Say Hello To My Little Friends

See those things? Those are my shiny almost-new Vibrams! Thatboy really sucked it up with Channukah this year, but threw in some amazing redemption at Christmas! I really wanted a pair, but pretty much thought they were going to be one of those unnecessary expenditures.

Why did I want a pair of Vibrams? Mostly because of my injuries over the past year. First the knee, then the SI joint. I had read that because Vibrams didn't have the typical support system of regular running shoes, they forced your form to change, and to use different muscles. I thought they might help me hurt myself less.

The thing with Vibrams is, from everything I've read, you really need to break them in slowly - because they change your form, and work those different muscles. So I obviously couldn't break them in when I was training for the half.

During the half marathon, my left IT Band started bothering me. I know some people stop and stretch out soreness, but I'm a talker. So I just gave my IT Band a stern lecture about how it had many more miles to go and it should stop being such a girl. It worked. Except later that night, my right IT Band started pulling the whole "BUT WHAT ABOUT ME?" routine. And this was long after the race had finished, so it really had nothing to complain about. But it was tight and painful and made walking very painful. So I was a little hesitant about trying out the Vibrams.

But I forged ahead, I mean, I was only going for .5 miles. And you know what? NO PAIN! No IT band pain! And no other pain either. Which was surprising for me. I ran 6 miles over the weekend in my regular sneakers, and voila - that same niggling IT band. Back in the vibrams this week? No pain again. So far, so good.

My only concern - and maybe if you've run in Vibrams you can give me some words of advice - is that I don't really feel like I need to break this suckers in. I've run .5 miles, 1 mile, 1.5 miles, and even 2 miles this morning and I'm noticing no soreness, no difference between running in them and in my regular shoes. Am I doing something wrong?

Okay, that was a lot longer post on Vibrams than I was expecting. And if you're still here and reading you DESERVE this treat. Just in time for the Superbowl! Because tater skins make an excellent Superbowl snacker. I roasted my first goose, and stuffed it with potato stuffing. Which uses a lot of the inside of potatoes and not so much of the outside. But you can easily turn those leftover "scraps" into something delicious by topping them with cheese, bacon and sour cream (and really, isn't anything better topped with cheese, bacon, and sour cream?)

Double Cheese Potato Skins

6 russet potatoes

olive oil

2 Tbsp melted butter

2 tsp garlic salt

3 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar

4 strips cooked bacon, crumbled

sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 425. Was the potatoes and rub with olive oil. Place on rack in oven (with some aluminum foil on the rack underneath) and bake for 45 minutes. Cool until cool enough to handle.

2. Cut in half and scoop out almost all the insides (use this to make your own potato stuffing). Brush outside and inside of skins with melted butter.

3. Sprinkle potato skins with garlic salt and bake 8 minutes.

4. Fill the skins with the 2 cheeses and bacon and bake an additional 5 minutes.

5. Top with sour cream.