jeopardy while walking. However this time I am trying something new on my feet, they are called Vibram's Five Fingers.
Vibrams are to your feet what a glove is to your hand, in one sense. They are a light weight shoe made of mesh material and in this case a 4 mm sole. And if you haven't guessed what makes them unique, they have separate pockets for each of your toes that can move separately and individually. And yes they are intended to be an athletic shoe.
Now I have worn them here and there and love the feel, its almost being barefoot, which I prefer. But this was the first test using them as they are intended. The first thing I noticed is I walk softer or lighter in them, it took me several minutes to quit slamming my feet down as I walked, which ultimately reduced knee stress. Additionally I suffer from turf toe, or hyper extending your toe upwards in both big toes. I always have my big toes hurt when I walk and have figured this was the price of getting fit, after an hour my big toes felt great. I did notice some increased stress to the outside edges of my feet and in the joints of my little toes and hope that is just because I need to become more accustomed to them. One other note, I have very high arches my wife is nearer to being flat footed, she has a pair also and loves the feel, however she has not yet put them to the test in the gym.
On Saturday my company has a yearly bus trip to Chicago for Holiday shopping. If you know me that really doesn't get me excited, last year my wife and I geocached. This year we checked to see if there were any AVA Walks in that area. We found two that started about 5 blocks away from where we were dropped off. The first walk basically went up Michigan Ave and back south and Dearborne with some walking around the LOOP and the neighborhoods north of Michigan Ave. The other went south towards the lake shore, the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium. Both walks were 11K so there was no difference there, we went North simply because remember the weather, snowing cold and blustery, I didn't want to see how bad it would be along the lake shore.
Seems going North wasn't much better as the wind howled along Michigan but we were rewarded for our efforts when we got into a neighborhood full of old Brownstones that just felt very comfortable and homey. Did see one for sale sign but I was afraid to look at the price. Once we headed back south we stopped at the only store we did any holiday shopping, found a tea store and perused (and got warm) for a while, they sold some different types of teas that I had not seen before and I will have to check them out on the web. In the end I hate saying we did not enjoy this walk, but I think it was the conditions that made this difficult, cold, snowy and my wife had shoe related problems, it just seemed to take forever. Normally we complete a 10K in about 2 hours, this took us nearly three.
On Sunday we headed out to Madison for the Dairyland Walkers (the local AVA Club we belong to) Holiday party. So first off what do you suppose we do, a quick 5K. Nothing special about the walk or it was just we had more cold windy weather, but it felt good to get out again and walk in successive days. One very positive thing was warm cider when we got back, it helped.
One thing I have found with this club is that they are very supportive and very friendly, they want to share in your adventures and share there adventures with you. My biggest issue I had was forgetting how much I rely on my wife for my hearing in crowded room situations. Being hearing impaired can have its benefits but at times it sucks as it was hard for me to communicate properly
Since we have started walking we have now lost over 70 lbs, I worry over winter if I can keep it up. I had at one point wanted to get below 250 before a walk marathon I want to do in Stevens Point, I need to rethink that amount, I am now aiming for 235.
Congrats to one of our caching friends for completing a 5K run in under 40 minutes. If I can get my tired old knees to work maybe I will have to see if I can do it.
To date 468,679 steps for 255 miles walked since September. 37,590 calories burned
158 days to Syttende Mai, a 17 walk event in the Madison area and 179 days to the Steven's Point 26.2 mile walkathon. I intend to do both.
Links you might be interested in:
www.vibramfivefingers.com
www.ava.org/index.htm
www.dairylandwalkers.com
Wanna go for a walk?
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