Paleo Dan

I don’t really like shoes. I mean, until recently, I didn’t hate them, but I’d just wear them to work and then take them off as soon as I got home. If I was heading out somewhere other than work, I’d slip on my flip flops or sandals. Around the house, though, I was usually barefoot.

Then a few years ago, I moved back to the beach and started working from home. Now about the only time I would wear shoes were when I was running, working out, or going out somewhere that flip flops just didn’t seem appropriate.

Then I read Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run. I haven’t worn shoes since. I still spend as much time as possible completely barefoot, but when I must put something on my feet, I wear my gorilla shoes.

That’s what my friends call my black Vibram FiveFingers KSOs. I love my KSOs. (My wife hates them, but that’s just because she hasn’t gotten her own pair to try out.) Sure, I get a lot of stares when I wear them out in public, but I don’t care… they are comfortable!

Like I said, most of the time I’m barefoot, so I usually just wear my KSOs when I head to the gym or out for a run. When we head out to run errands or out to dinner, I’ll alternate between my KSOs and my flip flops.

Today, I ran a 5K race wearing my KSOs. Tomorrow I’ll find something else to do wearing my KSOs. Later in the week, I’m going to wear my KSOs as I get all touristy in our nations capital. I might just have to take some pictures of the places I go and the things I do wearing my KSOs.

No, Timex did not pay me to say that. So far, I’ve had two watches from the IRONMAN set.

The first was one of the old school IRONMAN watches. I don’t remember when I got it or how long I wore it, but it was on my arm until the battery died. For some reason, instead of just replacing the battery I decided to get a new watch. More money than sense, I suppose.

Old School Badass

The second IRONMAN was one of the Sleek 50-lap designs. I really liked the sleek design of this watch. It was a great watch that I just wore slam out…

I wore the Start/Split button out.

Even though the wear on the “Start/Split” button made it hard to use, I kept on using it. I had to wiggle my finger around a bit on the button before it would register the start. But, alas, nothing lasts forever…

Hard to see, but the band is hanging on by a thread.

When the first “link” in the band broke, I planned to find some superglue to see if I could make it last. Unfortunately, the middle “link” broke first.

Well, with the bum button and the broken strap, I thought maybe it was time to give up and just get a new watch…

Thanks to Mr. UPS, I am pleased to be sporting a shiny new IRONMAN Race Trainer with Data Xchanger. And I have to say, the Data Xchanger is cool. I can set heart rate zones, various display formats, interval timer splits, time, and alarms. Yeah, yeah, I can set that stuff on the watch, but how tedious is it to press this button and that button over and over and over again? Much easier to just do it on my computer. How cool is that?

Timex IRONMAN Triathlon Race Trainer Kit (T5K263)

I like it.