Ow.

Late Sunday night after my 8 mile training run my left foot really started to hurt, kind of like the top of my foot.  It persisted through yesterday.  It was feeling bruised kinda... I don't know how else to describe it.  Dr. Google said it could be a fracture or extensor tendonitis... I don't think it's a fracture because it said I'd be able to find a spot to poke on a metatarsal where the pain would be unbearable, and instead of a spot it's kind of all over hurting.  Extensor tendonitis can be caused by tight calf muscles or forefoot striking too much in a regular running shoe.  So hell... maybe my gait is unconsciously changing from running in vibrams and now I'm forefoot striking too much to be comfortable in my running shoes??  I have no idea.

This was also the first run over 6 miles that I'd done in about 3 weeks, so it could be that...but if I get aches and pains it's always something on my right side rather than the left, so it's a bit odd and new.

I took yesterday as a rest day and I just headed out for 3 tonight in the vibrams (I couldn't bear the idea of putting the hurty shoe on, and I was too lazy to do 2 in the vibrams and then change shoes to add one more mile).  They were honestly fine for 3... my calves weren't tired from them any more, no problems with my arches or any other kind of pain or tiredness, and nothing about them seemed to be making the foot issue worse.  And I felt good.  My foot just hurts.  Now it's not really the top of my foot, but the bottom of my foot or kind of all over my midfoot.  I wish my stupid foot didn't hurt because this would've been a really good run tonight.

I thought if something was going to happen to me it would be while wearing vibrams, not while wearing my running shoes.  Maybe the switching back and forth is a bad idea.  I'm icing it.  We'll see, I guess.

I have observed a couple things:
1) Vibrams make me slow.  At the same heart rate effort that I run a 10 min/mile in shoes, I'm running a 12 min/ mile in the vibrams.  Pretty ridiculous.
2) If i try to pick up the pace, it's pretty difficult, and the impact on my knees increases (guess that's common sense).  In any case I don't think I'll be using these for any fast runs in the near future...at least until I'm more used to them.
3) coffee is still a bad idea before runs.  I swear I can feel my heart beating out of my chest. (heart rate observation #1 here was collected on a non-caffeinated run.. heh).
4) I have a blister underneath my big toe.
5) In spite of this odd foot situation I persist in thinking this is a good idea to get used to running in vibrams.  Anything new has a learning curve or a training curve or whatever.  We will see.