Potentially, my first mile.

Tragically my current methods of tracking my distance are rudimentary and inaccurate at best. My pedometer may or may not be wildly inaccurate, and the only gauge I have for how far I run is to assume that I always run at the same pace that I ran down the rugby field that day. All that said, however...

Today, I left my house at 6:24. I started walking towards the park in a mid-foot strike walking style, which has become my walking method of choice. There is debate among barefoot enthusiasts about the "correct" way to walk, but I prefer that way because to me the same principles should apply for walking... minimal impact feels better. In any case, I quickly switched to a heel strike walking style because my calves were already a little sore from walking two miles today. I was a little worried that maybe I'd be overdoing it by running (that of course remains to be seen) but I decided to see how it went.

First bit of progress: I ran all the way from the entry of the park to the end of the paved road. When I got home I realized that this is only about 1/3 of a mile (also an inaccurate measure using mapmyrun... can't exactly see the road through the trees), so not quite as impressive as I first thought, but this is good news because it means that the next time I go I can try to run farther on the first go and just add distance each time. Progress!

I ended up walk/running the same exact path that J and I went on the last time we were out, which my potentially inaccurate pedometer measured as being about two miles (including the walk to and from the house). Either way, I used my watch to time the amount of time that I ran while I was out. I logged a total of 7:22.71 of running time. Assuming that I ran at the same pace that I ran down the rugby field (which of course is a poor assumption... I tried to run at a leisurely pace on the rugby field, but today I got tired, I ran up and down hills, and I'm sure I was not at all running a consistent speed) then this works out to be...

... a total of 1.09 miles. Even assuming that this measure is too generous, I think it's safe to say that I ran pretty close to my first full mile today. I got back to the house exactly thirty minutes later, so if I did actually walk/run for two miles, that's about a fifteen minute mile. Slow, but not bad for someone who has never run before I would say! Progress!

When I got back to the house, it was the first time since the damaging run I did two days in to this experiment that my legs actually were sore. Whether this is damaging sore or good sore remains to be seen. I am mildly concerned that I overdid it with my foot, but I have been elevating and icing it for almost two hours now (and the icepack is not really all that cold anymore...) so hopefully it will be okay. We will know tomorrow for sure... but I feel so proud of myself that all I can think about is PROGRESS!

A fellow sufferer of Accessory Navicular Syndrome.

Today I met with a professor at school to discuss my upcoming oral qualifying exam and he immediately noticed my Vibrams (since I pretty much wear them everywhere). He asked me about them, and I gave him a cliffsnotes version of what the point of them is. As soon as I mentioned that I had an accessory navicular, he told me that he did also! We chatted about how I injured mine and how he discovered his. His pain was solved with orthotics and he is very happy with them. I'm still hopeful that the foot experiment will be a success... he did say that he knows that everyone is different and that even though we have the same thing wrong with our foot, what works for one person won't necessarily work for another person. But it was cool to actually meet someone who has the same issue I do.

I walked from school to the subway again today while listening to Chopin. It was a pretty glorious experience. I really wanted to run this morning, but J had a really hard time sleeping last night so he didn't wake up early enough for us to go. I am not really ready to be running myself yet. I don't know what I'm afraid of. The park is perfectly safe and the trails aren't that crazy, but I just prefer to go with my fiancé. It's more fun to have someone to talk to and someone to be with. So hopefully we will get to go tomorrow. Walking almost two miles today felt really good. I think my feet just might actually be getting stronger.

I also had an argument with one of my youngest brother's friends yesterday about the shoes. He's a track runner and a world class know it all and told me and J definitively how bad the Vibrams are for us and how the three kids on the track team who wear them are all too injured to run now despite the fact that they don't actually run in the Vibrams because they "know better". It's impossible to have a real conversation with the kid because he listens with his mouth, so I quickly gave up in trying to explain the biomechanics behind it. Even my father doesn't believe in it, despite being an engineer like me, but that's okay. When I run in the shoes, I know what I'm doing is right.

And speaking of which, I take back everything I said up there about not wanting to go alone. I'm going for a run! I'll bring my watch and my pedometer of questionable accuracy.

Unexpected benefits.

