My guess is that part of it is due to the yogurt I’ve been eating (for the most part) being fortified with Vitamin D3, which it’s easy to become deficient in during the winter.

With only ‘minor flu’s', though, it sounds like your body is doing a pretty good job handling things …

Jamil – I really think I should switch to barefoot one of these days. That said the next best alternative are the lightest and barest shoes possible. I’ve been monitoring very carefully my running style on the treadmill (without modification) and do notice I am a forefoot striker. I’ve also run with the expensive shoes and the cheap stuff, and quite frankly, they feel the same. Maybe if I was a heel runner it would be different. And yeah, we’re getting old. :( I think the body mass gain is the worst detriment to performance so far. No major knee damage or anything like that yet, however!

Curious – what was your reasoning?

“I started developing the feeling of a blister on my left pinky toe, so I have experience with new shoes and blisters – doesn’t matter how expensive the shoes are, it always happens.”

That was my experience too – it only didn’t happen on the most comfortable pair of runners I had, which also had big holes on the sides where the pinky toes were.