Lotus in the Mudd

WOW!  My latest venture is Barefoot running.  My husband and I read this book called Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.  It was the most inspiring book I have read in ages.  I used to be a Cross-Country runner when I was in highschool which lead me to run my first half marathon.  I loved running.  But after graduating I entered the "making a living to survive" stage of a young person's life and didn't have the time or energy after working 10 hrs days doing heavy construction work to run.  Then I got married and had two lovely little daughters.  Having tried getting back into running after having two babies that stretched my body in ways that were unfamiliar to my athletic abilities  I was greatly discouraged.  THEN after many years, along comes this book and BAM!  I am on fire again.  My husband and I took to it right away.  We threw out our shoes and just went for it.  We were shocked.  We didn't have any pain and running turned out to be enjoyable again.  I thought for sure that my feet would be killing me but they just plain weren't.  We of course got a bit overconfident and started running longer and harder way too soon.  We also discovered Five Finger Shoes which are absolutely amazing.  You don't feel like you are wearing shoes at all and after living in Hawaii for two years, only wearing slippers( flip flops ) my feet just couldn't stand the constriction or weight of my normal running shoes. After having sore calves and starting to have some aches and pains in our feet due to our overzealousness we ordered a book called Barefoot Running by Michael Sandler.  We learned very quickly the error of our ways and started using his techniques.  Now we are both happy to say we are back to pain free running and feeling quite effortless in our nightly runs!   I am simply in awe of the amazing abilities of the human body!