A few months before I started the foot experiment, I decided that I want to have excellent posture for my wedding. And since the wedding is not for over a year, I thought that the best place to start would be to get myself a ball chair, since it would force me to sit up straight and strengthen my core. Well, that went well for about a week, but then I found myself avoiding my iMac because it hurt to sit on the ball chair. Fast forward to today. I've proudly and triumphantly been sitting on the ball chair for well over an hour! Apparently running really does work your core muscles. This whole "having a stronger body" thing is making me want to, you know, actually work out really regularly. I don't know what's happened to me, but I hope it sticks.

Today J and I were so motivated by the beautiful weather that we decided to take an impromptu walk. We went to the park where I was eagerly looking forward to pacing out my walks and runs so that I could have a better idea of how far I'm actually running each time we go out. When we got to what I thought was a football field, I quickly realized that it was not in fact a football field. It was a rugby field! I walked from one end to the other with J and logged 123 steps on my pedometer. Then I turned around and ran the same length at a normal running pace. Strangely I got the same number of steps (not sure if that is good or not?) and I ran the length of the field in 36.25 seconds.

What is strange about all of this, is that it doesn't seem physiologically possible for my step count to be that low. The length of the rugby field is 144m, which is about 472ish feet. This would put my stride for one step at 3.84 feet... which is definitely not right. The time works out to be a running speed of about 8.9 mph... not sure if that is freakish or correct either. I'm going to have to do some more calibration of the pedometer to see how accurate it is, and continue to salivate over the Garmin Forerunner 305... Perhaps when I can run a little bit farther, I will reward myself with that. I can't wait until the day that J and I can walk to the park, run through the whole thing, and then walk home.

Pushing the envelope.

I think I've been consistently testing the limits of what my foot can do. Since the first time I really injured my foot, I have not been particularly crippled at all. Occasionally (like today, which is why I'm writing about this) there has been a ghost of pain saying "Don't push it. This is as far as I can go." I am currently sitting with my foot up and with ice on it, not because I'm in agony but as a preventive measure.

Sidebar: Is it preventive or preventative? The internet is very unclear.

As much as I really want to go run again tomorrow, I think I will play it safe and take another day to rest and just leisurely walk. I'm really flying pretty blind here, since I haven't found a reliable resource about my particular problem, and just listening to my body. The fact is, I now love running and I would be sad if I couldn't continue doing it. I just have to remember to take it slow because the whole point of this is to make my life pain free, and not to further injure myself.

Trail run!

Today J and I went on our very first trail run. I had been itching all morning to go on another walk/run, because I really liked the first one that we went on, and once I got him out of bed, we got dressed and ready to go. He confided in me last night that after work he was suddenly struck with the urge to just run, so he ran from work to where his car was parked. We walked back to the park where we went walk/running last week and we both agreed that today we would explore some of the trails.

We started off just walking on the road through the park, because J wasn't in the mood to run yet. There were a few trails early on, but we decided to keep going because the aerial maps that I had seen showed the most extensive network of trails branched off from the area near the football field. J suddenly decided he was ready to run and he took off. We ran together for a ways but he got tired before I did so I ran further ahead and then turned and ran back to him. I was disappointed to see so much broken glass under foot. I was hoping to actually be able to run barefoot in the park, but it doesn't really look like that will be an option. Secretly, I'm okay with it, because I don't know if I would be brave enough to do it anyway. We alternated between walking and running, exploring the trails. We turned around to come back, because J was getting anxious about the amount of glass on the ground, and we ran down the hill that we climbed on the way in. I also ran across the parking lot because I wanted to rest in the shade and stretch my calves. They weren't hurting, but I figured it was a good idea. We walked back on the paved road and ran down another small path when we were almost out of the park. J noticed some poison ivy so we were careful where we stepped, and I saw a frog! He scampered away before I could point him out to J. We got back to the house and I indulged in a cool shower. Not brave enough for cold, but even the cool water felt so nice. I don't usually like anything but hot water, even in the summer, but the cool water was perfect.

My pedometer says that I went about 4500 steps, which is about 2 miles based on my stride... but I don't know exactly how accurate that is since I'm sure my stride is different for running than it is for walking, and I'm fairly certain that my stride is different for walking near-barefoot than it is walking with normal shoes. I may utilize the 100 yards of the football field in the park to do some measurements in stride, time, etc so I can get a better idea of how my distances.

We also went to Whole Foods today and walked around the store in our Vibrams, after all this walk/running, but my legs still feel fine. I did pre-emptively ice my foot for a few minutes before we left, but so far everything feels great. Trail running is fantastic, and I can't wait for us to go do it again soon. Hopefully next time we will go earlier in the day, because it was pretty hot and buggy by 11am.

