Our un-injured ancestors and barefoot running

I can't say that I've drunk the koolaid on the whole barefoot running craze.  Yes, I see that there would be some benefit to adopting it in small quantities to work on form, and strengthen the feet and ankles, but I have no plans to throw out my running shoes anytime soon.  One argument that I just don't get to support running barefoot is that it's the best choice because our ancestors did it.  Do we actually have data from our ancestors that show that they didn't suffer from achilles tendonitis, IT band syndrome, stress fractures or other common running injuries?  There are a lot of things about how our ancestors lived that don't parallel life today, and I'd have to say that in many ways we are better off today (or have the option to be better off depending upon our life style).  What was the life expectancy back then anyhow?   How do we know that our ancestors weren't plagued by common and frequent running types of injuries?  After all, those of us that have suffered from injuries, know that many of them aren't life-ending or even activity-limiting, so the fact that they endured doesn't meant that they weren't injured.  People win races while injured, and our ancestors could have survived evolutionarily while injured, as well. 

Yes, I'm currently injured.  Is it because of shoes?  Not in my opinion.  I've been running for 25 years, and have had 2 side-lining injuries, one about 7 years into running, and the other another 17 years later.  I'd just call it part of the deal, especially when you're trying to run higher mileage consistently.  And I'm not blaming it on the fact that I wear shoes.  Like a lot of injuries, in my case, something got tweaked, and I ignored it and continued to tweak it--I didn't listen to my body when I should have and had a few races in the way.  So I continued to tweak it, and tweak it.  In my case, I think it had more to do with terrain than anything else.  I was in El Salvador for 5 months for work and ran a lot, but didn't have the opportunity to run on trails.  Upon returning, I jumped into many trail events quickly, and the quick transition from smooth road back to rocky trail was more than my road-weakened ankles could handle. It's kind of a no-brainer that one shouldn't train for MMT-type trails on roads.  Would my ankles have been stronger had I been running barefoot?  Well, maybe, but they also would have been stronger had I eased back into trail running.  And running in the dark in San Salvador barefoot could have led to far worse injuries. 

I'll be anxious to see the data in a few years from outspoken barefoot runners who think it's the only way.  In 25 years, can they claim 0 injuries?  I'm doubtful.  While being injured sucks, I happen to think it's a part of the game.  And in some ways, it's good for us.  In my case, it's widened my cross-training repertoire and I've discovered that I love some other activities, too, which I can make more time for when I can't run, like road biking, bikram yoga, swimming and snowshoeing.  Being injured has also lit a fire in terms of desire to be on the trails again.  It wasn't out, but the flame was flickering a bit low this fall.  I can't wait to be back out there running long distances.  In shoes.

Just what I needed: Bridge of the Gods Century Ride

I took advantage of another gorgeous sunny winter day (people lie about the weather here—they just don’t want any more migration into the state) to do a loop I saw advertised on a great riding site. The ride takes you across into Vancouver, WA and then up the WA side of the Columbia Gorge, over the Bridge of the Gods, and back along the OR side of the Gorge.  I'd only been to the Gorge once, and that was driving over on I-84 on my trip out here, and it was stunning.

The ride was advertised as 89 miles and scenic. I live about 7 miles from the start of the trail, so figured the ride would be just about 100 miles by the time I connected with the 205 bike path trail that leads into Vancouver, WA. I got a bit of a late start, considering the distance and that I didn't really know where I was going, and finally got going by about 11. I figured that I might have a hard time finishing the ride in the light, so grabbed a headlamp on my way out the door. It took me a long time to leave the city and find the bike path over the river into Vancouver and I asked several friendly bikers, about half of whom turned out to be fairly clueless, as I'd head off again in the wrong direction. Anyhow, I finally found the 205 bike trail which takes you down the middle of 205 and over the river. Kind of an odd little bike path, but it took me to where I wanted to go, the Evergreen Highway and eventually to the Washougal River Road. The Washougal River Road is a winding, climbing road, with minimal traffic that seems to keep gently climbing for miles along a beautiful little river.

