Could my need for warmth be the weeks of ongoing rain in San Francisco? We are getting tired of it. I did manage to fit in a one and a half hour walk with my Dad yesterday which was really good. My Dad drove into the city and we caught a break in the storm. We walked from the Marina Green over Fort Mason, to Fisherman's Wharf and back. We finished our outing by eating lunch at Squat & Gobble on Chestnut Street in the Marina. My Dad calculated we must have walked around 6 miles. Not bad for a girl with a bum knee. ; ) All the while I was wearing my new sneaks, my Nike Free 5.0's. Yes, another new pair of shoes. These are the shoes that the author of Brain Training for Runners, Matt Fitzgerald recommended. He calls them "minimalist" running shoes. You know me, I'm all over it. I'll try anything that can possibly help.
Matt's take is that running shoes can actually cause injuries. Until relatively recently in history, humans ran exclusively barefoot. The high-tech, super supportive shoes we run in these days actually make most of us run unnaturally.
This is specifically by overstriding, a major cause of overuse injuries. The rigidity of shoes also prevents the foot from deforming upon ground contact in the natural wavelike pattern that the unshod foot normally uses to absorb impact. As a result, impact forces are sent shooting up the leg, concentrating in the knee, hip, pelvis, or even the lower spine. The Nike Free brand was the first "barefoot running shoe" that encouraged the wearer to run naturally. Matt suggest if you are runner who is currently injured, to consider buying a pair and wearing them once a week for a short run. If you are comfortable in the shoes, you can increase the numbers of runs one by one. Any amount of time you spend in them will likely reduce your injury risk. Like I said, I'm all over it!
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