Hello friends,
My name is Erick. A little about me:
I just turned forty. Married to a wonderful lady. Have three dogs. Live near the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. I've been a couch potato my entire life, with the exception of the occasional hiking excursion. A year ago I was bending the scale at 299 lb's, at 5'7". I've lost fifty pounds since then by changing my eating habits, but still had the mindset that a fat guy (which I definitely still am) should not be running.
A few months ago I ran across a Youtube video entitled, "Are we born to run?" I was very intrigued, so I looked up the guy in the video, Christopher McDougall, and saw that he had a book. I snatched a copy of Born to Run up on Amazon, and began to read. I was inspired. It made me question a lot of assumptions.
So, I decided to try some stuff. I started out walking the dogs, barefoot. I have never really gone barefoot for an extended walk before. The gravel was a little harsh but other than that it felt really good. A few weeks later I started actually running a little, up and down the sidewalk, for very short distances. My form was horrible (probably still is). I was up on the balls of my feet, thinking I had to "prevent" my heal from touching the ground. A few weeks later I was running a block, then a mile, and now I am up to four miles. I've gone through some growing pains. I had sore calves and feet for a while, but now they are fine. I've hit some big rocks that literally left me limping away. I was relieved to experience that the feet really do bounce back quickly from this kind of thing.
Everything was going great until a couple of days ago. I went for my usual after work jog around the park. Just a quick couple of miles, nothing out of the ordinary. When I got home I noticed some pain in my left foot. In the top left side of my foot, I had a spot that hurt if I pressed on it. I assumed it would be like the other growing pains I had experienced, and would just heal up after a good nights rest. It hasn't. I worked on it all the next day, and that made it worse. I'm going to get it x-rayed today, to make sure that it's not something serious. I'm finding it hard to squelch the old thoughts that a guy my size has no business running. I am losing weight, but I don't want to wait until I am a healthy weight to take running up again. I've found that I love it.
Anyway, sorry for dumping my injury woes on you all. I just wanted to introduce my self, and give thanks for this community. I hope I am able to still do this. It's brought life into me. I'm sure you know what I mean.
My name is Erick. A little about me:
I just turned forty. Married to a wonderful lady. Have three dogs. Live near the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. I've been a couch potato my entire life, with the exception of the occasional hiking excursion. A year ago I was bending the scale at 299 lb's, at 5'7". I've lost fifty pounds since then by changing my eating habits, but still had the mindset that a fat guy (which I definitely still am) should not be running.
A few months ago I ran across a Youtube video entitled, "Are we born to run?" I was very intrigued, so I looked up the guy in the video, Christopher McDougall, and saw that he had a book. I snatched a copy of Born to Run up on Amazon, and began to read. I was inspired. It made me question a lot of assumptions.
So, I decided to try some stuff. I started out walking the dogs, barefoot. I have never really gone barefoot for an extended walk before. The gravel was a little harsh but other than that it felt really good. A few weeks later I started actually running a little, up and down the sidewalk, for very short distances. My form was horrible (probably still is). I was up on the balls of my feet, thinking I had to "prevent" my heal from touching the ground. A few weeks later I was running a block, then a mile, and now I am up to four miles. I've gone through some growing pains. I had sore calves and feet for a while, but now they are fine. I've hit some big rocks that literally left me limping away. I was relieved to experience that the feet really do bounce back quickly from this kind of thing.
Everything was going great until a couple of days ago. I went for my usual after work jog around the park. Just a quick couple of miles, nothing out of the ordinary. When I got home I noticed some pain in my left foot. In the top left side of my foot, I had a spot that hurt if I pressed on it. I assumed it would be like the other growing pains I had experienced, and would just heal up after a good nights rest. It hasn't. I worked on it all the next day, and that made it worse. I'm going to get it x-rayed today, to make sure that it's not something serious. I'm finding it hard to squelch the old thoughts that a guy my size has no business running. I am losing weight, but I don't want to wait until I am a healthy weight to take running up again. I've found that I love it.
Anyway, sorry for dumping my injury woes on you all. I just wanted to introduce my self, and give thanks for this community. I hope I am able to still do this. It's brought life into me. I'm sure you know what I mean.