Bobcats, baby heads, and broken toes?

I went for another trail run yesterday, and it was eventful to say the least. I saw bobcats on the trail, two of them, just sitting there off the path. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of these guys.

Instead, it was construction equipment.  They were doing trail maintenance.  That's good I suppose, but the temporary damage the machines did to the trail was pretty ugly and off putting.  As I'll be running this trail for the next several months I'm interesting in seeing how long it takes to recover.

The run itself was great.  I concentrated really carefully on form, running with a proper midfoot strike.  It felt good, but of necessity shortened my stride.  Overall this slowed me down just a hair.  Over 3.6 miles I was a total of three minutes slower, but I was also able to run the entire time.  During previous runs on this same trail I always had to walk at least short portions, usually on the longest grades.  This actually bodes well for the Tough Mudder where endurance and consistency are going to count for more than raw speed.

Running the entire up-hill portions also REALLY engaged my calves, even more so in the Vibram Fivefinger shoes.  I could feel them working to drive me forward, and in just the few weeks I've been doing this run there is already a noticeable difference in their size.  Between this and running sand I'll have calves the size of baby heads in no time.

There is a downside to running in VFF's though.  They're a 'minimal' shoe.  That means minimal interference between you and the ground, but also minimal protection.  Right near the end of the course I got careless, wasn't watching my foot placement like I should have, and kicked a damn rock!  Full force, straight on, punching it with your foot strike!

I don't think I broke anything, my toes feel alright and I finished the run.  I've got a ugly bruise on the top of my foot though and pushing off hurts.  I think it's just a nasty jam with no real injury but we'll see how it plays out during my workout tomorrow.