Boom There's the Wall

I feel like I've hit a wall, and that wall is made out of swimming.

It's just so easy to not swim. I'm not swimming right now! Running and biking are a little tougher, because they're a lot less involved than swimming. Sometimes you have to run a few blocks to catch a bus. And sometimes it's really the fastest, easiest way to bike over to the corner store. It is never simply a matter of convenience to swim. It's either necessary or it's planned.

I never feel like swimming. It seems like such a hassle to change all the way into my suit, take a shower, swim, take a shower, dry off, and change back into street clothes. I've been running outdoors more which keeps that part of my routine interesting. But the outdoor jog around town, swinging by the gym on my way back is merely a perfunctory card-swiping experience rather than a real work out. I'm certainly not going to swim at the gym if I can't even muster the determination to be there for more than 2 minutes.

So how do I do it? How do I get geared up about swimming?

Quasi-Barefoot Running

I've written about barefoot running before, albeit on another blog, briefly, and at the beginning of my quasi-barefoot miles, when I was still sort of figuring the whole thing out. I've been running quasi-barefoot indoors now for a few months though now. The short verdict is: I love it.

With hard soles, I got a sharp pain in my knees after less than a mile of running. It was severe enough that I had to stop almost immediately, and often times would find myself hobbling around for days to come. If I wanted to run more than a mile, I was almost guaranteed to hurt for at least a week, preventing me from having any sort of pleasure or consistency in my jogs. It was clearly an awful way to live for a girl who needed to return to her third floor apartment every night, a trek that took twice as long and involved a whole lot of wincing.

With soft, minimal shoes, I have experienced no aches in my knees. None. Astoundingly zero. I can run farther, more frequently, with greater joy and comfort. Not only do my knees lack pain, but my hips and lower back are pain-free after running, too. Instead of leading with my heel, I've learned to stretch my step and lead with my toes--to reach forward and get as much earth between my strides as possible. I feel more efficient and sleeker. Most importantly, though, I feel the wonderful absence of pain.

The only time I had a bad experience with quasi-barefoot running was my very first attempt. Yes, the first venture with flexible soled shoes was a huge failure in terms of comfort. I had heard that upon trying barefoot running (or something like it), my calves would be noticeably sore. Being the foolish person I am, I took this with a grain of salt. MISTAKE. HORRIBLE MISTAKE. I ended up running about 1.5 miles that day (the first part felt great) and could not walk for the next two weeks. My calves were so tight it hurt to even lay down and think about moving my legs. They ached in a way that made me fear I would never be able to walk again. It was awful.

I got over it though. And thus, became wise enough to offer advice for novice minimalist runners: Go for a shorter run than you think you should. If you're the type to usually go for a 6-mile run, don't cut it down to just 4 miles. Go for maybe 1-1.5 miles. If you're the type to go for a 2-3 mile run (like myself), try .5 miles first. Your calves will thank you.