Barefoot Running

I've always been terrible about taking things slow. When I get an idea, I might do a little initial research, but I usually start running before I fully comprehend walking. Switching to barefoot running was no exception.

My first barefoot 'test' run was over 3 miles on concrete and blacktop. To my credit, I started at a very slow jog, getting used to my first steps without the protection of cushioned soles. Almost immediately, my surroundings seemed to come alive.

On a normal run, I could drown out all my thoughts. My body simply placed one foot in front of the other ad infinitum. Although barefoot running is still essentially the same as running with shoes, it was also slightly different; I became conscious of a new layer of thoughts and feelings.

Now my actions needed to be very deliberate; my mind and eyes had to race through each individual step, calculating where it was safest to land. If I stepped on what I previously considered even the most minuscule of rocks, I could find myself flinching in pain. I'm far from a sadist though. If there were only pain involved, I would have quit easily.

However, where there's bad there's also good. The positive aspects was being able to feel everything from the gritty dirt on the road to the blades of grass passing through my feet with each stride.

Aside from what I was stepping on, it was more important focusing on how I stepped. Running barefoot naturally forces your feet to land on your soles first instead of the heels. Initially it felt slightly awkward; for lack of a better description, it was like tip toe running.

As I picked up speed, I noticed how light my feet felt (and it wasn't simply the missing weight of some absent shoes). My feet felt lighter because I used less force when landing.

When wearing shoes, I would strike the ground without being keen on how much pressure was placed. (I wonder if this is why many runners have bad knees.) By not wearing shoes, I instantly felt the jolt of my first few misguided and harsh steps. I learned very quickly to only use the bare minimum force between strides. Not only did I expend less energy, my knees were also grateful.

I completed my run quicker than usual. Once again, there's a positive and negative side. I looked at my feet, finding that I had a few blisters. I probably should have built up my callouses by walking barefoot first. Even with the blisters, I found it interesting. My right foot is more dominant and had more blisters. Hmm, that makes sense, but I wouldn't have thought about it like that.

Some people say that I shouldn't run barefoot for a number of reasons, safety being one of them. Like with anything in life, I take the precautions I think are necessary and then leave the rest up to fate. (If we all lived sheltered lives, we wouldn't have things like motorcycles - which I have my license and think is far more dangerous than barefoot running)

While I can't say that barefoot running is better or worse, I can say that it is a unique experience. I'm glad that this instance of "running before walking" didn't turn out disastrous.

Chris Sharma

He looked taller in the videos and pictures. Chris Sharma, arguably the world's best rock climber, was giving a presentation at my local climbing gym. He talked about his experiences traveling and climbing around the world and how it sculpted his life.

Interestingly enough, it was his time spent not climbing that I found most fascinating. Chris seemed candid in his self-reflection during the moments he took breaks from climbing; he mentioned how it wasn't about the climbing itself, but what was really important in life were the relationships he formed with the people he was climbing with. That's a tough thing to say, especially when you're speaking through a mic that resonates your voice throughout a gym full of climbing addicts and more importantly, all your climbing sponsors. Maybe that's what made it seem genuine.

Chris and Robert

I sat down at a local bar and Chris bought me a drink.  He told me how much he loved visiting Louisiana.  I thought to myself, Louisiana, that sounds like a nice place to visit.  We talked a bit about traveling. That's the first and probably last I'll see Chris.  He was a random stranger that did a nice thing for a random person.  Whenever something nice like this happens, I try to pay it forward.

I was on the way back from work when I saw Robert standing on the side of the road.  He was in his late 30's, Hispanic with tattooed forearms, a lip ring, a black shaggy beard, and dressed in grungy black t-shirt/shorts.  Robert held up a small brown cardboard sign that had "Hungry" written boldly across with a black sharpie.

"Hey, if you're hungry, I'll buy you dinner at In-N-Out."

Robert gave me an incredulous look, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, grab your stuff," I replied.

Robert snatched his skateboard and backpack just in time to jump into my truck before the traffic light turned green.  We drove down half a block to the In-N-Out and we each ordered double-double burgers with drinks.

I didn't ask, but Robert seemed compelled to share his story.  He told me he was kicked out by his roommates for not paying rent.  He used to work construction for 10 years and described to me in detail some of his previous projects.  He was born in LA, raised in San Diego, had a stint in jail (where he got his tattoos), is trying to clear his criminal record so he could find some work, and found it irritating when his parents compared him to his more successful brother.  He also loves gardening.

