AMA

...As is Against Medical Advice. I went for a run today (two runs in two+ weeks! I know; I'm an animal), even though my doctor didn't like it. I am waiting on X-ray results to find out why my foot still hurts more than a month after it started. But the sun was out, it wasn't raining (how often do you get to say that in the PNW?) and I was losing my mind from not running.

kinda, but not really

So I ran. And it felt. AWESOME. In the spirit of full disclosure I must tell you all that I did wear shoes. Real ones, with laces, cushioning and a soul sole. These shoes if you must know. It was a shorty; just a shade under 2 miles, which brings up another point of irritation. Until I got a Garmin GPS watch (see where it says "all around nerd" in my profile? It's things like this that earned that title) a few weeks ago I though that loop was two miles. But noooo, mister smarty computerpants tells me it's 1.8 miles. I verified it on my now working smartphone GPS (supernerd to the rescue!!!) today and validated the findings. 1.8 freakin' miles. Whatever; it's 1.8 miles farther than I ran yesterday. Or the past 8 days, for that matter, so I feel OK with it.

What I do have is an internal conflict. Do I stay committed to the way of the barefoot runner, or do I strap on the shoes and go? I'm running in zero-drop shoes, which keep my stride very similar to my barefoot form. Is this enough? I think it comes down to what I want. Do I have something to prove by being "Mr. Barefoot?" No. I generally enjoy running barefoot, for a whole list of reasons that can be easily uncovered by scanning through the archives of this here blog (IF you don't fall asleep before finding them...). What I want is to run, with as little pain and down time as possible, faster than I have been. My main concern with barefoot running is that I may be trading one class of consistent running related injuries (shin splints, knee pain, sore ankles and back) for another (impact damage from stepping on loose stones, blisters, shredded soles from runs on cold, wet, rough pavement). My last barefoot run took almost three days to recover from due to elements-induced issues. The whole point of this experiment has been to reduce down time. But, I felt I had to prove something that last run and barefoot it anyway  in spite of my gut instincts. I did not like the way it felt (physically or psychologically) and really have been re-evaluating my position on barefoot running since then. I'm not sure which way it'll go, but on thing is for sure: I will be running.

Even if, at least for now, it's in these