A new year, a new me

Hi everybody!

I am a newly unemployed Silicon Valley engineer, of the senior hardware variety. I will try and not bore you with my sad story of losing a good job at a growing company.

I will try to interest you in my new me. I am a man of a certain age that is looking back at my lack of joy and I have decided enough of that. Paid work or not, I am focused on improving my health starting with my physical condition. I have tried many forms of exercise, and found all but one wanting: running.

Running for a couch potato is not easy. My first run will be both short, maybe a city block or less, and quite slow. Why choose running, considering my age, and weight? Well, my overall health is quite good. The basics, like blood pressure, blood panel and the like are all quite good. The reason I am going back to running is what running did for me. I felt free when I ran. I ran for several years in my late 20's and lost weight, built stamina. I just enjoyed the feeling of freedom that came only with running.

So, why did I stop? For reasons many runners know: injuries. I would hurt my back, my knees, my feet. Most of me felt the pain of running on many occasions. I tried as many things as I could come up with to keep me on the road: ice, better shoes, better socks, running on dirt tracks, running on grass. None of this stopped the injury that was sure to happen.

With that background, why in hell would I go back to running? Did I mention I felt free when I ran? This is the only time I have this feeling. Also, I have learned a lot about shoes and their affect on the runner. Humans have run barefoot for, well as long as we have existed until the invention of the shoe and later the running shoe. Our bodies are well optimized for barefoot running. We would not exist today if we needed shoes 100,000 years ago.

How is a tenderfoot like me going to go back to running, a source of joy and pain so long given up, and start over without shoes? Well, I did not say I would run for miles on my first outing. As well as not saying I would not wear protection of a sort. I found a website, http://www.invisibleshoe.com that sells kits and custom "shoes" for barefoot running. This footwear is as close to barefoot as is possible without having the sole of my foot touching the ground. See the website for more information and some videos on the topic.

I now believe the pain I had from running was caused by the pounding I took from heel strike running, the running form most shod runners use. Without the heel strike, I believe I can get back into running.

When I starting running, in my 20's, I would only run in the wee hours of the morning or after dark because I was embarrassed to be seen sucking so much wind and bouncing so much fat. Not only that, but I nearly vomited on my first two or three runs that were only 100 to 200 yards long. But after a number of months, I found I could run a mile or so without feeling like I was killing myself. I actually looked forward to the runs, mostly for stress relief and later for the feeling of freedom.

I suspect my ramp up on mileage will be slower, I will take my time so I can avoid injury. Having almost nothing on my feet does feel good.