A second day off.

Yesterday I decided to take another day off, and threw on my oldest pair of Converse for the second time since this experiment began. My foot wasn't really bothering me so much as it was giving me warning signs that it would in fact start to ache if I did the one mile walk I was planning to go retrieve my mother's car. Not feeling like being in agony for days, again, I opted to be cautious. I didn't end up going on the walk anyway, because I missed my train so my dad had to pick me up and drive me where I needed to be since there were no buses that would get me to their house in time. Oh well.

I had been doing quite a lot of walking in the previous few days. On Wednesday, J and I went to the mall so that he could get his tire replaced. We walked around the mall for about two hours, stopping and sitting only briefly. Later that evening we walked around Petco as well. And on Tuesday was my long 1.75 mile walk from campus to the subway. I don't begrudge my feet needing a break, but I am looking forward to starting to run again. I was hoping that J and I were going to get into a routine of walk/running together but that hasn't seemed to be happening. Life is kind of hectic right now also, but as the weather warms up and his work schedule gets into more of a routine, I'd like to be walk/running a lot more regularly. Perhaps soon we will be able to run the whole trail in the park...

Long walk.

Yesterday I started having unexplained back pain right around in the middle of my back. I think it had to do with carrying my backpack, but I'm not sure.

Today, on the other hand, I walked almost 1.75 miles in the city. The weather outside was beautiful, rather warm, and so I decided to walk from school to the subway rather than taking the Green Line. Because the Green Line sucks, and I'd rather walk for half an hour than sit on that stupid train on a beautiful day. The seam near the arch of my left foot started to rub funny after I was walking for a while, which was a little bit annoying, but I managed to fix it temporarily by tightening the strap over the top of my foot. We will see if it continues to be a problem. Fortunately after all that walking, the only pain I had was strangely on both of my big toes and no pain at all in the normal spot that my foot bothers me. This is definitely a good sign, because walking that far never caused me pain before, and the fact that I can now do it near-barefoot is excellent. I was happy to take the VFFs off when I got home though, and let my feet truly be free. I did a quick run from the subway stop to my house, which was about 0.1 miles. A nice way to end the day. I pretty much sat around for the rest of the evening, but my feet feel great.

I also have been trying to work squatting (step 1b of the "program") in to my every day routine but for most purposes it just puts you too low to the ground. I did spend some time squatting yesterday while J and I were at the aquarium store, so I could comfortably watch the fish in the tanks on the ground level. Other than that though, I haven't really found a good time to do it.

Putting on the pounds.

Not permanently. Today I traveled home to visit my family. I wore my Vibrams, since they're my footwear of choice at the moment. I'm not really brave enough to walk through the streets barefoot; I leave that for inside my house. Although my legs and feet have felt good for a while, putting on a backpack of unknown weight changed things slightly. It wasn't a particularly heavy bag. Contents included my laptop, a few items of clothing, and an extra pair of shoes. It was enough extra weight on my shoulders, however, for my calves to wonder what the heck I was doing. I found it interesting that although my calves are completely used to my weight walking near-barefoot, adding a few extra pounds made the experience completely different. Otherwise, everything in the foot experiment is still going according to plan.

Running aftermath

The short story? I feel great.

I iced my foot yesterday, pre-emptively, as well as my calf muscle which was just on the cusp of starting to hurt, and for the rest of the day I felt fine.

Today, I went in to school and it truly was the first day that I walked around with absolutely no pain at all. There was no ghost of calf pain plaguing my right leg, there was no pain in my bad foot, nothing. I just walked, and it felt great.

I'd like to go running again tomorrow. Hopefully J is up for it and the weather cooperates. He said to me this morning that his calves were sore, but I think it would be good for us to go on another walk/run. This time I'll bring my pedometer and a watch so I can actually try to get a better handle on how much I'm running. I might even go without him, if he doesn't want to go. We'll see what happens.

Pine Banks Park

I woke up this morning to J saying, "I want to go for a run." I was a little surprised, but he seemed pretty adamant about it. I gave him some encouraging words and warned him not to run too hard or too far since that was the mistake I made. Then, I blurted out "I'll go with you!" It was his turn to be surprised. I had done some fast introspection. Yesterday was pain free, and the day before that I ran briefly, twice, and didn't suffer any lasting consequences. I didn't know how much he planned on running, but I figured that if I couldn't keep up, I would just stop. I thought he wanted a quick jaunt around the block, but he had other plans.

