The Barefoot Experiment

When undertaking a project with long-term goals in mind, it’s easy to lose sight of those goals as your time becomes consumed with the small steps and constant attention that the project requires on a daily basis.  It’s easy to get lost in the details and completely forget where it is you’re going.  Which is why I’ve decided to take a moment to stop, breath and assess how far I’ve come thus far, and where it is I aim to go. At the beginning of this project, as a complete non-runner, I... (more...)

When I first began running, I was lucky to plod through a mere 2 miles.  Those miles were slooooow, clocking in at an average 12:35/mile pace, with a skyrocketing heart rate of 172.  Yes.  It was that high.  I was running at what felt like my max, and it’s no wonder that I couldn’t cover more distance.  I could have slowed down, but let’s face it, anything slower would have been walking, not running (if you can call a 12:35 pace that!  Jogging, perhaps?) By contrast, my average run distance... (more...)

BODY FAT I’ve been tracking my body fat for many years.  As I’m naturally a thin person, even when sedentary and eating in excess, the fat that I’m prone to putting on has always been the most dangerous, non-visible kind:  visceral fat. Why is visceral fat dangerous?  First, as it’s not necessarily visible – it’s the fat that lines your internal organs and builds up between them – if one is a naturally thin person, it’s easy to get complacent about eating well... (more...)

Every active person must expect to get hurt at some point. Beginners are especially prone to injury. I’ve had my fair share of injuries while laying the groundwork for my success with running over these past several months.  Thankfully I don’t believe any of them to be a result of poor biomechanics or any other obvious, insurmountable problems.  The injuries – save for one silly accident (embarrassingly covered in Hazards of Running) – have more to do with my own developing... (more...)

The blood that came from the wound that led to the blister that earned me tendonitis. The New Year was set to kick off well.  Beginning with a fabulous early morning run amidst the monuments of the National Mall in Washington, DC, it would be followed by a stellar breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, and then an entire day of geeky museum indulgence.  What could possibly go wrong?  What follows is the story of how a simple band-aid could have prevented an injury and a month of painful – and... (more...)

Brooks CEO Jim Weber, as featured on their blog with his open letter. Just days before the big news regarding the publication of the Lieberman research in the journal Nature, I was alerted (by Scott Jurek, the superhuman ultrarunner, via Twitter) to a new white paper (entitled Barefoot Running : Our Perspective) by Brooks Running that addresses the question of barefoot running. In conjunction with the white paper, Brooks CEO Jim Weber published An Open Letter to the Running Community and invited... (more...)

It’s only one day old, yet it’s so popular that it’s almost old news at this point! I’m speaking about the latest issue of the journal Nature (volume 463) and its cover story:  “TREAD SOFTLY  How we ran in comfort before the invention of shoes”.  Inside is an article by Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University entitled “Foot strike pattern and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners.” The question of whether barefoot is better has generated enormous... (more...)