Today's panhandling earned him a few dollar bills, half a roast beef sandwich, and a hit of chronic.  He offered me the hit, but I had to politely refuse. He's now off to visit his girlfriend, whom he cheated on before with some other girl named Tammy. He felt ashamed that he's homeless and didn't want to admit this to his girl.

At least that's the story that he told me. I didn't offer any money (only the meal) and just waved goodbye to Robert after we finished eating. It was simple; we both came in hungry and left delightfully full. Most likely, we will never meet again.

I like to think that Chris just fed Robert.

Tuesday 4/20

I don’t know who the mailman is, but we should leave him a note thanking him for all the hard work that he does.

Warm, fuzzy, vibrating feel, and slight, constant pressure centered on my chest (feels like slightly above the solar plexus); I can feel the vibrations pulse like radar when I breathe in and breathe out deeply.

My roommate and I both look at each other. I say, “Dude, I want some chips”. He replies, “Dude! I was just thinking that!”

Tingling feel in arms as I type. Senses seem heightened (in taste) and admittedly worse at thinking and hand eye coordination. Psshh... hand eye coordination is overrated when you're sitting on the couch.

Ate probably 50 sour patch kids since I started typing. They taste sooo sour!!!

I can control my senses!!! If my mind moves to a different part of my body, I can feel the different sensations. For example, if I think about my head, I see a picture in the back of my mind. This ‘picture’, it has a black backdrop, looks like an x-ray where my skeleton is outlined in white. The image it zooms in and focuses dead center on my head. I feel a high / floating feeling on the top of my head, feels like my head is pulsing in and out.

Eyes strained. Eyelids pounding head, eyes squinting, may be because of bright light in the living room. Light switch is about 10 feet away... I decide it's too far.

I blink and it feels like I only blink 2/3 for each full blink. Not X X X where each X = 1 blink, but more like X X X where each blink is only 2/3 of a normal blink. Adjusting rate of blink to compensate. Rate of blink for normal blink =1 and Rate of blink for blinking while high is =1.25 x (rate of blink while normal), wait… 1.5 x…

Right leg just twitched; there was a quick jerk on my upper thigh / hip. Tickling sensation in my wrists. Whole body feels warm and tingly, like being on morphine. Was laughing at something on tv, snorted out loud.

Concentrating my senses to ‘point’ to my nose and I feel my nose ‘high’; it feels more like a pinch on the bridge of my nose (similar to stopping a bleeding nose). I’m exploring all these new senses! I concentrate on my chin; it feels like a vibration on the tip of my chin. Slowly moving my concentration 'beam' towards my lips; I feel the 'high' concentrated on my lower lip.

My mouth is open, hanging somewhere between a smile and a grin. Right foot just involuntarily twitched about 45 degrees upward. I’m half sitting (top) and half lying (bottom) on the couch. My butt and spine feel slightly numb. Mouth still sour and now dry/thirsty from earlier sour patch kids.

I’m closing my eyes for a little bit in order to rest. Opening eyes to see Mitch Hedberg playing, how appropriate. “You have to sleep on the floor. Damn gravity”. “You happen to be a king? Well you won’t guess what I have in store for you. A King sized bed! It’s made to your exact specifications.”

Show’s topic is now focused on food; I’m hungry. Nuked up some hot dogs, don’t have any buns, so really just eating half a pack of kosher hot dogs from Costco. Sandwiches. Yummm… Subway. They have triangular cheese slices, can tessellate across entire bread. Why do they stack the cheese over each other so they overlap instead? Finished all three hot dogs now.

Eyes feel slightly blurry; eyelids feel like I’ve been reading for hours by candlelight. Who uses candles still? Sleepy. Sleeping.

Note to Future Self - Deep Fried Oreos

Dear Future Will,

Here is the recipe for 'Deep Fried Oreos'.

Makes 30 cookies:

* 2 quarts vegetable oil for frying
* 1 large egg
* 1 cup milk
* 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
* 1 cup pancake mix
* 1 (18 ounce) package Oreos

You are welcome.

Sincerely,

Past Will

A New Year

New Years is the time of reflections and resolutions. It's January 5th and although I'm almost a week late, I figure it's better now than never.

