I did it…I went a whole month without a post…how sad. February was a short month though, so if I add an extra day to that month, then today would only be March 16th, and I wouldn’t be dead yet. Makes perfect sense.

Luke is three now! On one hand it feels like it has gone by fast, but on the other we see pictures of him at 6 months old and I can barely remember it. We’re getting the hang of going potty, which is great. We love Bob the Builder and fixing things!

Otherwise nothing too exciting is going on (guess that’s why I haven’t posted!). Now for some quick hits:

• I have 29 unique Androids now between series 1 and 2. I’m missing two from this new series, but they’re chases, and will easily cost me $75 a piece on ebay. Meh.
• I’ve been playing FF13 for 83 hours (and yes, I’m finally getting bored.) But I’ve got one or two trophies I’m soooo close to getting, haha.
• Can’t wait for baseball season to start.
• Running got a little sidetracked. Tweaked my back painting ceilings, so I wasn’t running as much as usual. I’m really going to have to push, but I think I can still reach my goal.
• Almost done with Dexter – Season 1. Enjoying it very much.

Guess that’s all for now!

I’m sitting on the couch, shirt soaked in sweat, and burning up in a house that’s only 70 degrees. That’s because I just broke the 100 mile mark. But this story starts back in January.

I’ve been battling neck pain for over a year and a half. I blame a chiropractor, but I’ve been over that. I tried traditional physical therapy for a couple months, and that seemed to be working, but then it wasn’t. Back in January I decided to visit a different chiropractor, one that was suggested by my physical therapist. I went to him in January of this year, and one of the first things he said to me was how important exercise was. At that point, I was willing to try anything, so I took up running. (11 or so months removed from that first visit, my neck isn’t perfect, but it is remarkably better than it was this time last year.)

On February 2nd, I went for my first run. I had no idea what I was doing, and I went into it knowing I’ve hated running in the past, but if the chiro thought exercise would help, I was willing to try it. Those first couple weeks were pretty bad. I would feel winded after a quarter mile! Trying to run one whole mile without stopping was out of the question…but I pressed on.

There was a hump to get over, and once I did, running started to be fun. At first it was one mile without stopping…then two….and three…(and one time four!) There were times where I could run non-stop for a half an hour! What a far cry from having to stop and walk after just a few minutes.

My running saga hasn’t been without setbacks. My first was knee and hip pain, and for that I blame big bulky running shoes. I switched to Vibrams, and it was night and day. Unfortunately I also switched to a pure forefoot strike (basically landing on my toes), and that led to some foot problems. In the middle of those foot problems though I developed a much more natural midfoot strike, but not knowing why my foot hurt, I went to my podiatrist.

He wasn’t a fan of barefoot style running, so he convinced me to buy a new pair of shoes. After a full month off, I started running in those…and I just couldn’t enjoy it. I did a few weeks in shoes, and then went back to my Vibrams, haha. I’ve done 15 miles since, and I’m feeling good.

So it took me 10.5 months (316 days) to rack up 100 miles. I had a couple months off where I didn’t really run at all while I healed up, but I’m excited I did my first 100 in less than a year. Sometimes I wonder if my body is cut out for running, but I’ve got this urge to keep pushing myself. If I can do 100 miles in 10 months, can I do the next 100 in 6 months? That’s like 1 mile every other day. Seems doable!

As much as I wish I’d never hurt my neck, sometimes I think it will be for the better. If I hadn’t, I might never have been scared enough to take control and get fit. I don’t want to wait until I’m 50 to realize I’m out of shape and can’t do anything about it. I want to stick around for my family as long as possible, and I think that starts now.

Like I said in a previous post, the last time I pushed myself to 1.5 miles “barefoot,” I had to take a two week break to recover. After my half-mile run the other day, I did a one mile run two days ago, and today I pushed to almost 1.5 miles. I feel pretty good right now, so I don’t think there will be a two week break like last time. Woo hoo!

My favorite part is that I feel like I’m putting my body in better shape. Right now I’m held back by getting my feet/ankles/calves in shape, but aerobically I could probably do 5 miles. When I first started out back in February, I could barely do a half-mile without huffing and puffing. Being able to do 1.5 miles and I’m barely breathing hard is very cool.

Doing a marathon would be really cool. Right now I just want to push myself and do as much as I can, but why not a marathon? Bad joints in the family or not, I might as well set the bar high and go for it. It might take a year or more to get there, but I can dream big.

No better way to start a blog post than with a PUN, don’t you think?

Went for my first run today in about 2 weeks. A couple weeks back I pushed myself to 1.5 miles barefoot (longest ever), and my feet weren’t ready for it!

I’m finding out that getting into barefoot running is going to be a sloooow process. After my very first run, my calves were super tight for like 4 days before I could even think about running. Then my next couple runs I spaced out by a few days, and I didn’t have any major setbacks. But then two weeks ago I did 1.5 miles, and I paid for it.

For the last two weeks my feet specifically have been recovering. First it was the tops of my feet. Those muscles (the few that are in there) were not happy with me. But even when they started to feel better, my ankles were hurting. I told myself I wasn’t going to do any running until they felt strong enough.

So today I forced myself to stop at .5 miles, because I did not want a repeat of the last run. I’ll probably be a little sore tomorrow, but it’s a good feeling. I’d rather my feet take months to get used to running this way, than to develop knee and hip pain from traditional running shoes.

I have no idea how long it will take before I can really push myself, but that’s what this blog is for…to chronicle that progress. Here’s hoping for a quick turn around so I can run again soon!