I set a turn-around time of 2 p.m. in my head, thinking that if I were smart, I'd turn around 3 hours in, in order to be back at my house by 5 p.m. when the sun would go down. Sometime after 2 p.m. I had made it as far as a little store on Hwy 14 and asked the guy how far I was from the bridge, thinking I was probably a couple of miles. He said 5, so I figured it was more like 3, and decided to go ahead and go for the bridge, knowing that I had a headlamp because at this point I would need it for the return. It turned out to be more like 10, but who's counting. I made it to the bridge around 2:45, meaning I had been riding for about 3:45 minutes, and that I had 2:15 to make it home before dark (keeping in mind that the bridge should be the half-way point, more or less). I had several thoughts during the ride, several of them pretty good, but two that came up often were: 1) Amy, you need to learn how to fix a flat, because even though you carry the fancy little patch kit, you have no clue how to use it, and 2) Amy, you need to invest in some decent bright blinky lights, for those times when you're out riding in the dark alone on highways in the middle of nowhere (no worries, mom, I've since purchased some bright blinky lights).

I spent most of the first half worrying about the fact that I should turn around, but once I got to the bridge and accepted the fact that I was just going to have a long ride in the dark, and that if I got a flat I had a credit card along and could always get a hotel room, I relaxed and enjoyed the gorgeous ride home-wards. And it was gorgeous....the entire day was gorgeous with killer views of the gorge, sunny skies, and bright white puffy clouds floating along. One issue in the gorge can be wind, but it wasn’t windy coming or going, so I definitely lucked out there.

Immediately following the Bridge, the turn sheet called for 6 miles on a bike trail, during which time you would need to carry your bike up a staircase. This was true, and there were a few more uncertain spots along this trail, including some rock slides and fallen logs. Where's Gary with the chain saw when you need him? I abruptly came to the end of the trail, but fortunately, I-84 was 10 feet to my left, so I hoisted my bike over the guard rail and proceeded along the interstate. Luckily, the section on I-84 lasted about a mile, before the exit to get onto the Historic Columbia River Highway. Most of the rest of the way home was on this road and the Crown Point Highway, both of which were great windy roads with some up and down. There were lots and lots of trailheads off of these 2 roads, which I'm assuming are the famous gorge trails I've heard much about. Although I do love my bike, I still gawked as I passed those lovely trailheads. Soon, very soon.  At some point I pulled out my headlamp, which thankfully had batteries that were somewhat bright, and I had a small blinky light to hook on my back.  I made it to the edge of Gresham, I believe, about the point that it was getting really dark, and the least exciting part of the day was the ride through the burbs, but the strip malls weren't so unattractive in the dark.  The ride through the burbs, was long, probably 15 miles or so, but I eventually found my way home, although I got a bit lost trying to find the right bridge.  Frustrating to be 2 miles from home with bridges lit up in all directions, but riding around in circles trying to find one.  I did find one, and did make it home.  Hungry, but very happy after a great little adventure and 101 miles in total distance. 

Overall, a fantastic day and a really great loop.   And a couple of firsts for me.  My first century ride, and my first time in the lovely state of Washington.   I hadn't done anything active over 3 hours in a few months, so the long ride felt great.  Not exactly time on my feet, but it felt good to get out and go for several hours and to start feeling like I'm getting back into shape.  On top of the ride, I put in another 35 miles biking and 20 miles running last week.  I'm slowly working my way back into running in hopes of some spring ultras.  My ankle feels OK.  It's not 100%, but I keep getting graston done on it and keep doing stabilization and strengthening exercises and am hopeful the posterior tib tendon issues are behind me.  Although it's fairly tender, I haven't had any of the sharp pain that had been plaguing me this fall/summer whenever I took an uneven step.  I'm still running on roads to keep my foot stable, but hope to work back into trails in the coming weeks.  I ran 6 miles today, which is my longest run to date, so I'm building up gradually, and working up to longer runs.  In the meantime, I'm enjoying my bike, and am feeling much more comfortable and confident on it.  I haven't fallen off of it since I've moved here (eeks, big jinx there), and the clipless pedals no longer petrify me.  And I've been taking advantage every chance I can to get up into the mountains to snowshoe.  I hope to work into a few longer snowshoe treks in the coming weeks, as well.  This weekend I hope to get back on cross country skis for the first time in 15 years and do some snowshoeing, as well. 

