The Beginning: My Story as a Distance Runner

I have been running off and on since high school (I'm 24). The off periods have mostly been due to injury, shin splints, and more recently Achilles tendinitis. I would run 6-8 miles every other day at about 8 min miles. Before I stopped running, when I got out of bed in the morning I could barely walk.

Then one night I was watching the daily show. Christopher McDougall was the guest talking about his book Born to Run. I ordered the book for my dad who is a marathon runner, and planned to read it after he finished. Soon thereafter, I started running on the balls of my feet rather than striking my heel first. My achilles pain went away almost instantly! I could still feel some discomfort in my achilles with my new running style, but it gradually went away, and after about two weeks it was completely gone.

It did take my muscles about three weeks to adjust to the new style. Running on the balls of your feet is a major calf work out, so I started out doing one to two miles and worked my way up to four every other day. I would like to do more, but my shins are still bothersome so I am trying to be patient with my mileage increases.

So this is where I'm coming from, the rest of the blog posts will be dedicated to my experience with distance running in the Vibram Five Finger Sprints.

The store I went to had two colors available, and I decided to go with the Clay (shown).