An old picture of the entrance to our park

Right down the street from our apartment is a park that we have seen hundreds of times as we drove past it. Neither of us had ever entered the park before, and didn't know exactly what to expect, but J said that that was where he wanted to walk and run. I immediately liked the idea because the five minute walk to and from the park meant that there was built-in warm up and cool down in the exercise.

It was lightly drizzling when we set out, both wearing our VFFs, and I stepped in some mud while trying to avoid a puddle. It was a lose lose... the mud got my feet wet and it felt like I wasn't even wearing anything to protect my feet.

We made it to the park and we were pleasantly surprised to find that a paved road went through it. There were plenty of trails to explore some other time when the ground isn't so wet and my legs and feet are stronger, but today we stuck to the road. I'm not entirely sure what the distance of the whole thing was, but we walked to the end of the road and back and did three short spurts of running. The nice thing about the road also was that it wasn't entirely flat so there was some inclines and declines to be dealing with, and there were markers for us to say "Let's run to that." Each time we ran, I finished with a sprint, and then we continued walking. It was really nice to be outside running and walking through the trees, rather than running on a sidewalk, so I'm glad J had the idea.

According to MapMyRUN, the park is about a quarter mile away from our house, and the walking path itself is a little less than a half mile. The map says that our total mileage today was 1.36 mi. Knowing that, I'd like to increase the distance just a little so that we will be doing something closer to 2 mi, but it was a really great start.

After we got back, J and I both downed a glass of water and I immediately pre-emptively iced my foot and ankle. My foot did not hurt at all, which was reassuring, but the muscles in my calf that had been sore since the last time I ran were giving me a dull ache. It wasn't very painful, it just was a reminder of "Hey, I'm here, don't forget about me and over do it." All in all though, several hours later, I've been able to walk around the house and go about my day without too much discomfort at all, so I am very pleased. Looking forward to our next jaunt, whenever that may be!

Pain free day!

Today I had an entirely pain free day. There was no pulling in my right calf with every step I took, no aching soreness in my arches. It felt really great! I still don't plan on doing anything more advanced than walking for a while, and to be fair I didn't really walk all that much today since I didn't even leave the house, but the fact remains that every day since last Tuesday when I foolishly went for a run, I've had some kind of ache and pain in my legs or feet. Major progress.

And, I was even bad yesterday. I left campus to go to the supermarket and grab some ingredients for dinner, and I ran very briefly to catch the train. Then, later in the commute, I was halfway down the hallway to Downtown Crossing when I heard the announcement that the train was arriving. I took off sprinting and made it to the platform with time to spare. I wasn't even as winded as I normally am when I make that run (though, I wasn't wearing a backpack, so it was just me flying along on my nearly bare feet) and the friend I was with was pretty astonished at how fast I ran. I was concerned after I did it that I had made a huge mistake once again, but my foot didn't bother me and my calf didn't bother me and today I was no worse for wear. Dare I say it, I think the run (as short as it was) may actually have been good for me.

All in all, I'm looking forward to having perhaps a week of pain free days, and then I'll get started on brainstorming some kind of training plan. I really like the training guide stipulated on the Vivo Barefoot Training Clinic. They have a step by step guide, and I actually just discovered the excellent videos that they have in the online version of the guide. Obviously there were no videos in the pdf that I downloaded.

An update on calf strain.

So apparently, my calf pain is not just some minor little deal. It's not a major deal either, but when you strain your calf like I did (because I stupidly decided running near barefoot was a good idea after less than one full day of walking) it can take up to seven to ten days to heal if it's only a minor injury. I was in quite a bit of pain on Friday when I was walking around... couldn't walk without limping, in fact, so it might take even more days to be fully healed. And here I thought I was just walking strangely. I guess on the bright side, this all can be pinned to one stupid mistake almost a week ago, and hopefully by the end of this week (argh) the pain will be completely gone. And then I'll be back on track.

I discovered this because I was doing some more reading about accessory navicular syndrome. I feel kind of lucky that I don't have the incredible amounts of constant pain that some people have with this condition. Mine only gets aggravated if I use my foot longer than I normally do in a day. But considering just how sedentary my lifestyle is, I easily could be in as much pain as those people if I only stood and walked more often as part of my day-to-day life. So I'm still really hoping that this works out. All the podiatrist websites that I've seen still say to be barefoot as little as possible and to rely on orthotics for the rest of your life. We'll see what ends up happening with me... which is why I still refer to this as an experiment.

