They’re cool. They’re black Eccos with white stripes, look like soccer shoes and generally look like cool sporty gym shoes, yet not workout sneakers, which was the look I was going for when I got them. And they’ve served me well. This is why it’s been such a long time before I’ve even thought about replacing them.
But of late, they’ve begun to look super scrungy. Wearing them went from feeling exciting to just plain blah, and I’d begun watching other mommy feet for new ideas in sporty yet not workout sneakers. Ecco has some cool shoes to choose from, especially their Vibration II Toggle in red, but I was looking for something pink this time. After many late nights of internet window shopping, I settled on a great pair of Merrell Barefoot Pace Gloves in Ash (pink). In many ways, they’re quite similar to my Black Ecco swish shoes, but in pink.
But before buying anything now-a-days, I read the reviews. This shoe purchase was no exception. So I looked on Amazon.com, Zappos.com and elsewhere to see what folks had to say. While the overwhelming review was outstanding, I also noticed something else interesting – about a third of the reviews mentioned a book, “Born to Run.”
I’m a voracious reader. As I happened to be in between books, I went online, added Born to Run to my library queue and promptly forgot about it. The next day, a librarian called to say it was in and awaiting pick up. Ok, well, that was fortuitous.
I began reading the book, but it was slow going. I’m not a runner, so it wasn’t pulling me in. A friend who’d read the book (three times), and is a runner told me to stick with it, that it would grab me soon. Ok.In the interim, the shoes arrived. They’re super cool. They look great. They feel great – just like…wait for it…gloves for the feet. Socks fit in them, but they’re also comfortable barefoot. They’re breathable. They don’t make big footed people look like we have Bozo the clown feet (always a concern). Basically, these shoes are hot (in the cool sense of the word).
In the reviews and on the company website, new wearers are advised to wear them around the house for a while to build up foot strength; the presumption is generally that Americans wear shoes constantly. I generally don’t. Most of my day is spent in (fancy) flip flops or walking around only in socks, or completely barefoot. I like the way it feels, so if I can get away with it, I kick off heels and padded shoes. During this year of exergaming, this has actually been a “thing” in that some folks have asked to work out together or for me to post videos of me working out. While there are other issues like looking ridiculous working out, my complete reticence has also been about not wanting folks to see me working out in socks without shoes. I never use shoes when exergaming. Now I’m so used to working out without shoes, that when I do try to exergame with shoes on, I feel extremely uncomfortable.
In any case, last night I hit the “trigger point” for myself in the book. About one hundred pages in, the book became compelling, and the only thing that got me to put it down was the knowledge that the slumbering toddler in the other room would wake up with tremendous amounts of energy in the early morning no matter how late one stayed up reading to oneself. Smart move mommy.
At lunch today, I thought about exergaming, but knew that today was one of my three weekly “off” days in EA Sports Active 2. Generally these "off" days have been filled with other exergame workouts. But today, upon looking at the weather channel online, seeing it was already 84 degrees, gazing outside at the trees swaying in the heat, I started to remember how I used to love to run when I was a kid. I was fast. It was never a distance thing for me, but the wind in my face was always as refreshing as jumping into a pool.
I figured, “what the heck, it’s lunch time, why not;” then walked downstairs and laced my feet barefoot into the Foot Gloves. I’d figured I’d slow down to a walk upon getting winded or stop for a bit upon arriving at a known landmark that seemed way too far off for me to reach. I mean, it HAD been 2004 since I’d last jogged at all.
Walking down the front steps, I broke into a leisurely run down the driveway to the mountainous dirt road….and didn’t stop until getting back home 3.88 miles later. Yes, you read that correctly.
It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t deadly either. The exergaming had conditioned me to be able to go farther than I’d thought possible. The shoes allowed me to recapture my childhood glee at tumbling along.
How many of you have moved outside this summer? What are your favorite outside workouts?Feel free to post here or email me at jenn (at) jbmercurio (dot) com.
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