My Running
When I got out of the Army I said that I hated running and I would never run again. Well… I realized over time that I needed to do some aerobic activity and running was the best exercise for me. It required little equipment (shoes, shorts and a shirt) and that reduced my ability to make excuses for not doing it. So, I have been running since August 2009. My pace started very slow (12 min mile) and I hated it but by December 2009 I was running at a consistent 10 min mile pace. Around mid-December I started getting horrible shin splints which caused me to overcompensate, starting some knee problems and I had to take a week off. This made me realize that while I wasn’t loving the run, I really missed my runs when I didn’t get one.
Hint: I’m not the lady in the front.
In February I started running with the Jack Quinn’s Running Club and in March, I ran my first real race, the 5k for St. Patrick’s Day (25:13, pace 8:08). I’m really enjoying the running but I am looking for more events to push myself.
Born to Run
Two weeks ago, on the advice of a friend, I picked up the book Born to Run.
Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.
Here is a video of Christopher McDougall talking about Born to Run.
Reading this book really motivated me and my next Quinn’s Run felt great. Unfortunately my shin splints started coming back again and I started to feel the beginning of my knee problems from December. This made me think about Born to Run again, the synopsis on Barnes and Noble starts this way:
Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt?
The underlying story of the book is about why we, as a modern culture, run wrong and what we can do about it. The solution seems to be that we need to ditch our shoes and run with less support.
Barefoot Running
One of the ideas promoted in the book is running barefoot. The basic thought is that we are designed to run long distances and our shoes have been masking feedback and causing injuries for years. The solution is to ditch our shoes and run like our ancestors did. So, I’m going to try this out. And you can follow my progress in my barefoot running category.