I think that I might put the blog on hold.
Here I sit in my home office day after day and the pain in my foot is slowly subsiding. No, I didn’t go to a doctor. I know, I know… I should have gone right away, but I have confidence that this is going to be fine in a week or so.
I won’t do this again. I won’t overdo my miles and risk injury. I am going to let this heal and then run a couple miles and over time gradually increase my mileage. The goal of the Philadelphia ½ marathon in September and the full marathon in November are still viable, but I will not be running 13 miles much before then.
Until I get some major mileage and get closer to my goals, my blog entries will be pretty lame; “I ran to the end of the block and back. The end.” So I am going to keep the bolg page up in case someone stumbles upon it and wants to Facebook friend me or contact me, but I won’t be posting too much.
I know that a couple people have told me they actually have read my entries. I really, really appreciate it! It was fun to write about my initiation into barefoot running.
Keep the faith and get out and run (but not too much too fast)!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Shallow
Hi all... I am sorry for not putting new entries up here. My foot still hurts (especially after walking around Manhattan in dress shoes yesterday) and I can't run. There are so, so many people in the world who are struggling with so many hardships and I feel shallow and petty to feel like this, but WHAAAAA!!! I WANNA RUN!!!!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Ten things I think I think…
1. I think that not being able to run on a beautiful day is cruel and unusual punishment
2. I think that I look like I am 100 years old when I walk around
3. I think that the Broad Street 10 miler on May 2nd is still possible
4. I think that the trucking company who delivered my new pool table today and proceeded to tell me “I can’t get it off the truck, it’s too big” is just ridiculous
5. I think the pork shoulder that I made for dinner last night was JUST as good for lunch today
6. I think that 75 degrees and sunny with a westerly facing deck just totally rocks
7. I think that whoever came up with the Ace Bandage with the little pocket for the ice pack is a smarty pants
8. I think that the guitar part in Joe Walsh’s “The Confessor” is just perfect
9. I think I will still be able to run
10. I think I will keep overdoing everything because that’s just me…..
2. I think that I look like I am 100 years old when I walk around
3. I think that the Broad Street 10 miler on May 2nd is still possible
4. I think that the trucking company who delivered my new pool table today and proceeded to tell me “I can’t get it off the truck, it’s too big” is just ridiculous
5. I think the pork shoulder that I made for dinner last night was JUST as good for lunch today
6. I think that 75 degrees and sunny with a westerly facing deck just totally rocks
7. I think that whoever came up with the Ace Bandage with the little pocket for the ice pack is a smarty pants
8. I think that the guitar part in Joe Walsh’s “The Confessor” is just perfect
9. I think I will still be able to run
10. I think I will keep overdoing everything because that’s just me…..
Saturday, April 3, 2010
The Long Walk
The title of this posting is also a Steven King short story that, in many ways except the deadly ending the King story has, my walk was similar. I set out for my long run about 3:30 in the afternoon yesterday and I have been wondering since then how to chronicle what a disaster it was.
Starting from the beginning, it was a perfect day here in PA. It was 75 degrees and sunny. Perfect. I decided to run without a shirt. Now trust me, I will get ribbed by Erica for making that a part of this story, but this is an important part (plus, I’m sorry, but I like to run without a shirt when it’s warm). I also had my brand new fancy combination handheld water bottle, mini storage pocket thing on my hand and I was ready to go. IPod check. FiveFingers, check.
As soon as I started running I didn’t feel right. My feet seemed to hurt from the run and my issues from the other day, but it wasn’t enough pain to stop, so I kept running. During the first couple miles I was on public roads for 3 miles to the park near me where there is a 7 mile loop and I was trying to remember if there was a turn off on the way to the park to make the run shorter because of my feet. But in the end I decided to keep going and head to the lake.
Around mile 3 I felt better. There was still pain in the right foot every stride, but I was getting a good, loose cadence. Then, as I was on the trail next to the lake about 4 miles into the run it felt like someone shot me in the top of my right foot. Even with my iPod on, blaring Iron Maiden I could swear I heard a pop. White hot, raging pain ran though my body. I was glad that I was on a bit of the trail that was empty at the time because I am sure I looked stupid.
I was 4 miles away from home and I knew I wasn’t running another step and walking didn’t seem like too much fun then either. However, with Erica away camping with her girlfriends and me without my phone anyway, I was hoofing it 4 miles home. Each step elicited a groan or swears as I started to hobble.
