If the shoe fits....

OK, if you know me at all you know I'm a girl who looooves my shoes! I love everything about any kind of shoes, be it shoes for work, shoes for play (these would be 4 inches or higher generally open-toe) shoes that get you where you're going or most importantly shoes that help you move your ass!

Whether you're a walker, runner, gym rat, triathlete or marathoner we all have one piece of equipment in common and that's what we wear on our feet. When I first started working out a couple years ago I went with what I thought looked good, did I like the color, did I have gym clothes that matched etc....giving very little consideration to whether or not they would help or hinder my training! It's all about looking good right!? Wrong! After numerous years or working out in various forms -- walking, boxing, step classes, trail running and now triathlon training I have learned, much to my horror, 1) it's not about how good they look and 2) this is not a one-size-fits-all situation!

Take for example my recent shoe foray and lesson learned the hard way:

For the last year or so of training I have been wearing Asics. I switched from Nike (typically a pretty narrow shoe) to the roomier Asics. I love them and of course they, like Nike, are a well worn brand.

But it's not all in the brand I have come to find out...you have to also consider the style or model, in terms of how they fit your feet and personal running style. I've learned this lesson the hard way over the last year.

First, last year as I began training for my first Olympic distance triathlon and upped my running mileage from the average 3 miles to 6, I began experiencing severe achillis pain. After struggling for several weeks and enduring the pain, figuring it was just my body adapting to the longer runs, I discussed it with my running partner, who was a much more experienced runner. She said it could be the fit of the shoe and had I ever gotten fitted. I said no and kept painfully running along...but after the run we began looking at running shoes and I ended up ordering a pair with a wider toe box, Asics Nimbus -- it helped that they had lots of purple on them!

The change in shoes in addition to regular massages helped my achillis problems stop almost immediately. I spent the next 6 months running in the shoes and even training for three 1/2 marathons with little or no achillis pain!

I did two 1/2 marathons in the Nimbus but by the time my third 1/2 marathon rolled around and considering the shoes had weathered a virtual typhoon for the 1/2 at Pensacola Beach in January, I decided it was time to retire them. Why I didn't just replace them with a new pair of the same style, I'll never know, but I noticed a lot of my training buddies were wearing a style called Kayano, so I opted for those. I did the rest of my training and competed in the Seaside 1/2 in the new kicks...only problem was I began experiencing foot and calf pain...figuring this was just my body being over a Winter of running, I ignored it, including during the Seaside race when my left foot fell completely asleep for a good 2 miles.

Now Spring is here and it's the beginning of tri season and my running training calls for significantly shorter distances but I was struggling more and more with my runs and how fatigued my feet and legs were feeling. I complained to some friends while in Ft. Lauderdale for business and was told I had to go get fitted. My friend Dan had done it and elevated knee problems he was having while running. So I marched into Runners World in Aventura (If you're in Aventura I highly recommend them!) And was told my shift from Nimbus to Kayano was a huge mistake! They're two totally different shoes for two totally different kinds of feet! Who knew? The shoe expert at the story spent a lot of time analyzing my feet from several angles, which was a bit awkward but when he was done he told me pretty much all of my predispositions about my feet and the kind of shoes I should have were wrong!

Now I have a new pair of Asics that are suited for my feet! Oh and they other tip they gave me....run errands in your new running shoes before you take them out for a real spin...this will help break them in.

Bottom line, whatever your sport or activity, it's important to make sure you have the right equipment even on our feet! Working out and staying motivated is challenging enough....this is a simple fix that can make every step you take a whole lot easier or much harder, literally!

For those of you who are interested in getting an assessment of your feet and recommendatiosn on shoes here are a couple of places that I know of that do it:

South Florida: Runner's World, Runners Depot
DC/STL/City folks: Fleet Feet
Tallahassee: Shaw's