I'm not gonna write about research this time.
It's going FULL SPEED AHEAD!! This week is a little nuts, but I'm pretty sure I brought it on myself. Supervisor is letting me set my own deadlines. That's kind of awesome, because he's putting a lot of trust in me leaving timelines wide open like that. I suppose a large part of the Grad School thing is to make you use independent thought and self-discipline. Honestly, I'm still looking at this thing like an industry job, so I'm not having a lot of trouble keeping ahead. The problem I'm having this week is that I've set 3 deadlines for myself this week: final draft of my proposal, a poster for the conference next week and a draft manuscript of a paper to publish.
I suppose I have no one to blame but myself, but I'm still running down the hill in front of the snowball. I think I have a little bit of a head-start this time though.
That's all the research Imma write about.
Now for the good stuff.
Today I ran on the track at the PAC. It was too flippin' cold at 5AM so I dragged my stinky gym clothes to school, used the track and carried my stinky clothes around all day. (I'm investing in a travel-sized bottle of Febreeze....)
I've been running in Vibram Five-Fingers shoes....they're the ones that have individual pockets for each of your toes, so it's like you're running barefoot, but you have a sole on your feet....for protection from rocks and stuff. I LOVE my Vibrams!!
I love them so much that I bought a pair of KSO Treks as a pair of street shoes while I was in Seattle (I saved about $40 in brokerage fees there). They look awkward as fuck....but they're FLIPPIN' AMAZING!
I normally run in the Sprint model, which is pretty much as barefoot as you can go, but I think if I'll be spending more time on the track, I'm going to invest in some TrekSports or some Bikilas. The issue is that I have this feeling that I'll have to order them online if I can't get them in a sweet color or size at Brainsport.
I usually get asked why I run barefoot. I've done a little bit of "casual" research (I say "casual" because I've usually stumbled upon an article or two about barefoot biomechanics and gait mechanics while doing my regular research) and I'm convinced that running barefoot is easier on joints, forces muscles and bones to strengthen and adapt and helps improve balance and weight transfer. (If you know me, you know that I need all the work I can in the balance portion).
Another way I look at it is understanding that the "running shoe" as we know it is only a recent invention. Honestly, we only have "running shoes" because someone in the 1800's wanted to do sports and they found out that their walking shoes with buckles and shit were kind of ineffective. We've had bare feet for a very, very long time. Our bodies are mechanically adapted to run barefoot.
I've only been at this thing for a few months, but I've already noticed improvement. I have a bad ankle and it doesn't take a lot to lose balance and roll-over on it. Normally it's incredibly painful. Now this could be partial placebo effect (which is lame, but still opens the "bias-door") but I've noticed that I've been less inclined to roll my ankle, and when it does happen, it seems to bounce back a little quicker. There's still pain, and I'm still a little limpy, but it seems like less pain and my gait isn't affected for that long.
I don't have any added motion in my ankle (booooo), because when I broke it and we did a duct-tape-tree-branch-walking-cast-split and was on it for 3 days before I hit a hospital, the bones fused in an abnormal pattern and the fractured bits that aren't still floating around have managed to fuse onto other bones and in turn reduce my rotational motion. So the fused bones are kind of a pain, but I think the added muscle and ligament strength has helped me gain a little more balance.
Could be the biomechanical engineer in me....wait....that's all of me....but I'm glad I took up running barefoot. Not only can I reap all the benefits of running, like a tight(er) (more) toned ass, increased cardio strength, weight loss (I went down a pant size....need to get new jeans...boooo), more energy, etc, I also think that I'm getting the added benefits of stronger feet and improved balance. For someone studying ugly joints, and knowing that I'll have bad joints in the future, it helps me sleep a little easier.
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