I Hate to Run!

I just needed to get that out of the way. I feel a lot better now. So i am getting ready to embark on this crazy few months of training with Benny, culminating with me running a 10 mile race. With my love for running, a 10 mile race is 50 miles to me. God blessed me with a lot of things but a runners body is not one of them. I am 6'5" and this morning i weighed 235 lbs (though 250 is 1 food binge away from being a reality). Not exactly the same body type of the Kenyans that win distant races.

At this point I am probably in the worst shape of my life at the age of 29 with 30 just 3 months away. Growing up, I played sports all throughout high school and have played sports since as well. I was actually invited to try out for the US Team Handball Squad(hey it's an Olympic sport! and yes we do have a team, we have just never competed in at the actual Olympics) when i was 24. I didn't try out because i was young and dumb but i like to think i could have made the team (probably not a reality though). I guess what I am trying to say is that I'm a little athletic but have only ever really run to play sports, never for the fun of it.

So why did I agree to run this race. I have no clue. My friend must have conned me into this some how. I gave him my word though, so here we go. My biggest concern about this is the damage that this was going to do to my knees to train for this race. 235 lbs slamming on asphalt 2-3 times a week is not something my knees are pumped about, but if I am going to run this race running 2-3 times a week is the minimum that i can do to be ready.

Enter Benny, a certified personal trainer and founder of Barefoot Benny. I was telling him that I was going to run this race and his first response was that I have to get into barefoot running. That he could teach me how to run pain free and that i would have fun running as well (we will see about that). That was all I needed to hear (well the pain free part) to sign up.

So, today (March 4th) at lunch I went out to City Sports here in NYC, bought a pair of Vibram FiveFingers KSO footwear and a pair of injinji mini-crew socks. Not only is Benny going to train me for the 10 mile run, we are going to workout my entire body. I'm excited about the next few months and the transformation that my body is going to go through. Hope that this blog will help introduce you to barefooting from a novice's perspective.

Oh, and for your humor and my embarrasment i will be posting a before picture within the next couple of days. This could get ugly!