Five fingers

As a quick reminder I am not switching to the five fingers for a little while. I wanted to have something to compare them to with actual footware and I had difficulty getting a pair at the time.
Originally I was planning on getting KSOs in December, however I may be buying a pair later than that because of:

Look at them. They are so damn sexy. Named the Bikila after the man who won the gold medal/set the world record in the Olympic marathon barefoot back in 1960, they are the first fivefingers made for running.
I truly wanted to be running in fivefingers from the get go, but the was just impractical. I figured December was a good goal because that would give me a chance to save up money to buy a pair and give me a chance to go out to Boston and go to a store were I could try them on in person. However I am going to wait until the Bikila comes out because I am in school and money is tight. I can only get one pair and I will wait.

Big thanks to Birthday Shoes for the info/picture. If it weren't for you I would have bought a pair of KSO and then felt very depressed that I would be unable to buy the Bikilas when they came out. Many many thanks for that.
To go to birhtday shoes and read a much better blog please click the link:
birthdayshoes/better blog

Is it normal to hit the wall after two minutes of running?

My wife is coming down with a cold so she was unable to run with me this morning. This lead to me out in the cold air and strong wind wishing I was at home in my warm bed while my wife was wishing she was out in the cold air and strong wind while she was at home in my warm bed.


Being out alone inspired me to challenge myself. I walked to the running path and jogged to the first bench and stretched, per normal. I did a few short jog mixed with walking, per normal. I then decided that I wanted to see if I could jog for a full 5 minutes without stopping.


My doubts started with my ankles. They were the first to respond to this endeavor by sending signals to my brain that they were tired and this was not possible. This feeling grew from my ankles up the front of my shins to my knees. My thighs were not as traitorous and continued to tell me this was possible throughout the attempt; they shall be rewarded for their loyalty. My hips, on the other hand, were just as unhelpful as my knees and ankles. True they held out longer, but by 2 minutes in to my five minutes I had the majority of my lower body telling me that this could not be done.


My upperbody did not give up, so much as cave from the lack of support from my mutinous lower half. I was no longer standing up straight, so much as leaning and slumping over. My hips had decided that since I wasn't going to give up the running challenge it would save energy by not supporting my upper body. This made breathing a little more challenging and my lungs begged me to give in to my hips demands. But I had one minute and thirty seconds to go, I would not quit.


I am proud that I made it the full five minutes, but I am not gonna lie: It was neither pleasant nor fun and I felt like shit when I finished. But I was not finished, I walked to cool off, and then timed how long it took me to run a half mile. 1 min 30 seconds. I was impressed. I think that is a good time (though it makes me question the mile markers on this trail) and I was happy to see that my lower body has a little more faith in me after our success of the five minute run. I did not feel nearly as crappy at the end of that run.

Still doing this

Ran Saturday and Sunday. My legs are still tired. I am still tired.
There is this claim that you will feel an increase in energy if you exercise. I am waiting for this to happen. I know my bodies needs to adjust to this new demand and my strength needs to increase before this new energy can be found, but I could really use it.

Its starting to get cold here, anyone have any advice on clothing I should buy for cold weather running. I know layers, but I am looking for more specific. The things that cover just the ears vs. whole head, putting compression pants underneath shorts, gloves. Let me know brands suck and don't suck.

While my feet my not need the support from shoes, my wife needs the support of her husband.

It was an interesting reversal of rolls this morning and an easy one to observe. We woke up at the crack of dawn for our first morning of running. Now earlier it was my wife that was insistent that we started running and I was the one who was, quite literally, dragging his feet. This morning when the alarm went off, I was the insistent one and my wife wanted to stay in our warm cozy bed. I did not face nearly the difficulties convincing her to get up that she face convincing me to run, but it was odd encouraging us to do something that I have vehemently opposed.

The roll of encourager/engcouragee shifted yet again after we started running, back into it's more natural position. As we started to run my wife perked up and said how happy she was I got her out of bed and how great it was to be running this morning. I, on the other hand, started to think "dear god why I am doing this to my poor body? What the hell was I thinking? I had an out! I could have said, "okay honey, lets stay in bed and get some much needed rest." But the truth is I could not have said that. She was relying on me to encourage her; carry my weight. It would have been a colossal disappointment to her if we did not run this morning. Not just a disappointment in me for not waking her up, but a disappointment in us not following through on what we said we were going to do. Plus, if we didn't run this morning than she probably would have forced us to run this afternoon and I wanted to get it over with.

Waking up was an odd experience. I was tired. I have been tired for awhile now because the recent spike in my course work in law school. In fact, I distinctly asked my wife to hold off on the running thing for the next few weeks so I can get through this increase in course load. The fact that I am writing this lets you know what her answer was. But I am glad she didn't listen to me, I am sure I would have had another excuse the next time she brought it up. But this morning was an odd experience in my state of energy. Getting out of bed, heading downstairs, putting on shoes: I felt like hell the whole time and my body was begging for more sleep. The moment I stepped outside, however, I was awake. It was like my body was having the equivalent of a little kids fake temper tantrum: the moment it realized it wasn't going to get what it wanted and this wasn't working, its stopped complaining.

