Just finished my evening run. I'd taken off about a week and a half since I ran the Make the Break 5k with my trusted companion Barefoot Bryan.
Running (barefoot) is a very technical sport. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Even as little as a week and a half off from some activity that your body has yet to imprint all the correct muscle movements for means relearning a lot. That was me today.
Oh yeah, straighten your back and tighten your core. Integrate your arms, right. But wait. Do I land right at the ball or a little behind? Hmm. Open up my stride a little more? Not that much. Ok, land under my core and torso. Yes, that's it. Is this a sustainable pace for my skin?
Ok, so it wasn't as bad as my very first run, but it still took me about half a mile to figure out a lot of things I thought I had learned already. And even then, I was constantly adjusting and readjusting through most of the run.
Eventually it will be second nature. I'll effortlessly bend the knees (a la Barefoot Ken Bob). Snap my stomach to my back and stand tall (from the great Michael Sandler). And I'll be aware of my body positioning and breathing which would please Danny Dreyer. It's a lot to synthesize, including of course, what your own body has to say. Don't worry, it will all come together.
Overall I felt good. My pads are a little tender (the ball right below both my right and left big toes) and will need a day of rest. Good news is that for a while I hit a 7:30 pace, which is close to the fastest I've gone sans the foot coffins. Oh, and I still love the looks I get from folks. Priceless.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
A Seed Planted
For as long as I can remember, I have hated running. Hated hated hated hated it. I played a few sports as a kid and I boxed in college, so I was forced to run from time to time. It never grew on me. I would always dread it and would seek out any substitute cardio exercise i could find. Some people were runners, and I was not one of them.
On a flight home from school in 2006, I read this article in an issue of Men's Health. While I was captivated by the story of the Tarahumara, I didn't really take anything in the article to heart. I shared the article with a few people I knew, but it never went any further than that. After all, I only ran a mile here and there before lifting weights. I certainly didn't think it was enough to warrant any kind of change. Even though nothing sunk in right then, the seed was planted.
In December of 2010, I was working full time and in graduate school. I hadn't exercised more than once or twice since the summer, and it was showing. I wasn't happy with myself. I knew that I needed a goal to work towards or my exercise regimen would fizzle like it had months and years before. During this time of regret and self loathing, I happened to be helping a high school senior with her college applications. One of her essays was about training for a triathlon with her dad. I knew that this event was just what I needed to motivate me. I was sold.
I am a pretty strong swimmer and I spent most of my childhood years on a bicycle, but tri means three. I didn't have a choice but to start running, and I was quickly reminded why I had hated it my entire life. Frustrated and in pain, I stumbled on that same Men's Health article online and re-read it. This time it spoke to me.
I did my research and bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers in late February. Shortly after, I started doing short barefoot runs. The soles of my feet took a beating early on, but the old ankle and knee pains that I had come to expect had disappeared. It's amazing to think about, but I learned how to run for the first time in my life when I was 26 years old.
I'm still building up callouses and endurance, but my outlook has changed completely. I now run barefoot as often as possible and in the Five Fingers when it is too dark to see the ground below me on early morning runs. Two weeks ago on a Tuesday, I woke up at 5:00am and ran about three miles in the neighborhoods around my house. That's a short distance for more experienced runners, but for the first time in my life, I caught myself thoroughly enjoying a run. The moon was out, the weather was beautiful, and my legs felt great.
That's when I knew I had turned the corner. I had won the victory over myself. I loved to run.
On a flight home from school in 2006, I read this article in an issue of Men's Health. While I was captivated by the story of the Tarahumara, I didn't really take anything in the article to heart. I shared the article with a few people I knew, but it never went any further than that. After all, I only ran a mile here and there before lifting weights. I certainly didn't think it was enough to warrant any kind of change. Even though nothing sunk in right then, the seed was planted.
In December of 2010, I was working full time and in graduate school. I hadn't exercised more than once or twice since the summer, and it was showing. I wasn't happy with myself. I knew that I needed a goal to work towards or my exercise regimen would fizzle like it had months and years before. During this time of regret and self loathing, I happened to be helping a high school senior with her college applications. One of her essays was about training for a triathlon with her dad. I knew that this event was just what I needed to motivate me. I was sold.
I am a pretty strong swimmer and I spent most of my childhood years on a bicycle, but tri means three. I didn't have a choice but to start running, and I was quickly reminded why I had hated it my entire life. Frustrated and in pain, I stumbled on that same Men's Health article online and re-read it. This time it spoke to me.
I did my research and bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers in late February. Shortly after, I started doing short barefoot runs. The soles of my feet took a beating early on, but the old ankle and knee pains that I had come to expect had disappeared. It's amazing to think about, but I learned how to run for the first time in my life when I was 26 years old.
I'm still building up callouses and endurance, but my outlook has changed completely. I now run barefoot as often as possible and in the Five Fingers when it is too dark to see the ground below me on early morning runs. Two weeks ago on a Tuesday, I woke up at 5:00am and ran about three miles in the neighborhoods around my house. That's a short distance for more experienced runners, but for the first time in my life, I caught myself thoroughly enjoying a run. The moon was out, the weather was beautiful, and my legs felt great.
That's when I knew I had turned the corner. I had won the victory over myself. I loved to run.
Splints to Callouses
Pain
I remember my high school track coach telling me, in an awful Dr. Evil imitation, that I should run as if I were on hot magma, lightly setting my foot down with the ball touching first, then quickly picking it back up. Yeah, interesting, but I was already too invested to switch my horse midstream. People run the way they run, and that was it.
Back then I ran the 400m, and like many of my teammates, developed some type of injury. From then on, anytime I ramped up mileage, shin splints came along for the ride.
Discovery
I didn't stop running when I moved to Palo Alto, I just quit before I knew I had to break out the ice and ibuprofen. Then one day I stopped into a local running shop on California Avenue and heard a strange word. Midfoot. Midfoot. Midfoot. I read more and more about different strides and gaits, paces and foot strikes. And I tried them out. Mileage increased, but injury did not.
Then came the VFFs. Quickly thereafter, I took them off.
I'm on about my third month of running every other day completely barefoot.
I'm not the first, and I won't be the last. But I'd still like to see what we can discover...
I remember my high school track coach telling me, in an awful Dr. Evil imitation, that I should run as if I were on hot magma, lightly setting my foot down with the ball touching first, then quickly picking it back up. Yeah, interesting, but I was already too invested to switch my horse midstream. People run the way they run, and that was it.
Back then I ran the 400m, and like many of my teammates, developed some type of injury. From then on, anytime I ramped up mileage, shin splints came along for the ride.
Discovery
I didn't stop running when I moved to Palo Alto, I just quit before I knew I had to break out the ice and ibuprofen. Then one day I stopped into a local running shop on California Avenue and heard a strange word. Midfoot. Midfoot. Midfoot. I read more and more about different strides and gaits, paces and foot strikes. And I tried them out. Mileage increased, but injury did not.
Then came the VFFs. Quickly thereafter, I took them off.
I'm on about my third month of running every other day completely barefoot.
I'm not the first, and I won't be the last. But I'd still like to see what we can discover...
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