Quote me

Alright, first things first: For all you people who read Runner's World, you know there's a shoe review in there every now and then, as there is in the March issue. They also mention on the front page of the section that the biomechanic testing is done at Michigan State University and they utilize wear testers in 3 cities, one of them being East Lansing. Well, I've applied to the program twice to no avail, and I guess the third time is a charm because I'm in this time around. I got there sort of late on Tuesday so there wasn't much of a selection left for my size-12 feet, but I picked up a pair of Saucony Grid Jazz 11 shoes. Sooooo.....maybe in a few months you'll see a quote from me in Runner's World :) It's also cool because, since East Lansing is one of the cities that take part in the program, I recognize the names of a bunch of people they quote in there.

First impression? The toe box is definitely bigger than the Asics and Brooks shoes I'm used to; this is my first time wearing Saucony. Other than that, it just kind of felt like any other shoe I've ever worn. I broke the shoes in a bit Tuesday night and then took them for a spin on the treadmill Wednesday morning. I was planning on doing 5 or 6 miles, but after about 3.5 my arch started bothering me a little bit.....oh great. I rounded it up to 4 miles and called it quits just to be cautious. The shoes weren't to blame, they felt great. It was something else that I failed to notice that should've been obvious....

All during the rest of the day, the pain became a bit worse because I had to work that afternoon. On Wednesday nights, Playmakers hosts a sports injury clinic where physical therapists and other professional health-oriented individuals help "patients" out with their problems on a free individual basis. I stayed after work for the clinic to figure out my problem, and we discovered that the insert I had (Stabilizer) was too narrow for my foot so when I came down and flattened my foot out, my foot kind of overflowed on the sides and the insert ended up pinching me....and I never noticed it until now. So, we tried something else called a Stable Lite insert. Apparently the owner of Playmakers helped design it, but instead of being a full insert like the Stabilizer, the Stable Lite is a half insert for the heel and arch. It's also a little more flexible and forgiving than the Stabilizer is. Long story short, I put the new Stable Lite insert in my shoes, wore them around on Thursday, and by Friday it was like night and day. The pain was pretty much gone!

Friday night I biked 3 miles, did 5 miles on the elliptical and then biked 5 more miles, and things felt great. So I'm just gonna go with these inserts until further notice. Today I biked 6 miles and did some upper body exercises, and tomorrow's gonna be a long run of mileage to be determined. So that's me in a nutshell in the past 5 days. It's been a rollercoaster of frustration for sure.