In 1995 I took up running by accident.\u00a0 I wanted to buy a Nordic Track and, as my wife will attest, I have this horrible habit of buying stuff with the best of intentions and then having them turn into fantastic dust collectors.\u00a0 So I told myself if I got up every morning and went for a walk (for a full month) I’d go buy the machine.\u00a0 Well the walk itself became fun.\u00a0 One day I decided to jog the last 1\/10th of a mile of my 3 mile walk route.\u00a0 After a few weeks I was running the whole thing.\u00a0 The rest is history, as they say.\u00a0 Since that time I’ve done countless races, including one half-marathon.\u00a0 Running truly has become an integral part of my life.<\/p>\n
In 2006 I started having hip pain.\u00a0 I’d had my share of running injuries through the years but I’d never felt this before.\u00a0 Getting resolution of that problem has put me on a path that I still haven’t come out of.\u00a0 At first the docs thought it was a bad disk in my back.\u00a0 Then they concluded I had a tendon issue in the hip.\u00a0 Then they concluded it was Piriformis Syndrome.\u00a0 At one point the belief was that my rigid orthotics, which I’d worn for seven years, might be causing the problems.\u00a0 Getting rid of those set off a raging case of Plantar Fasciitis that I’m just now getting over.\u00a0 I truly hated getting out of bed in the morning.\u00a0 I’d limp around for a while as things loosened up.\u00a0 At that point running wasn’t even a consideration – I could hardly walk.\u00a0 My new flexible orthotics made things feel better.\u00a0 I had to wear my motion control shoes full time and, slowly, with time, things started feeling better.\u00a0 I’d try running – but I could never really kick that last bit of pain.\u00a0 I couldn’t even come close to getting back to my “normal” 20-25 mpw running volume.<\/p>\n
In the Fall of 2009 I read two books that completely changed my perspective:\u00a0 Born To Run by Chris McDougall and The Pose Method of Running by Dr. Nicholas Romanov.\u00a0 I made a conscious decision to get out of my orthotics, get out of the motion control shoes, let my (incredibly flat) feet move more and get stronger, and adopt the Pose method of running.\u00a0 I hired a Pose coach and in January 2010 was able to successfully get out of my orthotics and big clunky shoes.<\/p>\n
I want to use barefoot running for two very specific purposes.\u00a0 First, I see it as a fantastic way to build the strength of my feet.\u00a0 I’ve currently only done a few barefoot runs but I can definitely tell it helps the feet.\u00a0 Second, I see barefooting as a great way to get immediate feedback on my form.\u00a0 The first couple of runs were on concrete and both times I got a minor hot spot on one toe.\u00a0 Most recently I did a barefoot run on a local running track and that was much more damaging.\u00a0 When I sat down to put my shoes back on what I thought was a hot spot was actually a blister that had already been rubbed off and was bleeding nicely.\u00a0 Well – I said I wanted feedback on my form and I guess I got it!<\/p>\n
Jim<\/p>\n
Re:\u00a0 Haselsmasher:\u00a0 When I was a teenager I played a lot of racquetball.\u00a0 I had a reputation for hitting the ball very hard.\u00a0 The first time I played with a good friend of mine he took some liberty with my last name and labeled me Haselsmasher.\u00a0 We’re still friends – and he still calls me that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 1995 I took up running by accident.\u00a0 I wanted to buy a Nordic Track and, as my wife will attest, I have this horrible habit of buying stuff with the best of intentions and then having them turn into fantastic dust collectors.\u00a0 So I told myself if I got up every morning and went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-barefoot-running-diaries","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":630,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627\/revisions\/630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}