Back and forth...

Gas brake honk. Honk honk punch. Gas gas gas. ~ Homer Simpson

This week featured some great runs and a lot of commuting to Boulder for running and film festival activities. I am reminded, again, that I do not miss my commute. Surprised? I doubt it.

This year's festival showcased a lot of great adventures and environmental movies. As a member of the jury, I saw most of these over the course of the past 4 months during screening events to select which movies would ultimately be shown at the festival and would win awards. Some highlights included:

• Swift. Silent. Deep.
• No Impact Man
• First Ascent: Point of No Return
  
• Signatures
• Reporter
• Making the Crooked Straight
  

Thursday, I did do a quick run around the neighborhood. Broke out the Vibram FiveFingers for the short spin and I still really like these friggin' things. Definitely a cool addition to the gear list. Though I don't ever envision doing anything more than a few miles at a time in them, I do believe that they help reinforce solid mechanics, improve foot and lower-leg strength and stability and provide a nice way to break up training so that a routine run becomes "something different". I'll probably work in a little barefoot time in my indoor workouts over the winter (*cough* today *cough*) to help offset the monotony of treadmill and short track laps.

Yesterday, I bailed on the snow to go to the gym and do surges on the treadmill. Mellow XC course for 30 minutes (10-minute pace) then stepped it up for another 10-15 to get in some nice, smooth surges. Felt great, actually. Since we got another foot overnight, I am heading back today to do my long run. Eldora opens this week so I'll be hitting the XC trails soon and may toss in a snowshoe race or two this winter just for kicks. We'll see how things progress.

~stubert.