Can a fat man run?

This could be better phrased as, "Can a fat man run again?"

This is my goal: Six months from today, June 21st 2012, I, Michael David Terrell, will be running again.

All of my PT friends will probably have noted that I have not clearly defined "running again".  That is intentional.  There is no race or event i need to aim for.  There is no number of miles I need to achieve.  I just want to run again.

I want to run again and enjoy it.  I want to run without killing my knees or my back.  I want to trot down the street and have it feel good.  I want to run when I want to run.

About four years ago, I gave up running.  There will be posts later as to why that is, but for the moment you should know that I have always missed running.  Odd that I would miss it since running always beat me up so much.

How shall I accomplish this goal?  The main tool I plan use is barefoot/minimalist shoe running.  OK, raise your hand if you just rolled your eyes.  Yeah, I know what you are thinking.  "He'll give himself Achilles' Tendonitis".  "He'll beat his feet to a pulp (literally)".  "He's not some lithe, lanky Ethiopian guy.  He can't run that way."

I will grant you all this...you could easily be right.  To my knowledge, barefoot running has not been shown to lower the risk of injury or to be a "better" way of running by good, solid reproducible research.  You do have to admit, it does make sense (I'll get more into this later, as well).

Currently, I am not running.  I don't like not running.  What do I have to lose by trying?

With that said, this blog has two purposes:

1. Keep a record that I can look back at to see how the journey has progressed.
2. Keep me honest.  If I wuss out on this, there needs to be someone out there to call me a wuss and badger me to "man up" and get back out there.

Will anyone do this for me?  My plan is to do a brief post after each training session.  The posts will give the basics of what I did and how I did it.  There will likely be reflections on what went right and what went wrong (and, oh yes, something will go wrong).  My feeling is that this is going to be a fun and educational trip.  Wanna come with?