Adventures In Barefoot Running Part II

I wrote in a previous post that I went for a 3 mile run in my Vibram Five Fingers on a beach in SC. I also mentioned I had a stiff Achilles the following day. That day turned into a week, and the week turned into a couple months.

After turning up the intensity on my training, my achilles became more and more sore. While a good warm up took away most of the pain during my runs, the morning after was a-whole-nother story. After spending the day after my CrazyLegs Run in pain I reached out to a friend of mine that is a Physical Therapist.

She suggested a strict regiment of rest and ice. What!? Rest!? That's outrageous! It's a diagnosis most runners fear, taking time off. I've now gone over a week without running and I am going a bit stir crazy. Today we had a wonderful rain storm that made me want to throw on an old pair of shoes and go sloshing around in the rain.

Instead I am spending some quality time with a bag of frozen peas and a bag of frozen corn. I want rest and get over this injury but with my Ragnar Relay just a few weeks away I feel like I'm fighting the battle of rest vs. training. Hopefully any one considering a minimalist style of running will learn that taking it slow is obviously the most important thing.

My Journey

How the hell did I get hooked on this sport...

It all started with some college friends of mine wanting to reunite for the Crazy Legs Classic, a 5 mile race in Madison, WI put on the by the UW Badger Athletic program. After a few years of training a month before the race then giving up, something weird happened.

I started to enjoy running. Desperately in need of a transformation I decided to give it a try. I had the shoes, I had some running clothes, so why not? I found when I pushed myself to run farther and faster by body responded surprisingly well. The dormant athlete inside of me was just waiting to be awaken. Granted, I am no where near as fit as I once was, but I have made huge gains in very little time.

So why did I need a change? I was a 3 sport athlete in High School. Constantly at a practice or running around playing sports with my friends. Then college came. I replaced pitching with pitchers. I went from dominating 4 quarters at a time to dominating AT quarters. I went from taking 3 point shots to Jaeger shots. You get the idea.

So my 185 lbs. quickly climbed to 230 by the time I left college. Then it was off to the real world. Maybe I would leave most of that binge drinking behind and get back into shape. Well I did slow down on my drinking quite a bit. But a new obstacle was ahead of me, an endless supply of bacon.

I know what you are thinking. What the hell is this guy complaining about? He has every mans dream, 60 varieties of Bacon at his disposal whenever he feels like it. And I am talking good bacon too. Not just the regular kind; Applewood smoked, Nitrite Free, Honey Cured, Maple Pepper, Cob smoked, Pecanwood Smoked, Jalapeno, Sugar Cured, thick, thin, anything. Basically all the designer bacon you see in your high end bistros and breakfast nooks.

And it's my job to eat that on a daily basis. About 4 times a year I spend an entire day standing next to a bottomless tray of warm delicious bacon. I have to sell it to chefs and sampling is apart of the sales pitch. But it's not just Bacon. Pulled Pork, Brisket, Sausage, Pot Roast, Proscuitto, Salami, etc. Basically if there is something that can take years off your life, we probably sell it. And on top of that I spend about 15 hours a week sitting in my car driving to and from accounts.

So my 230 at college slowly climbed to 249. I dug in my heals. I refused to hit the 250 lb. mark. It was just a symbolic number that woke me up and told me I needed a drastic change. I started to log my calories to get an idea of how much I was eating in a day 3,500 calories on average.

Something had to change. That something was me!