Random Running Thoughts for Early January 2010

Whoa! That was my first reaction when I saw the Vibram Five Fingers print ad in the January issue of Runner’s World magazine. Most subscribers have probably seen it already and I’m wondering what their reactions were. Me, I’m just catching up on reading it since I got my copy in the first week of December. For those who haven’t seen it yet, what I’m talking about can be found between page 48 and 49. Damn! There is a nekkid woman in a running magazine(please don’t correct my misspelling, it’s intentional)! I wanted to scan it to show here but it was a foldout page that was too big. Ok, I found the pics and here it is:

As runners, do you care how much you eat or just go for broke because you know you can run off the calories anyway? We know that running gives us the most bang for buck in terms of calorie burn. Well, how about when you cannot run due to injury, weather or whatever? What would you do then? Other types of workouts don’t seem to do the same job as running does. Regardless of what type of activity you do, there are no shortcuts. You still need to put in the time and effort.

While searching for new ways to deal with posterior tibialis tendon problems, I found a $40.00 over the counter rigid orthotic that looks and feels almost exactly the same as my $250.00 prescription orthotics. However it’s thermoplastic instead of graphite composite. Still, that’s a big difference in price. No wonder health insurance companies don’t pay for sports orthotics – because you might find non-prescription ones that might work or a pedorthist can make adjustments to it to fit your foot condition better.

Last Christmas was my 30^th here in the U.S. which coincides to the number of years I’ve been running. Running was the sport that enabled me to immigrate to this country after all. Thank you running and thank you U.S.A for taking me in.

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Barefoot Memories, etc.

The recent interest in barefoot running reminded me of when I was growing up. Only the poor people and the TG’s (tau gimba or rural folks who live in the distant mountains) went barefoot because they couldn’t afford to buy proper footwear, not even the ubiquitous thongs or flip flops that everyone seem to own in the Philippines. If I only knew that going barefoot would strengthen my feet and surrounding tendons better, I would have joined my more unfortunate neighbors when we played together. Of course my parents wouldn’t have allowed it, God forbid! So here I am now, a flat footed individual with foot tendon problems who could barely run or jog anymore. Even if I grew up walking and running barefoot, I’m sure I would have outgrown it soon. That brings us to today. I’ve been trying to walk barefoot indoors and around my condo complex the past few weeks and not surprisingly, I have been getting questioning stares from people that see me. Obviously they haven’t read or heard about the book - Born To Run. I don’t expect myself to be running barefoot since the tendon damage in my ankles is unhealable. My purpose is just to improve the proprioception of my feet and the hopefully strengthen the muscles therein too. This brings us to the Vibram Five Fingers footwear which simulates barefoot running. They’re like toe socks with padding on the bottom. As a result of the barefoot running movement, the footwear has also become a fashion statement among celebrities and Silicon Valley techies. Maybe they’re the Birkenstocks of the 2010’s. Apparently there are a lot of fake ones in the market now that are being sold for about 20% less than the real thing.

I’m getting a little antsy about not being able to run due to my recent calf injury, but I know I have to be patient. There is some improvement though, as I was able to walk with my trekking poles for an hour on Thursday morning and an hour and 15 minutes on the treadmill on Friday. There is however a lingering discomfort on the right calf still so I could not walk as briskly as I want to and I still have to go down stairs sideways so as not to overstretch the muscle. After the treadmill walk last Friday, I also used the rowing machine for 20 minutes. I haven’t used this machine in a long time and I don’t remember the last time I did. That information is in one of my exercise logs but I didn’t feel like looking for it.

I wanted to go for a bike ride on Saturday morning, however when I opened the door to pick up the newspaper, it was cloudy, cold, and breezy. So I wimped out and rode the stationary bike instead. Riding outdoors is going to be a problem during the winter unless I find really warm clothes to wear. If you see someone in a blue bike wearing earmuffs and a puffy jacket, it might be me come November.

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