New Addition

So my little blog is going to be getting a new addition. Earlier this year I started a blog to yak about my new adventures with running. I decided to streamline and import those posts over to this blog so that I would have everything in one place and perhaps make it easier to blog. So, over the next few weeks you may see some of those posts showing up here as I work them in. I decided to combine them because becoming Paleo has led me to trying to exercise. I say "trying" because I seem to always manage to mess it up and injure myself and then I'm on the sideline.

Imported blog post from August 28, 2011
Let me put this out there right now so that there are no misconceptions...I'm a piss poor blogger. But sometimes I like to be able to put down in writing what I'm feeling so I turn to my blog page. None of my friends are in to running or attempting to run (since that's my current state). So I'm going to ramble about here until I get bored of writing about it.

Let's get on with it shall we? I'm in the process of trying to turn my life/health around. I've changed my diet (permanently) to Paleo and now I'm trying to incorporate activity. About three months into my dietary change I began having dreams about running. It wasn't the dreams where you're in slow motion or you can't get to your destination or something is after you. These were dreams of running for enjoyment. I was happy in these dreams and running because it was something I loved. So this of course set me off on the idea that I was suppose to be, by some intrinsic nature, a runner. I was sure it meant something, it must be a sign. It's my dream and we should follow those, right? Well, I didn't. I went for a couple more months before I decided to do something about these dreams. The time came when I decided that I had better act on my subconscious. I didn't really know where to start so I downloads a C25K app for my iPhone and started my journey.


Almost as quickly as I started I managed to derail myself. I decided that it wasn't enough to start a running program after years of sedentary behavior. I also hopped on my Concept 2 row machine and proceeded to over do it thus wrecking my lower back, which I have done in the same manner previously. So I gave up the row machine and decided to keep running since I could do that with nothing more than a little tightness in my lower back afterwards. I kept pushing through each week until I got to the end of week 4 when my body told me if I wasn't smart enough to stop; it was going to make me. I puttered back home and laid up for about 3 weeks while my back and hip re-cooped. During this time I read about running and tried to figure out the physiology of the human body. In the process I came across information about barefoot/minimalist running which I had heard about but since I was a couch potato I just chalked it up to a bunch of nutters. But this time I was on a mission to become the runner I had been seeing in my dreams and so my curiosity was peaked and I hunted around on the internet for blogs and websites. It seemed that the Tarahumara were always sited as the inspiration for barefoot runners and I found a video on them which it turns out I had already seen when watching NatGeo about a year ago.

So I started thinking about buying some minimalist footwear. Problem is, I'm poor and I didn't really want to invest a lot of money into something that might be my next fad. So, I gave up on the idea but it didn't really give up on me. I would find myself looking at barefoot bloggers and wishing this was something I could try. I even started trying to go barefoot more often but I'm such a tenderfoot that I knew I would be able to start running that way. Eventually I came across Steven Sashen's website Invible Shoe. So I began trolling around there and reading the message boards and his blog and watching the videos he has posted until finally I decided to buy a do-it-myself kit. I got the Classic DIY kit and the 6mm Contact kit. I put together my Contact kit and started my new journey of trying to become a minimalist runner. Heck, I was just going to try to become a runner who just happens to wear next to nothing on her feet. Here is a pic of my totally unpedicured, polish chipping off the toenails, flip flop tan-lined feet.

I went for a little spin half way around the block after I put these together and was so excited. That little 6mm sole did wonders for making me comfortable while running on the sidewalk but it made me FEEL the sidewalk. It's sort of hard to explain the feeling of running in these huaraches. They are snugly attached to your feet yet your feet are not bound in a pair of shoes. The sole is minimal and you feel the ridges and debris on the sidewalk yet it doesn't hurt when you land on a pebble.


After running up and down the block a couple of times I could certainly feel some soreness in the muscles of my lower leg. I had read about how you should change from a heel stike (cause by modern foot ware) to a forefoot strike so I expected some muscle soreness. So I'll be taking short spins around the block until I no longer have this soreness in my lower leg. I'm certainly looking forward to increasing distance and working on my form (forefoot strike, shorter stride, softer landing). It's a lot to think about and the feedback is constant. I must look like someone who is completely in the zone while I'm out there because believe me when I say it takes every bit of my pea-sized brain put one foot in front of the other, correctly.