Friday Aug. 27th: Short Run and A Shoe Fitting

I ended up taking the better part of three days off in order to let my body rest and my achilles recover after running the 5k and my mistake run on Monday.  Fortunately, the class at the gym were all canceled, so I didn't have to feel like I was skipping anything.  I did do a little stretching session on Thursday, but I wasn't anything of note.  I thought about taking Friday off as well, but I couldn't hold myself in check any longer.  Instead I went for short run.  My wife and I both needed the car our car on Friday, which isn't normally a problem because we both live within 2 miles of our jobs and own bikes.  We use as our normal mode of transportation.  However, with my achilles acting up, I have been driving most of the month, my wife wasn't feeling well and needed to drive to work.  Since she had to be at her work earlier than I needed to be at mine, I told her to drive the car and I would just run to her work then drive home, shower, eat, and go to work.  It was a great way to handle both of our needs for the car, and since she would be working a little overtime anyway.  I could work my regular work day and pick her up without her having to walk home or wait on me.  The run was 1.67 miles with two nice little hills, exactly what I needed after a layoff.

After work, I dropped my wife off  and picked up all of my running shoes changed into some shorts and went to Fleet Feet for a fitting.  I spent about an hour there talking about the problems I have been having then trying on different shoes and insoles, until we found the combination that worked best for me.  I ended up getting some Superfeet insole, which I hope will combine with my new shoes to improve my achilles. They are not your regular soft insole, but a hard insole designed to support your feet more than cushion.  They take some time getting use to, but I've noticed a marked improvement in my Achilles since I have worn them.

I am not prepared to say that my problems have been solved, but thinking back, my problems began around the time I bought new shoes.  I  recently read over my blog and compared that to my bank statement and noticed that the pain started about a month after I bought my last pair of shoes.  So it is could a least be a factor.  And when you consider the haphazard way I have gone about selecting shoes in the past . . . I am kind of ashamed to say this, but this was my first proper shoe fitting.  I wear size 15 shoes, and I grew up in a small town where the shoe buying options were limited, when I would go shoe shopping I would be lucky if the store had two pairs of shoes to try on.  The town where I went to college was the same way, and I never once bought shoes when I lived in Japan because I was a giant there.  I always had someone buy them for me in the states and mail them to me.  So, it never entered in my mind that I might have options concerning foot wear until recently.  My habit had always been ask for a size 15, see if it fit, buy it, and go home and wear it until it falls off.  But, I recently started noticing that most of the shoe store around my stocked a lot of 15's, which caused me to think that I should invest more time in my shoe shopping.  Also, one of my friends who runs and blogs gave her local Fleet feet a ring endorsement: Running in Circles: Fleet Feet.  The push I needed came when one of their staff members came to the Y and provided some details about their store and services to the members.  I spoke with her for a good 15 mins. and it was her suggestion that I bring in all of my current shoes when I came to the store, which I thought was a great idea.  Well now that I have what I hope will is proper footwear for me, I might be able to enjoy my workouts more and worry less about injury.