In my past life I was a pretty talented distant runner. Enough so, that I could enter a race from a 1600 to a 10k and have all the wind I needed to not really have to think about it and just strategize my way thru it. Then the injuries began . Eventually, I found it excruciating to even take a shower as the mere water hitting my feet was agonizing . The years of 150 miles a week had taken their toll. Time to pay the Piper, and good-bye college sholarship offers.
Here in Afghanistan, I decided I was going to take advantage of the altitude and time on my hands to regain some of my former glory, but I've had to completely re-think how to do it. I've had to go minimalist on the footwear. Sometimes even barefoot all together, but I have to do that really late at night as running barefoot around one's combat outpost/FOB is frowned upon.
Below is some more detail that I sent a buddy in an email...I think Dan'll find a lot of this interestingas I know he studies more natural approaches to athleticism.:)
Hey, wanted to tell you about this book I'm reading called 'Born to Run'. I've gotten back into distance running as a way to keep my head clear and basically beat the cabin fever I get living on a square kilometer city block area. A friend of mine back home saw where I often times have issues with injuries , but am working to beat them by adopting a minimalist footwear approach ...more on that later.
The premise of the book is the author likes to run, even though he had never really planned to be competitive with it . He's a big guy, 6'4 and 230, so he doesn't really fit the mold anyway. But still ,he'd get out and jog 2 or 3 miles a day. And then bam, he started having problems . Foot,shin and knee issues. He went to Dr after Dr who told him that running was his problem . They did all kinds of scans, put him on a treadmill and analyzed his gait...you name it. All said the same thing. In his mind that just didn't make sense.
In the meantime, he started looking at people across the world who run as a way of life . From Kenyans to the Tarahumara tribe down in Mexico. So he headed down there to meet an American that lived with Tarahumara to find out what the deal was. What he found were people into their 80's who still ran hundreds of miles ,sometimes in a day. In fact, 4 Tarahumara's won the Leadville 100 ultra-marathon in the 90's . That is a 100 mile race held at 10,000 feet ele. in Leadville, Co.. One thing he found in common is nobody wore shoes. Simply sandals. And all ran with very short strides as opposed to the long strides that we're taught to run with. Even modern shoes encourage long strides by having raised heel soles. Long strides equate out to pronounced heel strikes and the injuries and pain that come with it . Running with short strides encourages you to run more on the balls of your feet and keeps your back straight with a relaxed upper body. And all groups that run as a way of life do the same thing. The Kenyans, Incas, rural Egyptians, the Southwest American Indians. And I've started doing it,too. So far so good at least 5k's a day, sometimes up to 10.
This'll be good for me.
