Today, despite the opening rounds of the epic snow storm I went to the Woodbridge location of VA RUNNER. I was greeted by a nice young man at the door - they weren't doing much business. I told him that perhaps my Nike Airs weren't the best shoe for me. The heel is two or three inches tall, and it complicates my ambitions of doing fore-foot strikes, or at least messes up my form. The nice young man, evidently unaware of millions of years of primate evolution, told me that natural running was a fad and that humans were designed to run with a heel-strike. He said they didn't carry footwear such as Vibram's FiveFingers and that they were unlikely to do so. He explained that the store's owner had a great deal of education in stride mechanics, was a phenomenal runner, had coached high-profile running teams and stood by the properness of the heel-strike. Well, good for them. At least 25% of runners run fore-foot or mid-foot, so if they want to retard their sales figures, that's fine with me. (Sarah - please look closely at the previous sentence - I did not use the word retard as a slur.) I left the pimply-faced boy holding a one-pound, over-engineered, foot coffin and headed back into the snow. Right now, I truly want to hop on the treadmill in my socks and bust out one of my lengendary, three-minute jogs. But, I'm trying to be good by not running on off days. Besides, in about an hour I will begin shoveling snow under the street lamp whilst singing Maniac from the 1983 smash hit Flashdance.
~ A Few Hours Later ~
You know, that primal urge to sing 80s hits didn't last very long. I attacked 8" worth of snow across about perhaps 800 square feet of driveway. I think I won, but I'm not completely sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment