Running

Well, turns out I am doing some training.

Today I rode my bike up to the local track, where I did a short run. Easing into training for the PCT, I only ran about a mile, with some walking interspersed. I admit I'm far out of shape. I'm also running barefoot, so I have to take it easy till my feet adapt to the rough surfaces after about 2 years in shoes. I do this because it cured my knee pain and horrible shin splints that always accompanied running for me.

I'll explain that a bit. Shoes, it turns out, are bad for the feet and body. They change the biomechanics of walking and running, what with their raised, cushioned heels, motion control, and arch support. Firstly, arches support themselves, that's the beauty of them. The more you load them the stronger they get, which goes for feet as well, or would if people ever exercised their feet naturally. Also, the cushioned heel allows us to land on the heel, rather than the midfoot as is natural (don't believe me? Run barefoot on a hard surface and your body will prove that to you: heel strikes HURT). Landing on the balls of the feet allow you to use a shorter stride and a spring motion, rather than slamming on the brakes with every step, your straight leg out in front of you the perfect conduit for shock and trauma. Barefoot, you run softly, not jarringly. Impact is far less. As for motion control, I'll control my own motion as needed, thank you very much.

Here's a couple cool videos about the benefits of barefoot running, for those who appreciate science over the emotional knee jerk reaction against being shoeless:

http://physicalliving.com/the-barefoot-professor-putting-his-money-where-his-mouth-is/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnwIKZhrdt4&feature=related

This shouldn't be a big surprise to people who know me: my trail name on the AT was "Moccasin" for walking a couple weeks in moccasins, due to my poor choice in hiking shoes. They didn't fit right, and tore my feet up (about a dozen big blisters and the (slow) loss of a toenail). I've long been a barefooter and shoe-iconoclast. On my first real backpacking trip, in the Porcupine Mountains with my dad, I went barefoot.

Anyways, this isn't meant to be a post about barefooting, but about running. I'm pretty out of shape, and though I don't know where the motivation came from, I'm glad it came. I'd forgotten how much I need physical activity to be happy. If I don't work hard enough to sweat several times a week, something is wrong in my life. This may explain why I've felt rather depressed and non-vital this winter.

It will take a while before I can say this is a truly enjoyable thing, because I've been lazy as hell the last 5 months, and had gotten really soft, especially cardiovascularly. But already on this my second run, I feel better than the first. My body is rejoicing at the blood flow, muscle burn and sweating out of poisons, thrilled at this remembering of the iron of my life.