After I made it back to the busier part of the trail and then the roads home, I’m sure I looked like an idiot to all the other runners, dog walkers, etc.. Imagine a 6 foot 4 guy with wraparound glasses, omnipresent iPod wires hanging over a shirtless body, black shorts and these black, house slipper looking shoes, limping along cursing with a sweaty contorted face.
I eventually made it home and after a night of thinking about how this will impact my running progress I am not sure where I stand. This morning the foot is swollen and it hurts to walk on it. I am trying not to go into too much detail in this blog entry because I am thinking so many different thoughts right now I would ramble on and on. Bottom line questions are
• I’m I just not made to run?
• Am I running wrong?
• Barefoot running??
Of course I realize this is just an injury, but this is what I am trying to avoid; run, hurt, miss days of running, run again. It’s depressing.
Starting from the beginning, it was a perfect day here in PA. It was 75 degrees and sunny. Perfect. I decided to run without a shirt. Now trust me, I will get ribbed by Erica for making that a part of this story, but this is an important part (plus, I’m sorry, but I like to run without a shirt when it’s warm). I also had my brand new fancy combination handheld water bottle, mini storage pocket thing on my hand and I was ready to go. IPod check. FiveFingers, check.
As soon as I started running I didn’t feel right. My feet seemed to hurt from the run and my issues from the other day, but it wasn’t enough pain to stop, so I kept running. During the first couple miles I was on public roads for 3 miles to the park near me where there is a 7 mile loop and I was trying to remember if there was a turn off on the way to the park to make the run shorter because of my feet. But in the end I decided to keep going and head to the lake.
Around mile 3 I felt better. There was still pain in the right foot every stride, but I was getting a good, loose cadence. Then, as I was on the trail next to the lake about 4 miles into the run it felt like someone shot me in the top of my right foot. Even with my iPod on, blaring Iron Maiden I could swear I heard a pop. White hot, raging pain ran though my body. I was glad that I was on a bit of the trail that was empty at the time because I am sure I looked stupid.
I was 4 miles away from home and I knew I wasn’t running another step and walking didn’t seem like too much fun then either. However, with Erica away camping with her girlfriends and me without my phone anyway, I was hoofing it 4 miles home. Each step elicited a groan or swears as I started to hobble.
After I made it back to the busier part of the trail and then the roads home, I’m sure I looked like an idiot to all the other runners, dog walkers, etc.. Imagine a 6 foot 4 guy with wraparound glasses, omnipresent iPod wires hanging over a shirtless body, black shorts and these black, house slipper looking shoes, limping along cursing with a sweaty contorted face.
I eventually made it home and after a night of thinking about how this will impact my running progress I am not sure where I stand. This morning the foot is swollen and it hurts to walk on it. I am trying not to go into too much detail in this blog entry because I am thinking so many different thoughts right now I would ramble on and on. Bottom line questions are
• I’m I just not made to run?
• Am I running wrong?
• Barefoot running??
Of course I realize this is just an injury, but this is what I am trying to avoid; run, hurt, miss days of running, run again. It’s depressing.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Wheww....
Remain calm… all is well. REMAIN CALM… ALL IS WELL!!
Yes I am channeling a little Kevin Bacon there but that is how I feel this morning. Reading through my last post I feel like such an alarmist. Well, I guess I was my own personal alarmist because everyone I was wining to was saying “you’re fine, it’s nothing”; so nobody was worried except me. But you have to understand that for YEARS I have been in a running / injury / recovery / running again cycle. The pain in my foot is almost gone after two days and it will take every fiber of my being to take one more day off before my planned 12 mile run tomorrow (even though it will be a beautiful day here in South East PA today). So now I can remain calm and say “Thank you sir, may I have another…”
As I continue to scour the web and research this crazy barefoot running thing I am feeling like the last guy to the party. All this time I was the trend setter and the discoverer of this great new theory of running barefoot because I was lucky enough to stumble upon the book “Born to Run” (see my post “Thank you Mr. McDougall”). It was my new cause and I was going to spread the word! Well guess what Ken? The word is already out there. Not that I mind at all. I am thrilled that I have people that I can read about, get ideas from and use as confirmation that I am not insane for going sans running shoes. But as I join these blogs and Facebook groups, I am personally a little embarrassed. “Hey everyone, barefoot running is the greatest…… oh, you already knew that…”
This reminds me of the movie “Silence of the Lambs”. I spent four years in the Navy after high school to rid the demons of partying too much, skipping school too much, ect. The Navy was a great experience and I was lucky enough to have participated in the first Gulf War (yes, I said lucky enough. At the time I never would have said that, but looking back, it was one of the defining times of my life). After 8 months overseas I came home and some buddies and I saw “Silence of the Lambs”. It was such an awesome movie that I told a bunch of people how great it was and that they too should see it. The responses typicaly fell into the “That movie has been out for months and yes, we ALL know it’s great” area.
