JOIN THE BAREFOOT REVOLUTION!!!

I'm going to tell you a little story of how I got here.  If you don't have the time to read this, then just read the above headline and send the money to the vanguard itself: Transition Bath!

And here's a link to the blog I contribute to, if you don't get to the bottom of this story:

I contribute to the Transition Bath blog 'A Local Running Adventure' fairly regularly (see here http://runnbath.blogspot.co.uk/).  Look out for the 'barefoot' tag!

Here goes, anyway, for the story:

My journey in training for the Bath Half Marathon is a journey of complete bodily self-discovery.

After running in the Bath Half last year, as Bladud The Pig (Bath City FC mascot), I found myself unable to walk properly for almost a month later. This was largely because of wearing inappropriate shoes for the race, which were too flat for running in. I worried that my feet would never recover from the injuries that I gave them in the race. Also, I aggravated an already problematic hip injury, and due to this I decided to quit cycling as I worried that I would do myself permanent damage. During my recovery, I found myself being most comfortable when walking barefoot. Since then I have known deep inside that I must be more mindful of how I am moving when doing physical activities. Being barefoot enables me to become more mindful of every step that I make. When Transition Bath announced that there were looking for runners to get involved in their 'local running adventure', I instantly knew that this would be my big chance to explore barefoot running properly.

Training for this marathon has taken an amazingly holistic twist.  Whilst the winter has been hard to train in, partly due to the inability of my motivation to take effect when the weather has been cold outside and partly due to my hip having a few problems with inflammation due to the wetter weather, I am absolutely dumbfounded to find myself training again now, over a month before the race.  I really didn't think this would be possible a couple of weeks ago, as my hip was in a bad state and my motivation towards running at the time was completely non-existant.

One of the things that has really helped me in re-discovering my goal towards running the Bath Half Marathon is the development for myself of an understanding of the effects of different herbs on my body, and how these could help me with my training for the half marathon.  Devil's Claw Root, for instance, is an amazingly powerful anti-inflammatory that works much better than Nurofen and doesn't destroy my liver in the slightest, nor knock me out.  I am in love with this herb.  There are many more herbal solutions out there.  For instance, for improving my calcium metabolism (my injury is to do with calcium deposits not getting absorbed - I theorise that a better calcium metabolism can help this immensely), I have started eating a large amount of alfalfa with everything.  Alfalfa has silica in, which is the lost mineral in calcium absorbtion normally.

For me, training for this run has so many different dynamics to it.  I have to sort my body out on a very deep level in order to feel that I can actually do this run.  Therefore the very act of sorting my body out is definitely a part of my training regime.  I am very appreciative that the focus of getting ready for the Bath Half Marathon has forced me to look at my body on a much deeper level than I have ever done before.

I received some acupuncture today (30th January) on my hip - my first such experience.  Whilst the acupuncturist was telling me of her concerns regarding me running in the Bath Half due to my degenerative hip, I realised that this could, actually, be my last ever run.  At 23 years old, I may be running the final distance run of my life.  Strange to think about, huh?  Anyway, that is a hypothetical notion - I believe that I can build up my hip, make it better and more communicated with than ever before.  I believe that barefooting is the key to the success rate of such a journey.

Join the barefoot revolution!!

I contribute to the Transition Bath blog 'A Local Running Adventure' fairly regularly (see here http://runnbath.blogspot.co.uk/).  Look out for the 'barefoot' tag!