Question for Runners - Beginning Jogging

[Jolt]

I had been running for a few years in "motion control" shoes before I tried going barefoot. I'd gone to a local running shop, they watched me (and videotaped me!) on a treadmill and told me which shoes to get. Over a couple of years, I kept having different issues- IT band pain, patello-femoral tendonitis (went to a PT for that one), shin pain, and at one point, I went to a podiatrist because of a re-occurring bruise under my big toe. He gave me some temporary insoles and wanted me to try them before I came back for orthotics. The insoles made my feet hurt so badly after 1 run that I just had to stop running for several weeks. Then I got really hooked on cycling and didn't run for a year or more.

Actually, IT band issues were what finally made me try barefoot/VFF running--I had seen info about it before and was intrigued but afraid to try it, and then decided to give it a go when the ITB stuff was hard to keep under control. It has definitely helped (along with continuing to work on the muscle imbalance issues that contributed to the problem), although I have had one flare-up even in the VFFs (however, I knew my form was off at the time from having banged up the ball of my foot on a rock while trying to stay upright after tripping). It's amazing, though, how hard it is to keep up proper form throughout the whole run when you've gotten out of condition!

[Reesha]

can anyone find me a good video of proper form? i don't even know if i have it!!!

[jessica47201]

Well, I had to take a PT test today for the military and the results were not that good. One of the events for the Army PT test is a 2-mile run, I have to do at least 17 pushups in 2 minutes and 45 situps in 2 minutes. I past the pushup and situp, but the run was horrible. Since I am 30 yrs old, I have to run it in 20:30. I came across the finish line at 24:28!!! Horrible!!!! I haven't ran 2 miles in 2 years though, so I guess I can lie to myself and say not bad, since I had knee surgury 1 year and 2 months ago, and never did any physical therapy afterward. So, I now have until July 1st, that is when my next PT test is!!! I don't have to pass it, but they do want to see some major improvements or I will have to start going to a mandatory PT group 5 days a week. So I have some motivation for that!!! I'm looking at it that I have to shave about a minute off of every 1/2 mile!! We have markers posted on the side of the road for every half mile. Also, according to my height and weight requirements for the military, I'm over weight and I had to get taped. The body fat tape test came out with the results of me being 40% body fat!!!! That can not be right!!!! There is now way I'm almost 50% fat!!!! But, I'm going to adjust my eating habits, not really diet, I'm just going to choose some healthier foods and start running more, which means I'll have to cut down on my cycling!!! If anyone has any pointers, I'm all game!!! Thanks for listening to my pity-party!!!