Tough Guys Finish Last

Probably the most important thing to enjoying running throughout your life, or to being an excellent competitive runner (if that's your goal) is to have as few injuries as possible. Injuries are ridiculously common among runners. You might as well classify it as an extreme sport. Running injuries often take you out of the game for weeks or months. I have discovered a secret for remaining injury free that was hidden in plain sight from me. Don't be tough.

About a year ago, I was going for a very short run in my neighborhood. I was only running for maybe a mile or two and I wasn't pushing too hard. I started to feel a pain in my knee. I thought to myself that I'd better be cautious so I'll just finish this run and then take the next day off. Wrong answer. I couldn't get the pain to go away for quite some time. I can't tell you how many times I've told myself "I'll just finish this run." In my experience, backing off right away or even walking home if necessary can save you from being out for a week or more.

The moral of the story is to listen to your body. This is a fantastic opportunity to plug barefoot running, so I can't resist. Shoes do a fantastic job of blocking pain, but not such a fantastic job of preventing injury. That pain is our body trying to tell us what to do to remain injury free and when we wear shoes we don't get that communication. If I had to summarize what barefoot running is all about, that is it. Barefoot running enables you to hear what your feet are telling you.

If you don't want to run barefoot (and I assume that's most people), don't miss the message. You can still listen to your body when something hurts. Work on your discipline to slow down or stop when your body is telling you to. You'll gain a lot more miles by being injury free than you'll lose by cutting a few runs short.

Barefoot Running = P90X for you Calves

When you start running barefoot, you will feel it in your calves. If I understand correctly, this is because you get a lot more motion in your stride. Your toes will actually bend back, you'll flex your arch, you elastic achilles will stretch (and in doing so preserve energy from one step to the next) and, finally, your calves will be totally destroyed...at least until they get used to it.

I've read in many places that a great way to get in some good barefoot running (especially as a beginner, but not limited to that) is to run on grass. I don't have much grass to run on nearby to my office or my house so I've never really done that much. Surprisingly I usually run barefoot on sidewalks and roads. I'd run barefoot on trails, but I just can't handle it. Maybe one day my feet will get used to it, but at least for now, it's just not fun and I run for fun so you do the math. Anyway, I finally did a long run on grass today and WOW, that reminded me of what it was like to first start running barefoot. It is really exhausting for your calves. What a good workout.

So, I took a long time to make my point, but if you want a killer calf workout, run barefoot on grass.

Running at Work

Like many people, my job can be a bit stressful sometimes. Eight or so hours a day completely focused can be enough to make me go crazy. This has made me appreciate running even more. Going for a run during my lunch hour is a great opportunity to let my mind relax and get the blood flowing. It makes for a much more productive last-half-of-the-day.

My work is located in Park City, Utah. For those who don't know, this is a mountainous area. There are endless beautiful trails, at least when they're not covered in snow. A few trails are accessible by just running directly from my office. Others are just a short drive. I couldn't be more lucky. I don't live in Park City. It's about a 40 minute commute to get there and I used to dread it. But over the years I have come to appreciate working in such a beautiful place.

I went on a run last week that was a fantastic example. I generally like to keep my running gear at work because I don't always know when I'll get a chance to go. When my schedule is open for a run, I can be on the trail in just a few minutes. I chose to run the Glen Wild loop. It's a beautiful single track on fairly dry terrain that is graciously maintained by the private neighborhood which contains it (called Glen Wild, in case you couldn't guess). Only, on this day it wasn't so dry. I was slipping a sliding in places, but managed to keep my feet under me. I like to run in this area because there is a whole spiderweb of trails there, providing lots of different distance options, plus it's close to work. You can just head out with no idea how far you want to go and just figure out a route as you go.

After going on a run like this, I come back to work and I literally have to think for a second to remember what I was working on. Just another reason to love running.

What is this blog?

About a year ago, I read a book called "Born to Run" which encourages barefoot running, among other things. I have loved running for almost my whole life and it sounded fun to give it a try. I have had my share of running injuries. It seems that some part of me breaks at least once a year. In fact, at the time I read "Born to Run" I was unable to run because of a small tear in my left meniscus. So, natrually, I hoped to have some fantastic results, but that wasn't the only reason to try barefoot running. I just love running and I thought it would be fun to try it barefoot.

Over the past year I have had a fantastic time barefoot running. I have been injury free and having fun. I'm not claiming that barefoot running will keep you injury free. There could be other factors in play. But, I do know that I feel good for one reason or another and that I've had a blast feeling the earth beneath my feet.

I really don't want to write some big long post trying to convert everyone to barefoot running. I just wanted to introduce the blog a bit. So, with that, I'm done.