This loop will be on the list of to-be-repeated rides.  I still have a hard time believing that I live in such a beautiful place.  I miss many (many) aspects of my life in DC, and DC has a lot to offer in terms of nearby attractions, but so far Oregon is winning me over in terms of stunning beauty.  Big big trees, big views, ferns-lined trails, snow-peaked caps, snow to play in, the gorge, and the potential for forest gnomes.  What's not to love?

What a difference a week makes....

I continued on my snowshoeing binge this past weekend and headed up once again to Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood with the plan to do a couple trips up to the top of the ski lift and back down.  It's 2 miles straight up, and 2 miles down.  What a difference a week can make.  The forecast was for snow, and it was indeed snowing.  What had been a solid sheet of ice last week was now covered in several inches of powder and blowing snow made visibilty nill and created nice little drifts that were hard to climb up and over on the way up, and made for some hard-to-see drop-offs on the way down.  I was alone this week, and climbing up a mountain side in whiteout conditions alone is maybe not the smartest move, but I followed the ski lift and saw a couple of people coming down on my way up.  Had I not had the ski lift to follow, I wouldn't have headed up, but I was warm, and could at least see well enough to follow the lift cables.  Just to compare (the top of the lift last week as compared to this week):

And last week's glamour shot as compared to this week's:

Alas, by the time I finished one up and back in a bit over 2 hours, fairly wet and soon-to-be-cold, I decided to jump into Bridget, turn the seat warmers on high, and head homewards. 

I also got in two great bike rides over the long weekend.  A bit over 50 miles on Saturday, and 35 miles on Monday.  I'm hoping to attempt a 90 miler this Sunday if the weather is reasonably warm (45) and not too wet.  And I'm finally working my way back into running....a whopping 10 miles last week, around 15 miles this week, and increasing gently from here.  Miwok on May 1 could still happen....

Mt. Hood Snowshoeing from Timberline Lodge

Another weekend, another trip out snowshoeing.  My friend, Sarah, and I had planned to hit Tom, Dick and Harry, a popular trek starting at about 4000 ft, but the snow around that elevation was crap, so we drove up to Timberline Lodge, which sits at about 6000 ft.  While the snow was still kinda crappy, we wanted to snowshoe, and it turned out to be a fabulous day--night and day in terms of snow conditions from the past weekend, but actually much easier in terms of effort.  Although I guess that depends on how effort is defined, as the weekend before, the snow was wet and heavy, and each step caused your foot to sink down a foot, but the trail itself was easy and gently rolling. Whereas this week, the snow was hard and icy, so we stayed on top of the snow, but we were climbing up 2500 ft in 2 miles, so there was definite effort in climbing, especially being that my climbing muscles have been on vacation for the past 2 months.

We left the parking lot with the intention of finding the PCT and hiking on it for a few miles out-and-back.  But it was foggy down low, and we missed the PCT, but realized we could easily follow the outer boundary of the ski area.  So we headed up, and had an easy target of the top of the upper ski lift. 

In short, about 4 miles, 2 up and 2 down, which took us a long while to go up, and next to nothing to come down.  I didn't run going up, but tried out running down part of the down.  I love my new Dion snowshoes!   The views all day were spectacular, with some low clouds, interspersed with clear spots, so that the views of Jefferson in the distance were quite nice.  And while we never got a clear view of Mt. Hood, parts of the top did peak through every now and then.  By the time we got back down, we were once again surrounded by fog.  

This one's a keeper....I plan to go back and do some repeats this weekend, as snow at lower elevations is apparently still crappy.

Some photos from the adventure:

New Years Snowshoeing

Got some new Dion snowshoes and hit the mountains with Liz near Hoodoo to try them out.  Beautiful day to be out, although the snow was deep and wet.  Snow conditions and my out-of-shape state made for a great workout, even though we only covered about 4 miles.  I plan to go out again this weekend, and maybe every weekend until the snow melts.

Graston fun and continued frustration....