Maybe I am not the last one to the party, but I am trilled to be joining all of you and I promise to keep spreading the word because I feel sorry for every poor soul I see out on the road bouncing up and down on those silly cushions.
Here are some great sites / people I have found:
http://barefoot-angieb.blogspot.com/
http://barefoot-running.com/blog/
http://www.barefootrunners.org/
http://www.facebook.com/BarefootRunnersSociety
There are others (MANY others) of course, but if you are ‘me two months ago’, these sites and people will be very entertaining and informative.
Yes I am channeling a little Kevin Bacon there but that is how I feel this morning. Reading through my last post I feel like such an alarmist. Well, I guess I was my own personal alarmist because everyone I was wining to was saying “you’re fine, it’s nothing”; so nobody was worried except me. But you have to understand that for YEARS I have been in a running / injury / recovery / running again cycle. The pain in my foot is almost gone after two days and it will take every fiber of my being to take one more day off before my planned 12 mile run tomorrow (even though it will be a beautiful day here in South East PA today). So now I can remain calm and say “Thank you sir, may I have another…”
As I continue to scour the web and research this crazy barefoot running thing I am feeling like the last guy to the party. All this time I was the trend setter and the discoverer of this great new theory of running barefoot because I was lucky enough to stumble upon the book “Born to Run” (see my post “Thank you Mr. McDougall”). It was my new cause and I was going to spread the word! Well guess what Ken? The word is already out there. Not that I mind at all. I am thrilled that I have people that I can read about, get ideas from and use as confirmation that I am not insane for going sans running shoes. But as I join these blogs and Facebook groups, I am personally a little embarrassed. “Hey everyone, barefoot running is the greatest…… oh, you already knew that…”
This reminds me of the movie “Silence of the Lambs”. I spent four years in the Navy after high school to rid the demons of partying too much, skipping school too much, ect. The Navy was a great experience and I was lucky enough to have participated in the first Gulf War (yes, I said lucky enough. At the time I never would have said that, but looking back, it was one of the defining times of my life). After 8 months overseas I came home and some buddies and I saw “Silence of the Lambs”. It was such an awesome movie that I told a bunch of people how great it was and that they too should see it. The responses typicaly fell into the “That movie has been out for months and yes, we ALL know it’s great” area.
Maybe I am not the last one to the party, but I am trilled to be joining all of you and I promise to keep spreading the word because I feel sorry for every poor soul I see out on the road bouncing up and down on those silly cushions.
Here are some great sites / people I have found:
http://barefoot-angieb.blogspot.com/
http://barefoot-running.com/blog/
http://www.barefootrunners.org/
http://www.facebook.com/BarefootRunnersSociety
There are others (MANY others) of course, but if you are ‘me two months ago’, these sites and people will be very entertaining and informative.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Pain
I ran the 7 mile loop around Peace Valley Park after work yesterday. It was a dark, wet day and it was almost closing time (dusk) at the park so there was hardly anyone there. It was so beautiful and peaceful just me and the geese, feeling great, pounding the pavement. Maybe I shouldn’t have been pounding so hard.
At the 6 mile mark I felt a twinge in my left foot. My weeks of barefoot running bliss wouldn’t allow my brain to process this as a bad thing, but it WAS there. Obviously I kept going and finished the run feeling fine. However this morning’s first step on that foot sent a (glup) sharp pain straight into my brain. Oh nooooo…. Please don’t tell me this is happening! I admit that I am a drama queen from time to time, but dear lord don’t let everything that I have been reading about and experiencing while barefoot running be wrong and not work for me.
I am not going to freak out. I am going to take a couple Tylenol and start today’s work. I am going to think positive thoughts and hope that this is just a small pull or something. This Friday is going to be a beautiful day in the Chalfont PA area and I plan on taking a l0 mile run. I WILL BE OK by then……. RIGHT?!?!
At the 6 mile mark I felt a twinge in my left foot. My weeks of barefoot running bliss wouldn’t allow my brain to process this as a bad thing, but it WAS there. Obviously I kept going and finished the run feeling fine. However this morning’s first step on that foot sent a (glup) sharp pain straight into my brain. Oh nooooo…. Please don’t tell me this is happening! I admit that I am a drama queen from time to time, but dear lord don’t let everything that I have been reading about and experiencing while barefoot running be wrong and not work for me.