As for my shoes: They are alright. There shoes. I have been wearing shoes my whole life. These have a lot more cushion on the bottom and truth be told, not a fan of that. I feel like I am running on sponges. I know a lot of barefooters and nearly barefooters talk about how they like the feel of the ground and the importance of you foot knowing what to do when it hits the ground, but I don't know dick about that so don't think this is why I am complaining about the cushion. I normally wear a chuck taylor style of footwear, which has plenty thick soles that prevent and real feeling to get through. But this morning it felt like somebody stuck rubber pillows in the bottoms of my shoes. Plus some of the padding was rubbing the inside of my left foot wrong, but that is probably because of these shoes being so cheap. Over all no real body pain to speak off. Knees didn't/don't hurt, neither do my feet or ankles. Tired: yes, sore: yes. But that is par for the course of exercise. Still felt uncomfortable though.

Over all verdict:
Running: hate it
mornings: nice when they aren't cold
Wife: still love her

Full of hatered. Mostly directed at running.

I hate running; always have. I hated running the bases in baseball, I hated running in soccer, I hated running in my sad attempt at playing lacrosse, I hated running in gym class. I hated gym class the most. We had to run for five minutes straight and I thought it was torture. I hated it so much that I memorized Monty Python song Oliver Cromwell which took exactly 5 minutes for me to sing so that I wouldn't have to run one second longer than I had to; it also helped me pass history class. I hated running the timed mile at the end of the semester, I hated how the person keeping track of my laps lost count and tried to make me run an extra lap for the timed mile. I hated that I got sent to the principal's office for telling that person to eat shit and die.

I loved that gym class was the last time I would have to run. Once I finished fall semester of my Sophomore year I never ran again; I have yet to run for more than a mile straight. I did other things to keep in shape: Rock climbing, lifting weights, martial arts. So long as it didn't involve running, I was down. The last time I ran was over ten years ago.

So why the change?

There are only two things I hate more than running: Spinach and the fact that I hate running. I know, and have always known, running is really good for you; its one of the best damn exercises you can do. I was always jealous of those who got up in the morning for a 3 mile jog and were able to finish said jog without feeling like they were going to die. I just figured something aren't for everyone and running just wasn't for me.

This opinion started to change after reading Running After Antelope by Scott Carrier (which was also the first time I heard of the Tarahumara, but more on that later). The book covers a lot of material and worth reading if you have not already. It introduced me to the theory that we evolved to run upright on two legs so we could have more control over our breathing while we run. This allowed us to run further than four legged animals and the theory of Scott (and his brother) was that humans would chase down prey until they were too tired to run away. Enter the Tarahumara, who claim to do exactly that. This book, despite Bruce Springsteen's best efforts, convinced me that we were born to run. Made to run. Running is what we do. Running was/is for me and everyone. But then why did I hate it?

I didn't like how it felt. Not the tired, ache-y, short of breath feeling. Don't get me wrong I am no big fan of that feeling either, but I got that feeling rock climbing and lifting weights; its not that big of a deal. I hated the feeling when my feet hit the ground, how my legs felt as I propelled forward, I hated how my body physically reacted to running. It was around this time that barefoot running started showing up in my life. It was mentioned in the Carrier's book, it was on NPR and it just showed up here and there. But I was living in LA and I did not want to run barefoot there. Or anywhere for that matter. I just didn't like the idea of cutting up my feet.

So what brings this up now?

So far I have been lucky with my metabolism and have been able to stay fit with little effort. But now that I am older that is starting to change. Also, I am going to be applying for a military position soon and if I get it I know I am going to have to do a lot of running in boot camp so I might as well get used to it now. And the most pressing of reasons: My wife wanted to start running. So starting tomorrow this life long hater of running is going to give it another shot.

So why is this blog called Running Barefoot-ish? You clearly stated you don't like the idea of cutting up your feet.

Today on the bus I was going through m.npr.org on my smart phone and I came across this story: A shoe for barefoot runners. For those of you too lazy to click the link the shoe is basically toe socks with a rubber bottom. Now after reading a lot of reviews from barefoot runners they all say that these shoes are as close to actual barefoot running that you can get without going barefoot.

So here's the run down of what this blog is about. I am going to start running in a cheap pair of regular running shoes. This is for three reasons: 1. I want something as close to a control as I can get 2. I want to experience that feeling again so when I switch to the vibram I have something to compare it to 3. When I went to order the vibram from the website they were out of stock.

Come December I plan on having a pair of vibrams of my very own and will start my venture into the world of barefoot-ish running. This blog is to track my progress, give an honest assessment of this growing trend in running from a true beginners perspective and to discourage me from quiting by making my failure more public.

Tomorrow's the first day and I am spending tonight re-memorizing the lyrics to Oliver Cromwell. Wish me luck!