I’ve been going to see a chiropractor/sports med/graston guy for 3 weeks now. The latest fun is he has me stand on my toes on a step while he scrapes down my arch, the tendons on the sides of my ankles, and parts of my calf with a stainless steel tool. This is fairly painful, and leaves my lower leg a bit green/purplish in color. I’m actually seeing 2 different guys at the same clinic bc I can’t always get into one or the other. One is nice, the other is not so nice, and I’m reaching a frustration point with both of them as to when I will be cleared to run again. And by run, I don’t mean jogging 100 m on a track. I mentioned to the nice one last night, that I’m at a breaking point, and without some more insight into what they see as my progression back to running, I’m going to jump ship and just go it alone. I could run pain free on roads/tracks before I got put in the damn boot, so this slow progression back into something that causes no pain doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. His response was that the partial tears could lead to complete tears which would be a career ending injury and that I can’t rush it, blah blah blah. It might as well be a career ending injury at the pace they want me to get back to running. At this rate I’ll be back to a 100 miler when I’m 70. Wasn’t the 6 weeks in the boot supposed to give the tendons time to heal?


I did jog 2 miles slowly on the treadmill last week, which I later got reprimanded for doing, by the grumpy one. He gives very unclear instructions and won’t repeat anything. So when he said I could go onto a track and run the straights for 2 miles, I took it as meaning he didn’t want me to run the curves bc of the increased strain on my tendon while turning. And at some point he mentioned the word ‘treadmill’ so I took it to mean I could try out a short run on the treadmill. I don’t know where to find a track, and no google search has given me any clue as to where I might find one that is not a pain in the ass to get to. So, I opted for the option that was easy, and ran an easy 20 minutes on the treadmill. It wasn’t fun (bc running slowly on a treadmill in a crowded gym never is), and didn’t cause any pain, but got a grumpy reaction from the doctor and I saw him write in his notes, “patient did not follow doctor’s instructions.” It’s to the point, where I’m about to give up on them, and just jump back into it. I’m not training to get back to a 5k, and their conservative approach with no insight into their ‘plan’ for me is not helping. 


I’ve got a new year’s eve appointment with the grumpy one…I’ll give them another week to convince me that this is going somewhere, and then Miwok training starts in earnest.

Boot-free, but no running in sight....

Well, since the last time I posted I've packed up a Penske, driven 5 days cross country with Dad, found an apartment, started a new job, unloaded the truck, unpacked (sort of) and have been in Portland for about a month now.  The orthopedist I saw in VA right before departing put me in an immobilization boot, which I finally transitioned out of last week.  I've seen 3 different graston guys out here, along with an acupuncturist.  I've settled on 2 of the graston guys (both at the same practice) and am now getting treatments twice a week.  I can bike, swim, elliptical, etc, but no running allowed.  So far, lots of late night swims at the gym and early morning spin classes. I got back out on my road bike for the first time last weekend, so look forward to ramping that up a bit.  I'm going to see a naturopath after Christmas to discuss some type of injection that might help.  I walked home last night for the first time and it didn't feel bad, although it's hard to say bc I saw the doc this a.m. and now am bruised and swollen (from him, not the walk).

I mentioned to the doc that I had made it through the Miwok lottery, so have a 100K to shoot for on May 1.  He told his colleague (who had already advised against this), who came in and scolded me and reminded me that this was probably not a good idea.  We'll see...I plan to run on May 1, and hope to be back running in the next couple of weeks. 

The guys I'm seeing said that immobilization was not a good thing, and that a much more active therapy would have been appropriate.  Not what I wanted to hear 5 weeks into wearing the boot.  Anyhow, they are doing graston, massage, laser, some electro therapy and I have exercises to do twice a day.  I've got tears in both the posterial tibial tendon and apparently the one on the outside (peroneal), too, per the MRI results.  So, I need to really work on balance/stabilization/strength in this area before they'll let me run, so as to prevent it from happening again.

I ran to catch the bus today, just to spite them (well, mainly bc I was already late for work), but for the most part am following doctors orders and hoping to get back out there soon....  Looking forward to a long ride tomorrow in the hills around Portland.