I am not going to freak out. I am going to take a couple Tylenol and start today’s work. I am going to think positive thoughts and hope that this is just a small pull or something. This Friday is going to be a beautiful day in the Chalfont PA area and I plan on taking a l0 mile run. I WILL BE OK by then……. RIGHT?!?!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The $20 apple
I ran 4 miles at lunch today; felt great. I still have no pain. It is so amusing to me that I continue to gauge my pain after runs. My assumption is that someday (hopefully soon) I will embrace the fact that this new running style really is good for me and I wont have to expect pain. But for now, I am still cautious. I am Optimistic, but cautious; in other words, cautiously optimistic. Hehe….
I am going to start doing some timing runs to see where I am at in terms of upcoming races I want to register for (Philadelphia Broad Street 10 miler coming up in May!). I’ll keep you posted!
During my run I was pondering a subject that I read about on-line this morning that has been in the news for the past couple of years.
Bees. Or I should say the lack of them.
Erica likes to tease me and call me narcissistic and the most anti “green” person she knows. I am not dumping toxic waste into our back yard from some hidden chemical plant we have hidden in our basement, but I am not the one you will see out on the highway picking up cans on Earth Day either. One of the darker jokes I like to make is that as long as the earth stays in tact for the next 50 years or so, I am good. Of course I AM KIDDING! I am kidding… I have children and I want to leave them and their children with a stable, clean world. By the way, I realize that this slight indifference to environmentalism flies in the face of this new “lets all act like prehistoric man and run and eat an BE natural”. Maybe I am growing as a person.
My point to all of this is that not much really bothers me. I know right from wrong and live my life as cleanly as possible but news that “global warming this” and “Russian nuclear fallout” that; these things never seem to bother me much. But the lack of bees really, really bothers me.
If you don’t know, scientists have realized that the honey bee population in our country (and I guess the world) has fallen drastically and continues to fall. There are theories as to why (pesticides, etc) but nobody has definitively figured the problem out. This problem is huge as honey bees provide the pollination for 1/3 of our food supply. Can you imagine 1/3 of the supermarket either empty OR paying huge amounts of money for items that we take for granted now. The reason that this bothers me so much is that all these other problems that the world has (most of them at least (global warming, etc)) I assume some really, really smart people will eventually figure out how to solve. But this bee thing is baffling and looks to be headed, quickly, to the point of no return.
So will my grandson or granddaughter have to pay $20 for a piece of the ultra rare fruit called “the apple”?
I am going to start doing some timing runs to see where I am at in terms of upcoming races I want to register for (Philadelphia Broad Street 10 miler coming up in May!). I’ll keep you posted!
During my run I was pondering a subject that I read about on-line this morning that has been in the news for the past couple of years.
Bees. Or I should say the lack of them.
Erica likes to tease me and call me narcissistic and the most anti “green” person she knows. I am not dumping toxic waste into our back yard from some hidden chemical plant we have hidden in our basement, but I am not the one you will see out on the highway picking up cans on Earth Day either. One of the darker jokes I like to make is that as long as the earth stays in tact for the next 50 years or so, I am good. Of course I AM KIDDING! I am kidding… I have children and I want to leave them and their children with a stable, clean world. By the way, I realize that this slight indifference to environmentalism flies in the face of this new “lets all act like prehistoric man and run and eat an BE natural”. Maybe I am growing as a person.
My point to all of this is that not much really bothers me. I know right from wrong and live my life as cleanly as possible but news that “global warming this” and “Russian nuclear fallout” that; these things never seem to bother me much. But the lack of bees really, really bothers me.
If you don’t know, scientists have realized that the honey bee population in our country (and I guess the world) has fallen drastically and continues to fall. There are theories as to why (pesticides, etc) but nobody has definitively figured the problem out. This problem is huge as honey bees provide the pollination for 1/3 of our food supply. Can you imagine 1/3 of the supermarket either empty OR paying huge amounts of money for items that we take for granted now. The reason that this bothers me so much is that all these other problems that the world has (most of them at least (global warming, etc)) I assume some really, really smart people will eventually figure out how to solve. But this bee thing is baffling and looks to be headed, quickly, to the point of no return.
So will my grandson or granddaughter have to pay $20 for a piece of the ultra rare fruit called “the apple”?
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