The Dawn of Autumn

I haven’t posted in awhile. This is partly due to me being so busy and it’s partly due to me having nothing new to post.

To recap, I’ve ditched my old Asics in favor of the Merrell Trail Glove and the Saucony Kinvara - both are minimalist shoes. The Merrells are very Vibram-like (sans the 5 fingers) and I know running in these shoes will inevitably lead to other issues. The Kinvaras had been giving me the same hammy/glute pain as before, but I can report that this week I’ve experienced NO pain in my glute/hammy after ANY of my runs in either shoe. This is a step in the right direction – pun intended.

In addition to running, I’ve been very, very, diligent about strengthening my legs with 7 prescribed strength/stretches c/o Dr. John. These exercises take about 20-30 minutes to complete post-run and are suppose to get my glute to “fire” again and, therefor, as I understand it, decrease the “shock” that I am feeling in my upper leg when I strike the ground while running.

My plan is to train in these two pairs of shoes until I am able to “graduate” back to something more stable but also something that might enable me to strike mid-foot vice forefoot or heal because, again, I envision these types of shoes causing me other problems (plantar, xf) down the road.

Last week I ran in Estes Park, CO while traveling for work. I limited my runs to 30 minutes (as I don’t like to run more than this in the Merrells, which were the only shoes I brought west) and my route was essentially a loop around Estes Lake. I’d start my runs at 7am and was stunned to see so many elk milling in and around the concrete bike path, which started alongside a golf course (see photo below). It’s the rut and the air was filled with testosterone and the sound of bugles. On one such run I came face to face with a 14-point bull that was herding his harem of cows away from other gentleman callers/competition. I stopped dead in my tracks and opted not to move. I'd seen home videos that started this way. I stood motionless in the 40-degree air and tried to catch by breath at 7,500ft. All of a sudden, the bull began to walk towards me ever so slowly. In turn, I turned and began to walk away. Suddenly, the mighty elk dipped his antlers in my directing and started toward me. My heart skipped a beat and I dove through a split rail fence in an effort to put something between he and I. Turning back towards my “competition”, I saw the elk wink before heading on his way. Whether he was winking at me for skirting a fight or winking at me because he had 4 or 5 cows in tow…I will never know.