Hey,I'm here, 26 years old
Hey,
I'm here, 26 years old from Central Kentucky, and have been checking out the board for a little while now, but I haven't previously posted. I'm still relatively new to running, which I took up a couple years ago, after being an avid bicyclist for practical and recreational reasons, and playing ultimate frisbee. Yet, when my partner and I returned to Kentucky from Portland, OR, were expecting the birth of our son, now 15 months old, and my paycheck job required driving, biking was not as practical and I took up running, which has continued largely thanks to jogging strollers.
Like many others, I began BR running largely due to injury. I initially developed PF after a several months of running in shoes, hobbled around, and took much of last winter off and picked up running again this past spring, mostly in shoes, but also doing a little experimenting in BF running. However, I once again became plagued with PF and decided I need to change what was on my feet. I went to the local running shoe store, which advertised help for heel pain on its large sign and talked to one of the employees. By this time, I was skeptical of the modern running shoe, but the employee convinced me into thinking that my problem was I needed an even fancier shoe with more support and control, rather than less, so I came out with an expensive pair of Brooks. After initially thinking that the new stability shoes might be helping, the pain in my left heel once again increased.
Now, I have been doing almost everything, including running, completely barefoot for over a month, with zero heel pain. Before losing the shoes, I was up to running nearly 40 miles a week and hoping for a half and possibly full marathon this fall and winter. Of course, I have had to put that on the back burner and drastically reduce my mileage. However, I have been trying to patiently build my mileage back up without doing too much too soon. My longest barefoot run thus far has been 6 miles and though I won't be running the half marathon that I hoped to do at the end of the month, I am instead signed up for a 5k that I look forward to running barefoot.