VFFs are not compatible with dress pants.

Today I had a super duper important meeting, and I wanted to dress nicely. I knew that my VFFs would not be appropriate foot attire, but I wasn't quite ready to tackle wearing heels because my right calf still has been mildly painful. I decided to wear my Skechers flats:

While these have a slightly elevated heel, I figured they would be the most similar in feel to my VFFs and still look vaguely dressy. I made a good choice, I think, but I still was amused at how just wearing any shoe with padding in the heel makes me walk differently. My stride is longer and I walk like I'm always in a rush (which, let's face it, when you're taking mass transit to get anywhere, you usually are). 

We had a small break in the middle of the meeting and I dashed upstairs to grab my laptop. And by dash I mean I lightly ran to my office, carefully landing on the forefoot. This wasn't difficult because the heel of this shoe really is not that large. Interestingly, the only muscles that I felt working as I ran this short distance were the exact same muscles that have been hurting in my right calf all this time. This leads me to believe that the soreness still is from the running a week ago and not in fact as much from relearning how to walk. We will see. The soreness is mostly gone now while I'm walking which is good news. It seemed to be all muscle type pain anyway, and not bone pain. Hopefully, all pain will be gone for good soon.

Now that the meeting is over, I have put my VFFs back on my feet and my feet are kind of joyful to be out of real shoes. I'm happy that I actually feel more comfortable in my minimalist shoes now than in my regular shoes, so hopefully with a little more time, the walking part of this experiment will be over and I'll be able to move to stage two: jumping.

Right now, the only problem is that my dress pants are dragging on the ground... hopefully the rain holds off until after I get home.

Feeling better.

No pain this morning. Still a minor bit of muscle pain in my calf, but the familiar pain in my foot had disappeared overnight. I tried to limit my walking today (as in, I didn't even get out of bed until around 2pm... ha!) and I'm hoping that J and I can go for a walk tomorrow when we visit my parents. Their street is certainly a prettier view for walking than ours, but it might be raining. We will see what happens. In the mean time, I'm just glad that my foot is feeling better and that I can walk without pain today.

Two steps forward, one step back.

I woke up this morning and as soon as I swung my right foot out of bed and put pressure on it, a familiar pain shot through my foot. I tried to pretend and imagine it wasn't there, but the only thought that kept screaming through my mind as I was standing in the shower was "Day off. Take a day off."

Unfortunately, I couldn't completely take a day off today. I had two meetings at school today that needed attending, so I couldn't spend the whole day off my feet as I really would have liked to. At first, I went against my better judgment (which is something I really need to stop doing) and I pulled on my KSOs when I walked out the door. I did smartly bring a pair of Converse to wear in case my feet got tired.  The walk to school was very painful. I tried very hard not to limp, but it was not easy. I pretty immediately regretted my decision to wear the Vibrams at all, but I had a sneaking suspicion that walking in anything would not be comfortable today.

As soon as I got to my office, I changed into my Converse. It was the first time I had worn shoes other than the VFFs since I bought them. I didn't remember the toes of the shoes being quite that constricting, but I was very relieved to have something supportive around my ankle. The relief, unfortunately, was short lived. Walking in the Converse was just as uncomfortable as walking in the VFFs.

The frustrating part of all of this is that my left leg and foot are strong and have no problems, but my right leg and foot are much more weak. I'm really regretting having gone for that run on Tuesday. Especially now that I have done even more reading and the experts say that even experienced runners should start off incredibly slowly and run only about 100 yards on the first go. Oops.

On the bright side, being injured and attempting to walk in a way that hurts the least has left me able to evaluate and notice a few things.
1. As soon as I put the Converse back on my feet, I was walking differently. I had been experimenting with landing on my fore-foot as well as my heel while barefoot, but even when I landed on my heel, the motion was a controlled shift through to my big toe. When I walk in my shoes, I land hard on my heel and instead of the weight shifting forward to my toes, the weight shifts sideways onto the arch of my foot.
2. If I attempted to control the motion of my right foot as I walk, either by heel striking or fore-foot striking, the muscles screamed with pain. I'm not sure which was more painful, the muscle pain or the bone pain. Clearly, those muscles in my arch and calf have been extremely overworked.
3. Standing with my bare feet flat on the ground, it is obvious that the muscles in my right foot are weaker than my left. The left foot has a more solid foundation on all the padding that you would expect to see in a footprint, whereas my right foot really overpronates just when standing.

