Happy Feet!
It’s amazing what the right pair of shoes will do for you. (I know what you’re thinking: “Shouldn’t you have figured this out by now? Sheesh, and you call yourself a runner.” HARRUMPH. There’s no need to get snippy, even though I pulled a fast one on you.)
I digress.
I’ve been buying my shoes at a very reputable and knowledgeable running store ever since I got back into running. Staff members are runners themselves, and they take the time to watch you run to determine the best shoe for you. Given my IT band issues/runner’s knee, they recommended a high stability/motion control shoe, the Asics Gel Foundation 7.
My first pair was the men’s version as they were out of the women’s; three months later I bought the women’s version, which got me through my first two marathons. Both pairs were getting into 400-mile mark earlier this year, so in February I picked up another pair. Although I was prone to getting blisters on the side of my foot just under my big toe, the shoes worked well. Why mess with success?
Then came last Saturday’s 20-mile run and what I thought was a calf sprain. My left calf muscle was incredibly tight during the entire run, and the next day I noticed a bruise just behind my left knee at the top of my calf. Yee-ouch! The bruising really concerned me as I feared it was a sign of some serious damage. I took the next four days off (so no 200-mile month) and went to my physical therapist.
She’s never done a foot analysis before, so she had me take off my shoes and socks and watched me run across the room. Turns out I DON’T over-pronate; what I really need is a shoe that provides neutral to moderate support. In fact, she had a sheet from my running store outlining the recommendations for each level of support (neutral, moderate and durable). The Asics Gel Foundations are in the durable support category — something I do NOT need.
She spent several minutes massaging my upper calf; although I winced throughout — it wasn’t one of those soothing massages you get while listening to the sounds of a babbling brook — I felt great afterwards. She also instructed me to continue to work on strengthening my hips through side leg lifts and leg rotations. And of course, I had to buy new shoes. (I was bummed considering I just bought the Asics, however, I realized I’ve already put more than 240 miles on them!)
I went back to my running store and tried on various brands, as well as a couple of different inserts. I settled on a pair of Brooks’ Defyance shoes with some BioSole insoles and immediately took them out on a 7-mile test run. They felt fantastic! My calf felt fine (I made sure to stretch it after a 5-minute warm-up) and the rest of me did as well. In fact, I was able to run an average 9:02 pace.
I wanted to get in some miles this week, so the next day I took them out for what was supposed to be a 14-mile run. This time I kept my pace to about 10:20. Once again I felt great, although when it began to downpour around mile 9 I decided to call it quits at 10 miles (I wanted to save my legs for today’s 15-mile run). When I took off my shoes and socks I was thrilled to see my blister-prone spot hadn’t swelled one bit, even though I hadn’t slathered it with Bag Balm or wrapped it with moleskin.
The real test was today’s 15-miler. I had to run 12 miles at marathon pace (9:10) so I figured if any issue would surface it would be today. Although it was a very tough run (I’ll recap in another post), it had nothing to do with my feet. My calf felt great throughout and my feet remained blister-free. HALLELUJAH!
April 6th, 2008 at 4:20 am
Congratulations on finding a new “perfect” shoe. I can tell you when I started out running they put me in a high stability shoe, but as I ran and got stronger I moved over to a more more moderate stability shoe. I chalked it up to strengthening of muscles changing my stride. I think it is in our best interest to have the shoe stores reassess us from time to time just to make sure we are still in the right kind of shoe.
April 7th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Very cool. Hooray for new shoes!