Well hello everyone. It really,
really, has been a long time since I wrote my last blog. In fact, I had written
a race report on my 50 mile SF. North Face Endurance Race, back in Dec of 2012,
which never was posted. The entire report was some how deleted, I blamed Google,
still do. Anywho that was my last…. I stopped writing.
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| My finish at NFER 2012 |
But Hey! Here I am now. Back at the
key board ready to WOW you with my words of wisdom and candid observations of
the word as I see it, but mostly to talk about running.
A lot of things have been going on and
I’m not going to try and condense a year of running into a few paragraphs,
however, I am going to talk about the biggest thing I’ve done since the last
time I wrote my blog. That is…… drum
roll please!
First! Let me give you a little
back ground. I have always worked with my hands, as a carpenter, a wielder, a machinist,
artist. I’ve been to collage, studied art and architecture, later I went to
school and became a CMT, which is the work I do now. The point is I understand how things are constructed,
the kinesiology of the body and how it functions. Why is this important? because,
three years ago I started running. I
started running and like all new runners I went and bought running shoes. Arch support;
heal cushioning, stabilization, cool. I’ve got $135.00 dollar running
shoes! But as I was leaving that store
something in my head was not liking something. Arch support?
Fast forward a year. I have really
bad shin pain on my left leg. It hurts to run for the first three miles. I take
three weeks off. The day I start running again, at mile one, my shin starts
hurting. I’m so pissed off! I stop and loosen the shoe lace, on my left shoe,
as lose as I can and still keep my shoe on, then I start running again. I’ll be
dammed! The pain went away. So what happened when I loosened my shoelaces? Well in a nut shell what I did was release
the tension that was preventing the tendons along the top of my foot from doing
their job. The tendons along the top of
our foot are meant to move, much like a cable on you ten speed bike. Shoe laces bind the foot and the tendons, preventing
them from moving freely. As a result the muscle along the shin is pulled and in
time it tears. Muscle expands and contracts, tendons slide back and forth. Something
is very wrong.
Okay so here it comes. “Born to Run”. Yes I read the book and I, for one, will not apologize
for it. I read the book and I saw the
light. All the thoughts I had about my shoes and arch support. How laces bind
the foot. Blisters and lost toe nails. It was all right there. I knew it! I liken the reading of this book to Plato's
Allegory of The Cave. I have
seen the light and there is no going back.
Okay. I’m not going to get all into
the science of the foot and all that. I will, however, tell you that I put
things to the test. If running in shoes under $50 bucks has shown statistically
to have fewer injuries then let’s try running in converse. I did. I ran the
Ohlone Wilderness Trail 50k, in $50 dollar converse. I did great. My shin was
fine, I was fine but more importantly the book was on to something.
So let’s have that drum roll again
please!
YES! I am running barefoot.
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| My one and only barefoot-barefoot 5 mile run. |
Well I’m
running in Vibram. But I have been running Vibram for a little over a year now
and I am finally use to running on any terrain. It took awhile to get use to
running barefooted but now that I am use to it I can’t go back. And I mean I literally
can’t go back. I tried to wear shoes a few weeks back and my toes blow-up. The shape
of my foot has changed. This is what I want everyone to do. Think
back. Have you ever seen, in nature, or in architecture, an arch that was
supported from underneath? Arch support is an oxymoron. There is NO such thing!
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| Mugging for the photo at the GG 100 sporting my Vibram |
Anyway that is where I’m at. As for
my up coming runs I have the “Head land 100 miler on Sept 14th and
15th. I have been nursing a torn patella tendon on my right knee,
which I injured at my last 100 mile attempt this past Aug. I’m counting on my running barefooted to keep
me from hurting myself further. I have sooo much to say about my journey into barefoot
running, but not today. For now I’m
going to post this and get back on the blog horse. I’ll be writing more soon
and I hope to see you all out on the trails. ~Paul
