OMG look at her shoes!

Hi - thanks for taking a look at my running blog. I'm training up for the 9 km Sydney Harbour Bridge run in September. I began running back in about 2006 but then had to stop due to injuries. Some surgery has fixed that but I started from scratch again.

I used a fantastic phone app, Couch to 5K (C25K) which gets you from zero to running for 30 minutes over 9 weeks. It worked so well and I was up to week 8, running for 28 mins. That's about 4.5km. 

Then: shin splints. Ow! Adapted to running on grass which fixed the shin splints but totally buggered my ankles. I had huge, puff ball, painful ankles. It hurt to walk, let alone run. So to maintain fitness I faffed about on the cross trainer at the gym... but REALLY wanted to get back into running.

I did some research into barefoot running. The idea is that we are evolutionarily designed to run barefoot, and that all the enhancements to running shoes these days actually make our gait ineffective, and shortens/atrophies all the wrong muscles and tendons. I was willing to give it a go so invested in a pair of bizarre looking Vibram FiveFingers shoes (see pic below). They are designed to allow the natural movement of your foot while protecting from the road surface.

Having not run for a few weeks, I decided to introduce them gradually. Because the C25K program gets harder week by week, I've decided to try running day 1 of week 1, rest day to see how I feel, then day 1 of week 2 etc. Yesterday I did day 1 of week 3 (jog 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds, jog 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes and repeat once) and for the first time my ankles are a little sore again today. I won't have another opportunity to run until Saturday morning, so we'll see how they settle with just some gentle walks over the next couple of days.

All I need to do is get over the self consciousness! As a school bus went past me yesterday, a grop of girls peered out the window in horror and I could see them gasping "OMG! Look at her SHOES!". Yes, I am the freaky lady who runs around our change-averse neighbourhood in duck shoes. But they feel GREAT.