I've been icing my foot and hopefully tomorrow I can try to stay off it, because I really don't think that limping around is the the best idea... seems a little counter productive.

Exploring the world in my nearly bare feet.

Today, J and I got up early because we had some errands to run. My calves were so sore yesterday from the run that I could barely walk. I hobbled around more than I walked. Fortunately, I didn't have anywhere to be. I sat around and rested much of the day, and read more information about the benefits of being barefoot. When J got home from work, I convinced him to get a pair of the VFFs so that we can be on this journey together. He had been thinking about getting a pair anyway, so it wasn't that hard of a sell.

First stop was to the shoe store! I proudly walked in wearing my KSOs and the girl immediately recognized me. I told her that things were going fairly well... minor muscle pain, but otherwise, I was loving it. J had a lot more trouble getting fitted than I did because of his ridiculously high arches. I'm a little jealous, since I have to rebuild mine from being nearly flat. He couldn't even get his feet into the KSOs and the Sprints didn't fit his heel properly. He managed to tug his foot into the Bikila's but he ended up getting the Bikila LS:

The laces on the top gave him more room to fit his arch. He was very pleased to find a pair that fit, and I was too, considering the shoe that the girl recommended if he couldn't find a pair of Vibram's to fit was even more money. We walked out of the store together, both wearing our funny looking Five Finger shoes.

Next stop was Whole Foods, a hard floored oasis with no semblance of cushion at all to land on. I experimented today with a controlled heel landing while walking. I'm still not sure which one feels right, but I'm contemplating switching it up periodically so that all the muscles in my foot get stronger, because it definitely works different muscles depending on which way I choose to land. I somehow feel like forefoot landing will be more effective for my ultimate goal of running, but we will see. At one point while we were shopping, I decided to scamper ahead to pick up some bread for us, but the pain in my calves stopped me dead in my tracks before I could run more than a few steps. Still haven't recovered from running on Tuesday... oh well.

All in all it was a good day. My legs and feet still had some muscle pain, but it was comfortable walking, and I'm so happy to have J on board with me! He seems as interested to start running as I am, and I think it will be really good for us to do this together.

The first time I ran was to the end of the block...

I woke up this morning with sore arches and calves. It made me smile. It was the kind of pain that says that I was working new muscles that have grown sleepy. Progress! I wore my VFFs all day again, despite the twinges in my muscles.

During my first year in Boston, I had five finals in forty eight hours. It was very stressful and overwhelming, particularly because the classes were all very difficult, and there was the added complication of the fact that I had stopped going to my calculus class about a month into the semester. I had a lot to teach myself. I got so stressed out at one point that I spontaneously got inspired to go upstairs to the small fitness room in my building, and run. There was no treadmill, because the tenants below the fitness room complained too much about the noise of people pounding on the treadmill as they ran, but there was an elliptical, which was my exercise machine of choice anyway. I got up there and I ran for about twenty minutes. And when I was finished, my quads were tight, I was out of breath, but I was quite relaxed.

Tonight, I was working on a final project for a class, and it was not going well. The assignment was due in seven hours and I still had nothing to show for myself. For the second time in my life, I got inspired to run to relieve stress. I'm not sure if this would have been my response if I hadn't just started this journey. Somehow, I suspect that it just may have been. I actually had been feeling this need to run a lot lately, but never actually did it because the need to "just run" quickly got outweighed by the thoughts telling myself that I'm too out of shape and too weak to run anywhere.

I looked up my house on Google Maps and saw that around my block was approximately 0.4 miles. I figured that I could run that distance. After all, in high school, I had no problem running a half mile with no preparation for gym class. I put on a pair of shorts, tied up my hair, and headed out the door. Despite the warnings of the internet telling me to walk long before I run, I took off.

The first thing I noticed was that my foot immediately knew how to land. I was wearing VFFs, and was not actually barefoot, but without even thinking about my stride, my foot knew to land on the forefoot instead of the heel. I found this to be kind of magical. I had read about people saying this online, but I didn't think it was really true... I really expected to have to concentrate on where to put each foot. I made it halfway around the block before my pathetic cardiovascular endurance pulled me to a stop. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't even run the whole way, but I walked for a little while before running the last bit back to the house. I would estimate that I ran about a third of a mile in total. Not too bad for someone who had never really run before, and never ran at all without supportive shoes. I felt pretty proud of myself.

