Enjoying the Challenge of Transitioning

Natural running, or minimalist running, is a whole new commitment to running for me. Running was always something that was kind of easy and just something I enjoyed. I jumped into races just for fun, even a marathon, with no training... When I started making the transition to natural running, running definitely became more of a challenge to me. Which, actually made it enjoyable in a different way.

The thing about minimalist or natural running, is that it requires you to be committed. It requires you to be patient. It requires you to listen to your body. It requires you to know your body.  And it requires mental toughness.

Instead of stopping when your hip starts nagging half a mile in, it requires listening to your body and understanding why your hip hurts. Did I start to fast or did I warm up enough? Am I compensating somehow? Instead of thinking that soreness is pain, I must get used to soreness- and take care of my body (warm up, stretch, massage) - then learn to recognize real pain (but obviously not ignore real pain).

It’s also easy to blame a not great run, or a nagging pain or anything on my new natural style of running, when in reality, I’ve always had pains, bad runs, or injuries when running in my old clunky running shoes. Excuses don’t help me improve my running form, practice does.

Although I’m super excited for my next race in my new minimalist, natural shoes - for now my biggest challenge is patience and commitment as I transition. And though there are no PRs, or medals for completing it, it will be a very big victory for me personally. I’m enjoying the challenge of my journey so far. 

We want to hear your #committed story. Win a #committed package by repinning one of our images from our "share your commitment" board on Pinterest or pin your own image and tag inov8run in the caption.  Not on Pinterest? (What are you waiting for?!) Take a picture of your commitment and post it to Facebook tagging inov8run and putting #committed in the description. 

Chris Davis is Becoming a Natural!

Chris Davis came in on Friday to get fitted for a new pair of inov-8s and I’ll tell you, I was so excited- I felt like I was meeting a celebrity. I was so excited because I wanted to meet him and to tell him how inspiring he was. He started at 696 lbs and is now down to 294 and aiming to reach 200lbs. After meeting Chris, if possible, I think was even more inspired by Chris and his #commitment.

Spartan Race founder Joe D. is helping Chris meet his health goals by providing him with housing, a diet plan and a training plan to get him ready for the Spartan Beast September 22^nd. Chris has already completed 2 Spartan Races- including a 5mile sprint complete with sets of 30 burpees at a time, and a 10 foot wood wall soaked in slippery dish soap and water that Chris climbed. Nicole, Lizzie and I will be doing our first Spartan Race in Amesbury on August 11^th and Chris will be there doing his third!

Now, some may say Chris has an advantage by having someone to help train him and work with him. But after hearing what Chris has to do every single day- living without his family and friends up in the mountains of Vermont, eating nothing but raw fruits and vegetables, and walking up and down the mountain at least 10 miles per day carrying sand bags and other heavy objects- you know that man is #committed to becoming healthy.

You could see in Chris’s eyes that this has not been easy. It is wearing to be away from home for that long, to be living on only raw fruits and vegetables and working out as much as he has, and the changes in his body are not easy either. He shared with us that because he is losing weight so drastically, it changes his center of balance among many other things and it’s hard to even walk sometimes. But when Chris reached in his bag to pull out his old, size 72 pants, that Lizzie and I could both easily fit into, you could see nothing but pride and happiness in that man’s face and you could tell that he was going to keep at it until he reached his goals.

Chris used to have trouble with fitting into his shoe size, and now we are helping him choose a shoe that will help him scale walls and climb mountains. Chris was a little worried that he wouldn’t be able to fit into a size 13, because he has a wide foot and had heard that our shoes were narrow. He also used to have to wear a size up because of the width of his feet. But since he’s lost so much weight, he was back to his normal shoe size, and they fit great!

Chris had never worn minimalist shoes before, so we are transitioning him slowly. We gave him a pair of Road-X 255, our 3 arrow, 9mm drop road running shoe for his road and hard trail training, and a pair of Terrafly 313 GTX (also a 3 arrow 9mm drop) for his hiking on the mountain. He said he could feel the difference between his motion control shoes that were prescribed to him for over pronating. He liked the lightweight feel of the minimalist shoes and we talked to him about natural running and pose running, that with training, could help strengthen his feet and ankles. He was also excited because his last shoes held water and mud and had no grip during the Spartan Race in PA he did last weekend. 

We know there are many of you #committed athletes out there, all overcoming different challenges and all with different goals. Everyone has their own challenges to overcome and PRs to set, and at inov-8 we want to help you reach those goals. Share your #committed stories with us here, or pictures on our "Share your commitment" Pinterest board, or with us on Facebook. We love to be inspired by you! 

I am a Spartan!

As you already know, inov-8 has recently signed on as the official footwear of the Spartan Race.

Along with being excited to work with Spartan, we are also terrified...

On August 11, a few of us here at inov-8 will be lacing up our X-Talons, Trailrocs, Roclites, etc. and hitting the Amesbury, MA course. Having never done an adventure/mud race of any kind myself, I have a sneaking suspicion I may be in over my head.

Caitlin and I attempted to "train" for the event, and will continue to do so after realizing we are competely incapable of rope climbing, scaling walls, etc.

We hope you join us for the event - sign up here

Stay tuned as we will share some entertaining/embarrassing training videos and pictures soon.