"Fair-Weather" Runner!

I wasn't a runner, then I became a runner, then I became an obsessive runner, then I stopped for awhile, then I became an occasional, "fair-weather" runner. That's where I'm at now. If the weather is good, and I'm feeling up to it, I do like to run for up to an hour.  If you don't run, or if you don't run for very long, it's hard to understand how running can be rewarding. If you watch people run, you see the effort, you see "the pain." But of course, there is an upside. But it's something you just have to experience for yourself. Working up to a distance takes a little work, a little pain, but there is that endorphin kick that makes it all worthwhile. Plus there seems to be those benefits to your body and  mind.

I was one of those "dupes" who tried those Five Finger shoes. I ran in them a couple times, thinking that "barefoot running" was the newest, greatest thing.  But then I put them back on the shelf and never used them again.  They definitely changed the running experience, changed the muscles I used to run, and there were a couple moments where it seemed like a "better" experience. But it also felt like more work.  And whatever benefit there might have been was probably illusory. And now the "evidence" seems to be that the claims for Five Fingers were a bunch of hooey. So I never have to put my toes in those things ever again, they will just gather dust on the shelf. It's regular running shoes for me. And hoping for fair weather!