Until I got in the house and felt like I was going to die.

My stomach started cramping with some of the worst cramps I've ever felt. I collapsed on my bed in the dark, just trying to make the pain stop. I tried to remove anything constricting from my body. Trying to pull off Vibram shoes while lying face down in pain on a bed is no easy task. Nothing was helping. I briefly considered taking an ibuprofen, but just the thought of it seemed to make the pain worse. I ended up pulling myself into a sitting position and sat with my head between my knees for several minutes. Eventually the pain subsided and then disappeared as quickly as it started. I'm not really sure what started it, but I'll forgive my body for complaining after I run for the first time, when I probably shouldn't have been running in the first place.

The first steps of my journey.

When I told my friend who recommended that I read Born To Run that I had bought the book, he immediately asked me if a pair of Vibram FiveFingers was on my next shopping list. I told him that I didn't know about that, because truthfully those shoes always seemed too extreme for me. I'm not some crazy ultra-marathoning Cross-Fit in-shape maniac. I'm sedentary, weak, and aren't my Converse close enough to minimalist shoes? Sure they have a sole but they have no support!

Within minutes of actually finishing the book, I was looking up where the shoes were sold in my area. To my delight, I found a store a little more than a mile away from my apartment. I decided that I would walk to the store, buy the shoes, and then walk home in them. It seemed like a good way to get warmed up. My fiancé was a little skeptical of this purchase, only because he didn't want me to buy expensive shoes and then lose interest in them. I was a little nervous of that as well, because this did feel pretty impulsive, but I kept my higher goal of solving my foot issue in mind and I confidently walked out the door with a purse large enough to carry my blue Converse for the walk home.

As I walked down the sidewalk, I tried to imagine actually being able to feel the different textures under my feet. More specifically, I questioned whether I really would be able to feel things differently and better than I already did. I could feel the cracks in the sidewalk, the bumps in the hard yellow plastic before the crosswalk, the twigs... would I really be able to feel anything different with these new shoes? Would they actually do their job and strengthen my feet?

I made it to the store and made a beeline for the rack of Vibrams. The girl who offered to help me out told me that they had many options for minimalist running shoes, and she actually preferred something else, so how much running was I doing exactly? She was aghast when I told her cheerfully that I have never run before, and tried pretty hard to change my mind, but I tried to reassure her that I was planning on starting very slowly and walking long before running. She remained skeptical of me throughout the entire experience.

She first brought out a pair of Bikila's for me to try:

The Bikila's have a bit of a thicker sole and are advertised as the Vibram shoe made specifically for running. Once I pulled on the proper size, I found them to be very comfortable. I did feel though that they were more similar to walking in a shoe than what I was looking for; I really wanted to feel like I was walking barefoot so that my feet would get as strong as possible.

Next were the Sprint's: 

The Sprint's had the barefoot feel I was looking for, but I didn't find the heel cup to be comfortable at all. The first pair I tried on was too small, but even after I tried on the next size up, the material around the back of my ankle felt too tight and it felt like it would very quickly cut into me while I was walking and especially if I ever started running in them. I was a little disappointed, because from what I had read on the internet, the Sprint and the Classic are the two with the absolutely thinnest sole. The store didn't have the Classic, so I didn't get to try that on, but I knew that the Sprint was not right for me.

I ended up purchasing these beauties:

The KSO (short for "Keep Stuff Out") is one of their most popular styles. It was the hardest to get my toes into at first, but once I put them on, I didn't want to take them off. It does have an added 2mm insole, which the Sprint style doesn't have, but it has no extra padding on the sole like the Bikila's. Because they completely cover the top of the foot, they are more multipurpose than the Sprint, and they seemed like the perfect style for me to start walking in and then be able to transition into running. She allowed me to wear them out, so I happily paid and started meandering home.

I took it slower on the walk home than I did on the walk there because I didn't want to injure myself. I didn't really change my walking habits much; I still walked with a heel-toe stride. However, it felt like I was walking home without any shoes on. At the time, I was definitely enjoying the sensation of actually feeling every thing under my feet; there is much more going on down there than just cracks in the sidewalk. The nubs on the hard pre-crosswalk plastic felt like mountains to my near-bare feet. I made it home no worse for wear, and my bad foot didn't hurt at all. I wasn't surprised about that, though; I usually can walk more than two miles without it hurting. 

