Quarterly blog post!

In case you missed it, Vibram, the maker of Five-fingers shoe things, settled a class action lawsuit with people who've taken issue with their claims that the foot socks prevent injury.

This is actually relatively timely. When we were in San Francisco, I wanted to get Stef a birthday present and only had a vague idea where the store I wanted to go was in relation to where I was. I walked to the street where it was located but to my chagrin, realized I was some 14 blocks away and up over one of those big hills for which San Francisco is famous. I decided to run it in Vans slip-ons (roughly 2 weeks before a marathon, smart guy that I am) so as to not make the group I was with suffer from my poor planning. Long story, less long, my heel has been jacked up ever since. Even though I am a mid-foot striker and did my best to stay on the balls of my feet, I wound up hurting myself.
This more or less proved what I thought about bare-foot running for a long time. We may be born to run but we didn't evolve running on concrete or asphalt, therefore, we need to give ourselves a technological  advantage which will allow us to do so. I feel far more comfortable running having the added protection from a running shoe rather than a minimal shoe.
I'm glad this came up for another reason, too. As McDougall points out in the third link above, one of his points in the book was that he changed his stride to land lighter and saw positive results, i.e., less injuries. I missed this point, as did many others apparently. A point I did not miss was that we are being sold a bill of goods by shoe companies. The rule of thumb that running shoes are good for 300-500 miles is designed to make us buy shoes before we need to replace them.

I wore these for >2 years and put 2 marathons and 3 half marathons on them without injury. Even the damage above didn't drive me to replace them, I sewed the tear and continued to run in them. I only replaced them when I wore a hole in the sole of the right one. Someone once told me to wear running shoes until they don't feel good anymore, and that's what I did. They felt good right up until they let slush inside them. For something that is nominally cheap to do, running sure is expensive and I see no need to spend anymore money than I need to enjoy what it year-round.
There is a time tested marketing ploy that tries to make us think if we buy Thing X, it will make us do Activity Y better. The notion that Sketchers is doing something right because Meb wore them in his win at Boston is laughable. The same is true that a foot sock will prevent us from injury or that you can shoes with funny soles will make you healthier. Hard work, dedication and training are what do that.

Getting back in the groove

While, it's certainly been a while since I last wrote, you can rest assured I am still running.  Between my last post and now, I've completed two other marathons, one with my wife in Newport.

One of my best finishes

Currently, I'm training for my 5th this coming May at the Maine Coast Marathon.  This time around I'm shooting to finish in under 4 hours.  Although I'm not running this year's Boston Marathon with the Genzyme Running Team, I've been joining them for early morning runs the last couple weeks and can't help but catching some of their excitement.  Running in Boston in the winter is so much fun, once you figure out what sort of gear keeps you comfortable in the teens and accept that you're feet are going to get wet if you can't bring yourself to brave the treadmill.  It snows here and you have to deal with it one way or another.

For instance, yesterday involved snowy track work

This morning as we ran through in the pre-dawn darkness with some folks who recently joined us from Europe, I realized this was their first time running through the winter here.  They're all seasoned runners, one of whom ran Boston last year, but they've never experienced this particular part of the Boston training.  I was at the same time nostalgic and even a little jealous.  I immediately thought of how different these runs would be in March when we would be heading back up the river as the sun rose, the temperatures would be (probably, but not certainly) warmer and the paths would be far more crowded.

Running in the Spring, Summer and Fall have their own particular challenges around here but I really think there isn't much like winter running in Boston.  There's something special about heading out in the early morning, over lunch or at night through the 34 degree rain, driving snow or just straight up arctic vortex.   It's sort of like the feeling after finishing a great run but it's months long in the making.

Plus you sometimes you get to be the first person to break an iced over puddle.