They say all you need in life is something to do, something to hope for, and someone to love. At the end of 2008, I believe I had all of it. I had a glimpse of hope when I made it to an in-person interview for the international nonprofit 'Doctors Without Borders'. I was working with a great group of people at my homeless database job. I felt genuinely loved by my girlfriend and she simply meant the world to me. Well, that was before 'shit happened', more aptly known to me as the year of 2009.

2009 reaffirmed that stability in any form is simply an illusion. I didn't get the logistics job with Doctors Without Borders, most of my coworkers left because of convoluted work politics, and my girlfriend and I had a really messed up breakup. I know things could have easily been worse, but I didn't cope well.

I tried to get back on my feet. I have such a great support network, I shouldn't have had any excuse not to recover, but for some reason I just couldn't. My mind kept wandering, I half assed everything, all except probably the drinking. My bar tabs would regularly reach the three digits per week. I became jaded with the idea of love and I don't remember the names of the last three girls I kissed. I'd meet some new and fun people, get numbers, but I ignored them since I knew I was an emotional train-wreck. Despite making more at my job, I stopped saving money to travel. I couldn't even study for the GREs; the idea of it just reaffirmed my own uncertainty of what I wanted to do with my life. I even applied for a temporary janitor position (in Antarctica) for a quarter of my salary, only to be wait listed. I found myself depressed.

My New Year started off at a local bar with a kiss to another random cute girl. After waking up, I thought I faintly remembered her name. A few days later, I finally decided to make a huge leap (for me at least) and call her. Luckily I got her voicemail so I was able to confirm the name. She called back later admitting to a recent breakup and still having issues with the ex. We won't be seeing each other, but I'm glad I made the attempt. I'm improving (albeit slightly) and I'm slowly writing again, which I find to be therapeutic.

Here's some of my New Years resolutions:

Try not to become a raging alcoholic
Climb a v5
Develop an iPhone application
Write a novel
Save money to travel ($1000 per month goal)
Travel somewhere out of the country
Don't buy shit I don't need
Continue to be genuine with myself and my friends
Meet more people, be more open minded
I want to get rid of anger as a feeling; I want to understand people and although I might not agree with everyone, I want to do a better job of getting in their shoes
Play my first game of rugby
Take a photography course

Cowabunga!!

A friend turned around asking, "Do you want to start a fight with the ninja turtles?" At the moment, it sounded like the best idea in the world, so I yelled back "Sure! Why not?!"

As soon as the words left my mouth, I quickly regretted the decision and immediately thought of a few good reasons why we should not start a fight with 'the ninja turtles'.

First of all, my friend was serious. I figured this out by the sounds of pushing and yelling that already ensued.

Second of all, I was wearing a homemade domo-kun costume. The costume pretty much consisted of a cardboard box from the knees up. There were two cut out holes for my arms and a tiny slit removed in front for visibility. I barely had the dexterity to navigate the streets of downtown on Halloween, much less try to hurt someone in it.

Third, the ninja turtles didn't do anything! You need a good reason to start any fight. I'd be more than happy to throw a few punches if someone else instigated or if they were really disrespectful to a girl, but this wasn't the case. We were missing a motive AND we were picking a fight with my childhood heroes?!

Fourth, we were all drunk. I'm not sure if this supports getting into a fight or not, but I think this reason trumps all previous reasoning.

So that's where we were, standing in the packed streets of downtown San Diego on Halloween night right after last call. Just earlier the streets were so crowded that you had to push people to get through, but the brawl left people watching from a safe distance. It looked like a mosh pit at a concert (if you were on LSD); in one corner we had the ninja turtles and on the other side we had Jesus, Domo-kun, a Catholic priest, a cat, and my drunken friend.

I don't remember exactly what I did, but I do remember breaking up the fight when I saw the bouncer of a nearby club jump in. I'm 5'10 and when I looked at him, I saw his chest. His arms were the size of my thigh and he didn't appear happy.

I blocked the bouncer, who was making a beeline for the fight. I said that my friend was drunk and that we were taking him straight home. That didn't remove the scowl on his face so I mentioned that my friend was mentally handicapped and we were just trying to get him to have a good Halloween, but he's not used to being in public. I guess the thought of punching a retarded guy wasn't the bouncer's idea of fun so he let us go and walked back to his post.

The altercation was over and we went off to finish another epic night. Sometimes I don't remember what drunk Will does so it's interesting to see pictures from friends. I've gotten a few of them and I'll post below: