How I Came to Love Running May 3, 2010

When I was in middle school I considered it the cruelest thing to be made to run the 1-mile run around the track in gym. Those were the worst 4 laps of my life and seemed like so much! After a few attempts (which ended in a shameful time that I chose to forget, let alone mention) I decided I wanted to start running. My father, pumped about the idea, decided to help me in my goal.

Behind my house are many winding wooden trails that take you by old foundations. This is where I started running. I wanted to get more in shape, even when I was in seventh grade, and wanted to be like the girls I would see running on the side of the road. My dad and I started running small loops in the woods (which completely killed me when I first started). Gradually I increased the distance I would run, with my dad’s help of course.

Soon my family invested in a treadmill. I made it my new goal to run at least 1 mile a day on it during the winter months. We had it positioned right in front of the TV. Soon I began picking out a 30 minute show to watch and trying to run the whole time.

As an impulse I jointed the cross-country team my freshmen year of high school. It was one of the hardest things I had done. My body wasn’t use to the speed workouts or hill drills or 5 mile runs. I would leave totally beat! I hated and love it though. I hated it while I was running (especially up a steep hill; which we had a particularly bad one we called “the wall”) but loved the feeling of being done and knowing I had accomplished something. My first huge race was one I will never forget. It was considered a very hard course, characterized by a lot of hills. It was raining, windy, cold, and muddy. They had to reroute a few of the trails because the mud was so bad. Within 5 minutes of the start of the race my legs were numb and bright red due to the cold and wind. On the last stretch (up a long and gradual grass hill) my shoes almost were coming off because of the wet grass. I used my toes to grip them on and tried to give it all I had. I finished and it was the best feeling ever (even though I felt like I was going to puke).

After my first year in cross-country I was able to kill the 1-mile run in gym and started running a 5k race that took place near my grandparents on the 4th of July. Before long I realized I was hooked. I would go running for 30-45 minutes in a game refugee we have in my hometown that has a lot of wooded trails. All through high school I increased my endurance, maximal oxygen uptake, tolerance for high-intensity exercises,  and my love for running. Before I knew it I was running for an hour at least either through the woods or on the road.

Today, when the weather is good, I try to run at least 6-7 miles or at least for an hour. I love the feeling of release and freedom it gives me. My favorite thing is to run on Saturday mornings when the rest of the campus is quiet. My running shoes and ipod are two of my favorite things I own. One of the things about running that I love is that you can do it almost anywhere. Deciding to start running was a life-long commitment and huge change in my life that I consider one of the best derisions I’ve made.

Barefoot Running: What is it? February 17, 2010

Running barefoot has been gaining a lot of attention in the past few years. For most running barefoot is a new and unheard of concept, while for many it is a way of life that has improved health and well-being. Barefoot running has been associated with deceased acute ankle and chronic lower-extremity injuries.  There are many well-known elite athletes that participate in barefoot funning, such as Zola Budd-Pieterse and Abebe Bikila. The idea is that running barefoot is more organic to the humans because we evolved from organisms who did not use shoes to support their foot. When an individual runs with shoes the biomechanics is much different than when the individual runs without shoes. Barefoot running requires more of a vertical prancing-like motion forward. Shoe running concentrates on the horizontal push-off phase of the run when the toes propels the body forward. Therefore, barefoot running is not meant for speed but rather for endurance and distance. The argument for barefoot running activists is that the foot is designed to absorb the shock of hitting the ground and flex to compensate for various ground surfaces. Shoes are argued to not do this as effectively and lead to many acute and chronic injuries such as ankle sprains and shin splints. This is said to be due to the individual not being fully aware of the position of the foot and an increase in twisting torque on the ankle when the foot becomes unstable during a trip or stumble.

Additionally, running with shoes has been shown to increase the energy cost of running. This is said to be because of the increased mass that the shoe causes when on the foot. Therefore barefoot running requires less energy for the same amount of work when running with shoes. Athletes have used this concept to increase performance.

With any sport, however, one cannot simply jump right into an intensive routine. An individual must gradually introduce barefoot running into their physical activity by starting with 30 minutes daily. This allows for the sole to thickening and the muscles and ligaments to strengthen and adapt to the new biomechanics that barefoot running presents. This adaptive process on average takes about 3-4 weeks. However, it will vary with different people.

Warburton, Michael. Barefoot Running. Ed. Will Hopkins. December 2001. Gateway Physiotherapy. 15 Febuary 2010 <http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0103/mw.htm&gt;.