Eat Drink Run Woman

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!