I left the shoes on for the rest of the day, including when my fiancé and I made a late night run to Kelly's Roast Beef for some dinner. By then I started experimenting with a mid-foot striking stride, because even walking around the restaurant on the hard linoleum with a heel-strike was not particularly comfortable. It was certainly an interesting first day.

Inspiration and backstory.

This past Friday, I was supposed to be going home to my parents' for the weekend. I missed the train I was supposed to be on, so I had some time to kill. When I saw Born to Run at the bookstore in the middle of the station, I decided to buy it so I could have something to read while I waited. A good friend had recommended it to me ages ago, and he has a track record of only suggesting excellent books. By the time I got to my parents' house about two hours later, I was halfway done with the book. When I finished it this afternoon, after reading select passages out loud in amazement to my fiancé, I was officially a barefoot convert.

I have accessory navicular syndrome. I damaged my foot when I was twelve; I was running in a field with my brothers and my foot landed in a hole and twisted underneath me. Ever since then, any sort of upright exercise was iffy at best for me. Standing for long periods of time is the worst, with walking not far behind. Running, of course, was out of the question for me. It hurt, and despite being a fairly active kid, I was entering the phase of adolescence in which it was much cooler to stand on the sidelines with your arms folded in gym class than it was to actually exert yourself and participate, so I quickly became very out of shape. I used to work at a sandwich shop when I was in college, and I would come home from shifts with my foot throbbing for days afterward with no cure in sight. I finally went to the doctor a year ago, and he took X-rays and told me that the only hope I had was custom made orthotics. He mentioned that there was a surgery to remove the extra bone in my foot, but that the results were mixed, so the orthotics would be my best choice. When I found out how expensive they were, I told them I would think about it.

I have always been puzzled by which shoes hurt me and which shoes don't. Since my injury, I have occasionally been inspired to buy new "real" sneakers with proper arch support and cushioning. I also one summer tried to wear Birkenstocks due to the hard and firm arch, thinking it would help support my injured foot. Without fail, these sorts of shoes made my foot ache in an inordinately short amount of time. I hobbled through Washington DC with my father in 2004 because I thought that the Birks would be my best walking choice. On the other hand, my daily footwear of choice has always been Converse All-Star High Tops (I have about twenty pairs in assorted colors) or my now worn down Reef flip flops. When I traveled to the outback of Australia while studying abroad there in 2007, I did wear sneakers for some of the hiking, but I predominantly wore my flip flops, despite ending up with red feet from all the sand. Miraculously, the 20+ miles that I walked over three days didn't leave me paralyzed in agony. I always had found this counter-intuitive to common beliefs that "flip flops are bad for you" because they have no arch support and "sneakers are good for you" because they are built to support and cushion your foot.

Over the past few months, I was tossing around the idea of starting to run. At this point in my life, I am no longer an active person by any stretch. In fact, my lifestyle is pretty tragically sedentary. I had the crazy idea that if I were to somehow strengthen my foot through exercise and running, then my foot would stop hurting. Again, this was completely counter-intuitive to what the doctor had told me would be best for me: wearing an orthotic and babying my foot for the rest of my life. I tentatively felt like I was on to a good idea, but the idea of starting to run was intimidating. It hurts me in more ways than one; I have embarrassingly pathetic physical endurance despite being thin so running more than a quarter of a mile leaves me gasping for air, and of course there is the issue of my foot quickly feeling like it's going to collapse underneath me. I mentioned my crazy "strengthening my foot to cure it" idea to a few people but was largely met with skepticism.

Then I read Born To Run. As an engineer, McDougall's discussions of how the arch of your foot is supposed to work made immediate and perfect sense to me. His story of eliminating his knee pain by running barefoot was inspiring, as were many other similar stories I have since found on the internet. But would running barefoot solve my particular problem? Most of the stories I read were about people with particular stress-related injuries in their knees and lower back pain. Does walking and running barefoot have anything to do with accessory navicular syndrome? I am going to find out. My hope is that by strengthening the muscles in my foot and legs, I can have a life without pain when I choose to walk a distance longer than a few miles, or hike in the woods, or do any of the other physical walking or running activities that my body should be able to do. I will be taking it slow, and carefully monitoring my progress, one step at a time.