So I've been working hard on changing my running form lately. Some of you may have seen me around town wearing these absolutely ridiculous looking Vibram shoes (they look like gloves for your feet - with toes and everything. Gross.). I've been wearing them to strengthen my calf muscles and achilles tendons and to start forcing me to land on the balls of my feet when I run and walk. You see, most of us who have been wearing supportive and cushiony shoes our whole lives have developed a heel to toe running gait. Over time, this puts tremendous stress on your knees and hips and promotes injury. Apparently, striking the pavement with your forefoot first is what your body wants to do naturally. By developing a mid foot strike, I will most likely greatly reduce my aches and pains and be able to continue running injury free for a good, long time (after all, I have a good shot of winning my age group in a marathon some day if I'm the only 80 year old that signed up!).
But you know what? It's hard to change my habits. I've been running in my beloved Brooks Glycerins with all their cushioned glory for almost a year now. They carried me through a 1/2 marathon, 500 miles of marathon training, the marathon itself, and most of my summer running. I've felt comfortable with my heel to toe running form and I've been pretty successful and injury free, so why change? If it aint broke, don't fix it, right??
But therein lies the problem. Sometimes we don't know things are broken until it's too late. We develop habits and routines in life that carry us through "just fine" and we continue to muddle through day after day, year after year. We do it with our eating, our parenting, our friendships, our jobs, our spending habits, our interactions with others, our political views, and our world views. We can go on for years believing that everything is working for us just fine, ignoring those tiny little twinges of discomfort that pop up in the background. Then we begin to hear alternative ways of doing things, and of thinking about things and we put our hands over our ears and say "No thanks, I have it all figured out!" And we refuse to even listen to other ideas - because it's so hard to even consider the fact that we might be "doing it wrong".
Well I"m not afraid to listen to other ideas and theories. And at 40 years old I'm confident enough in myself to discern which ideas are worth consideration and which ideas are absolute bunk. But we are missing out on personal growth if we keep putting our hands over our ears, blocking out the rest of the world, and never even considering the viewpoints of others. I'm sure I'll see a lot of this play out on Facebook as the fall Presidential election gets closer.
I remember seeing a barefoot runner at my first half marathon. I thought this girl was an absolute loon as she patiently explained to me why running barefoot was actually better for your body. I dismissed her almost immediately and inwardly rolled my eyes. Now almost a year later I'm warming to the ideas behind barefoot running and going shopping for my first pair of minimalist running shoes (because hell will literally freeze over before you see me out there in actual bare feet. Ugh!). You see? It's never too late to consider ideas different from your own. And who knows? You may just end up in better shape for it. So in the mean time I'll continue to work on the new running form, and continue to work on hitting my stride - both on the road and off of it...
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