​Today’s run brought an empty paved “trail”, beautiful views, loyal bike support, a herd of deer, and the first real step back toward minimalist shoes.

Love on two wheels (again)

• My wife rode her bike by my side the whole way once more, cheering, chatting, and capturing great photos and videos along the route.
• We followed the Coyote Creek Trail, starting from Metcalf Park and heading south. The name says “trail”, but it is paved asphalt pretty much the entire way; still, it is a beautiful corridor with creek views and very few people out there today.​
• Love is beautiful: having her there made the kilometers feel lighter, and it also meant I had great footage even if everything else went wrong.

Insta360 back in action (hello, deer!)

• This time, I did remember to bring the Insta360.
• At one point along the trail, a group of deer was calmly eating right next to the path, and I managed to capture a really nice 360° video of them.
• The video is published in full 360 mode, so feel free to play with the angle and zoom while watching — look around, up, down, and enjoy that little slice of nature just a few meters from the asphalt.

Knee status + Altra experiment

• The right knee still hurt today, but noticeably less than last weekend. In the first half of the run it was not really “painful”, more like a weird sensation, especially in the curves.
• After the halfway point, the pain came and stayed, but still milder than in run #7, which is a positive trend.
• Today I ran in the Altra Rivera 3, a road shoe with zero drop and Altra’s FootShape toe box, designed to promote a more natural stride while still offering a reasonable amount of cushioning. Until now, I mostly used this pair as an all-day shoe for work and the gym, not for actual running.​
• The idea was to revisit my minimalist phase, hoping that encouraging a more natural stride could eventually help protect my knee. I have read a lot about this in the past, which is why I ended up with four different Altra pairs over the years.​
• Back then, I used the Altras mostly on dirt and gravel trails, not so much on asphalt. At some point, when I decided to train for my first marathon, I moved away from them and went into the more cushioned, higher-drop world: a couple of Hoka One One pairs, a very cushioned New Balance trail shoe, and the Topo Athletic Phantom 4, which still has a wide toe box but comes with a 5 mm drop.
• After my run #7 post, my great friend Guilherme messaged me asking if I wanted to give minimalist-style shoes another try to help with the knee pain — which reminded me of all the people who recommend that route. So today, the Altras got their chance.
• It is hard to say if the Altra alone made the knee feel better. The hip mobility work and the fact that the knee behaved better during the week probably helped a lot too.​
• What is clear is that the shoe changed my stride: I felt some leg muscles during (and especially after) the run that I had not noticed in a long time. This feels like the beginning of a readjustment phase before I can truly run “minimalist” without overloading anything, but it seems worth the experiment.

No audiobook today (and a reading plan)

• No audiobook today — I forgot my headphones. They are open-ear, budget-friendly ones, and honestly, even after trying more expensive models, the difference did not feel that big to me.
• The same great friend Guilherme also recommended the book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall, which I had heard about many times before and which actually influenced me to try Altra shoes years ago.​
• Funny enough, despite all that influence, I had never actually read it. So this week I finally started listening to it. The idea was to continue today, but no headphones means no progress.
• For now, the plan is: finish “Born to Run” first, and only then go back to “End Game” by Jeffrey Archer.