One day the hubby and I were returning from a run when my hubby informed me that my feet turned in. "You know, that can't be good for you," he said. I barely cared about the good for you part...I was too concerned about the turned in feet part. I began over-analyzing my stride, and noticed that my foot rolled in sharply as I ran. I decided that I was an over-pronator,and immediately sought shoes to rectify my gate issue (mind you...I'd never had a smidge of pain running before or noticed any issues like severe wear to one side of the shoe). My hunt for shoes was complicated by the fact that I have extrememly high arches. Super high. Skyscrapers. However, pronator shoes are all made for low arches! I actually have both high arches and a tendency to roll in onto my toes - simply because the arch is SO high that I otherwise have nothing to roll to at all. Basically most people hit on the heel, roll through the arch (or arch support of their shoe), onto the ball of the foot, and push off for the next step. I don't - I go directly from heel to toe in a kind of rough transition. So in all my heady knowledge on the topic (um, none), I decided to buy the the Brooks Ariel, a massive, heavy, stiff shoe made for people with no arches and crazy pronation. Nine months later I am in the doctor's office with excruciating runner's knee. It turns out I have a normal gate with healthy pronation - I just needed a little more arch support. Normal pronation actually protects the knees. In other words I had selected exactly the wrong shoe, forcing my knees out of their natural "track" and developing all the wrong muscles. Now I am in therapy. Moral of the story? Don't let your vanity sway you to make stupid choices, and don;t listen to people who know nothing about a sport and want to give you advice! And for me, that includes me :)
PS - I have a great sports med doctor and great new shoes now!
No comments:
Post a Comment