One week down, a lifetime to go.

Week one is in the books and I feel great (other than yesterday's questionable bowl off menudo, yikes). I feel like I can keep going at the end of each session but I know that I need to stick to the plan and not push myself. The last thing I want to do is hurt myself and give up.

Speaking of hurting myself, I don't think that the New Balance 814s were the best choice. My right foot seems to roll in more than they did with my old Nike Motos. I called up Mary at the F.W Running Co. and asked her for some suggestions.

Now, a couple of weeks ago, most of what she told me would have sailed right over my head, hit the right field wall, rolled around on the warning track and we go on to lose the World Series in seven games...damn, that still hurts. Anyway, she suggested both a different style of Motion Control runner and even a few Stability runners. She even has a handful in stock that will fit the boats that I lovingly refer to as feet. She also told me that I need to spend some time on their in-house treadmills to make sure that we get the best shoe.

With the shoe situation resolved, I can turn my attention to some other running related things that have piqued my interest, like GPS units. So far, I've done nothing but use a pedometer and stopwatch. As soon as I get in, I enter the info at both Active.com and Daily Mile to determine my pace and calories burned. Are there better ways? Of course. One of the people that inspired this adventure suggested a Garmin GPS watch while saying she has heard not great things about Nike+. Meanwhile, I've had other people swear by Nike+. A customer at the running store said that he loves his Timex Ironman GPS. One of my friends that drinks too much told me to carry around the TomTom that is currently hanging from my windshield.

I've tried a couple of different running apps (I have a Blackberry before anyone suggests a cool iPhone/Droid app) but both would freeze up halfway through my session so those were tossed. At this point, I'm strongly leaning towards the Garmin...hopefully it fits my wrist.

Here goes nothing

Today, I start something I never thought I would do: A running program.


Know what else I'm doing? I'm running in the Hot Chocolate 15/5K in February. That gives me a little over two months to prepare for a race that is just over three miles so it should be easy, right? 


I don't run, I walk...well, limp is more like it, but hey, I limp a mile or two a day anyway thanks to this guy:



I've even traipsed across a thirty+ mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail in a day so running three miles should be a cakewalk. You like how I'm psyching myself up? The problem is, that one word, run.


I can't run. I want to run, but I can't. Why? I have a bone that sticks out of the bottom of my right foot. Good times. That's what I told Mary, the salesperson at a local running store. Her response: Bullshit. She told me that if I can hike several miles across uneven terrain with little to no pain then running a 5K road course should be no problem with the proper training and preparation. 


I have never stepped in to a dedicated running store. I always thought that I could get what I needed by walking in to an REI or an Eastern Mountain Sports or at the very least a Dick's. This place was loaded with nothing but running and walking gear. I wasn't so much shocked by the amount that was crammed in to this small space but more taken aback by the complexity of everything that they had to offer. Forearm shivers for runners? GPS/Heart Rate Monitor watches? Gait analysis? What the hell is that? I was about to find out.


Mary put me on a treadmill, aimed a camera at my feet and had me jog for maybe 15 seconds. All of this was to determine what kind of shoe would best serve my needs. As expected, my gait was screwed up. My left foot has a neutral pronation while my right foot has a severe overpronation. She told me that I needed to wear motion-control running shoes because of my right foot. What? My first thought was to just leave, give up and stick with my worn out Merrells, Doc Martens and Nikes. 


Then I heard that voice in my head: 

You have spent over a year in depression with no signs of getting better and now you want to give up on one of the few things that you have genuinely gotten excited about? What the fuck is wrong with you?!

I asked Mary, fully expecting to hear the response I have grown accustomed to when shopping for shoes, if they carried anything that would help me. Without skipping a beat, she listed off six different size 15 motion-control runners that she had in stock. I ended up getting these New Balance:

They even had them in my favorite colors!










If I don't post in the next few days, it means I've probably been hit by a car...should have gotten some refelctive gear while I was there.