1. Bob Neinast of the Society For Barefoot Living has a good post about foot sliding, inspired by that Dual Survival show on Discovery. I haven’t seen the show (no reason, just haven’t).

2. I went for a trail run yesterday in the vffs. The recently broken toe was wiggle-able enough to get the thing on. The run was good, although a little sluggish, and I got a blister on the side of the ball of my foot. That’s been my problem with vffs – it’s not just that they give me blisters, it’s that they give me blisters in different places. Or they don’t give me blisters at all. That’s another reason barefooters become purists – shoes are unpredictable.

3. I was limping a bit yesterday evening. Not from my run or from the blister, but it was a barefoot injury. Sunny the dog chewed up one of my mechanical pencils, which I think was the source of the splinter I got on the front pad under the 4th metatarsal. I’m not sure I got it out, and it still smarts a bit. But think about that for a minute: I’ve been running 40ish miles a week, at a faster pace then I’m used to, so if my feet were to be “tough” now would be the time. The pad between my fifth and fourth metatarsals is the first part to touch the ground and the last to leave it. As “tough” as my soles might be, they’re not so tough that they’re impervious to little nicks and such. I was playing tennis on the Wii, on the carpet when I got it. I’ve run about 800 miles since my last splinter. And it hurts. The wound is tiny and near the surface, which means the skin on the toughest part of my feet is still very sensitive to pain.

So remember that – your feet are never going to get tough enough to handle little splinters in the carpet, let alone running marathons on asphalt. forget about toughness. Be gentle instead.

4. I’ll be running the Run for the Rub 10k this weekend. I’m not sure how I’ll do; I’ve been training pretty hard and am feeling it. Today I decided to forget about my faster easy pace and just run an easy pace. I should probably take a day off soon, but then I think, will Ryan Hall take a day off? Anyway, I’ll either be fast from all the speedwork, or slow from overtraining. Or somewhere in between. Right now I think I could pull off 44 minutes.

5. As the wife requested, I gained about five pounds since Grandfather Mtn Marathon. I didn’t change anything with my diet, and I’m still running a lot. Faster, too. The only change? No long runs. Every run has been under 1:30. And I’ve been doing the Jamooshes, but according to my electroshock scale the weight I’ve gained has been fat, not muscle. I’m not concerned or anything, just makes me go “huh.”

That’s all for this installment of pointlessness.