Saw Deer On Today's 15km Run

Just because I don't write (here), does not mean I am not running.

I ran four times this week, Saturday night, Tuesday Morning, Wednesday morning, and Friday morning, but am only posting here now.

The Saturday, Tuesday and Wednesday runs were about 8-9km each, and today's run was about 15km, though I have not worn my Garmin GPS watch all week, so these are estimates. That makes this week's running total to be in the range of about 41km.

Today's run was the toughest. I have been feeling very strong recently, and despite running with no watch I have felt that my ace and running strength has been improving recently. Maybe it is my imagination, since I am not wearing a watch, but my most recent runs have been at hard paces and i felt strong on them.

Today though was a killer. the first half out was great. We ran hard, maybe too hard, and went out about 7.5 km to just a couple hundred meters past the Aderet Intersection on Highway 375.

Then we turned around, but when we got to Tzomet Etziyona we turned in and took a trail back to Road 10. the trail through the fields was nice, and it was my first time on this trail. We saw some deer running a bout 150 meters way from us in the field. There was no way we were going to catch up with them! The prancing deer were far nicer than the dead snake and dead hedgehog we saw the other day...

The road run from tzomet Etziyona back to Road 10 is a slight downhill making it a great stretch for a tempo pace, but this trail took us mostly, until near the end of it, on an uphill incline, making it unexpectedly difficult.

My Vibram FiveFinger Bikila are still holding up nicely, but with all this added trail running (not really a lot, but more than usual), they are probably starting to wear down faster than expected. it might be time to prepare new ones soon.

Today's run was a nice mix of road running, trail running, flat and hill running, and seeing the deer prancing ahead of us was an added bonus!

Review Of Vibram FiveFinger Treksport for road running

So I went out for a run this morning. Even though I was not running a trail, I still wanted to try out my new Vibram FiveFinger Treksport shoes. I also wanted to compare them not just on trails but also running on the road and see how they match up to the FiveFinger Bikila, or other shoes.

I got them in this nice orange color, and they are pretty cool.



The differences between Bikila and Treksport, that I personally noticed:

• The material upper of the Treksport is a little bit more flexible and softer than the material of the Bikila.
• The velcro strap is designed a little differently. As a matter of fact, I have wondered why on the Bikila shoes the velcro strap is designed the opposite direction of normal velcro straps on shoes. I still don't have the answer to that, but on the Treksport they are facing the normal direction like most velcro straps on shoes face.
• The velcro strap on the Treksport is flexible and can be adjusted, to a point, whereas on the Bikila it is set and not adjustable. 
• The soles on the Treksport are a bit thicker, with heavier cleats along the edges and under the toes, for better protection. This means when running on the road that your foot feels the road less. According to Vibram it gives better traction, and maybe it does, but I like the feel of the road beneath that I get with the Bikila.

On one spot of my foot, on the inner sole, some skin wore off from the shoe. It happened the first time I ran with the Bikila as well. I might not have adjusted the shoe properly before I ran, causing friction from below. When it happened with the Bikila, I adjusted it a bit the next time I ran and was fine. I expect it to be the same with the Treksport.

Here are the images and descriptions of the soles of both the Treksport and the Bikila, from the Vibram website..

Treksport:

Treksport soles

Bikila:

Interestingly, the label that came attached to the Treksport shoes has an image of the sole with a description highlighting the features, and it is slightly different than the image above. I scanned it in to show you the difference:

As you can see, on the label it mentions the cleated rubber outside, which is not mentioned in the image on the site. They also point out the adjustable strap, and the Coconut Active Carbon upper material...

Basically, the Treksport are built very similar to the Bikila running shoes, and I look forward to using them to run trails. For running on the road I am going to stick with the Bikila as it gives me more of the feel of the road beneath me.

After I use the Treksport on the trails, I will write about how they held up and if they really provided better protection.