The Right Shoes

The Right Shoes

Years ago when I first started running I was completely clueless about which trainers I should buy. That is a dangerous situation to be in and I thank my lucky stars that I was well advised even in my earliest days.

The first step Steve and I took, once we had seriously decided to try to re-find a little of the fitness we both had when we were younger, that time was years further behind me than it was for Steve since he is ten years and eleven months younger than me. Our first move was to join a gym and that was a good move. That is still the route I would recommend to anybody who asked me how they should get fit. We joined the Lotus centre in Durrington. The manager there was most helpful and took her job very seriously. Having set us a programme when we joined, she then checked on our progress on the chart we returned. One day after a month or so she asked me why I had not used the tread mill since that was part of the programme she had set for me. I told her simply that I didn’t do running and never had not even very much at school. I was a dancer as a child and so fit enough but I had no interest in sport and it had not beckoned me in any way. I was not in any of the teams apart from the country dance group.

Leanne the manager, asked me if I had even tried the tread mill and on seeing my face she lead me over and gave me lesson on how to use it very patiently. Then she suggested that maybe it would be a good idea if she stayed with me and talked me through a teeny weeny work out. The rest is history as they say. Leanne later introduced us to her husband Eddie who was a good runner and a coach and he took us both under his wing for an introduction to running outside of the gym and off the treadmill.









He took us on some gentle runs and was more than helpful. He suggested that we went and bought some more suitable trainers and suggested that we went to The Jog Shop in George Street, Kemptown in Brighton. He said that we would get expert advice there from the owner Sam Lambourne, who was a very good runner himself, a prolific marathon runner in fact. He told us that Sam would not let us pick the trainers we needed, he would tell us which trainers were most suitable for us. He added that we should take the trainers we had been using with us because Sam would want to see them.

So off we bowled to Brighton a few days later. We introduced ourselves and told our short tale. Steve was served with no problem at all and was happy with the pair that Sam recommended for him. Then me; Sam looked at how I had worm my shoes and then watched me walk and then jog a few steps within the track lines painted on the floor of The Jog Shop. “You are unstable Daphne”, Sam said. “Takes one to know one”, I shot back at him. He went on to explain that I was a supinator and told me that the best thing he could say about the shoes I had shown him was that they were a pretty colour, but that they were most unsuitable for me and that I needed support, I needed some stability. Not a classic salesman as you can tell from the blunt truth there. Not a person who would just sell you anything you had seen in a magazine and like the look of. He sells you the shoes you need.




He was right of course. I do roll over on the outside of my feet, as shown by the wear at the outside of the heel of all my shoes. I have always worn shoes with plenty of support and long abandoned the idea of lightweight racers. I also always put gel raisers in the heel area of the trainers under the inner sole otherwise the back of the shoe nags at my Achilles.

It was a blessing when I started to do well in my age group in Triathlon when I found a long term sponsor with Saucony. Saucony sponsored me for a good twenty years of my triathlon career. I count that as the most enormous blessing, for which I will be eternally grateful. They gave me new trainers regularly and running kit too which was a marvellous help because sports kit has got to being now, more and more expensive. Saucony stayed with me constantly until they dropped me when they became part of a much bigger group with a wider range of goods over other sports. I still write and tell them how I have done at the end of each season and I always get a reply and that’s nice.
During the time that Saucony sponsored me I wore their Hurricane, Grid and Guide Trail shoes since I do most of my running off road. I am not wild about pounding concrete.

What brought me to talk about all this today was a phone call earlier comparing what we were all doing training wise and I mentioned that the extra classes that we were doing at home had pointed out to me that Sam Lambourne's comment years ago was absolutely correct … I am unstable!













Apart from our running and biking we have so enjoyed our hour long ballet workout class with the New York City Ballet, and the sessions of Qigong that we have totally fallen for and found so helpful during this time stuck endlessly indoors during the lock down. Both of those classes have pointed out strongly that I am and always have been plagued by the dreaded supination. Both of these show that I do rollout onto the outside of my feet probably it started with ballet years ago starting to avoid pressure of the ballet bunion! The hardest thing for me has been doing exercises where I need to balance on one foot. So even this late in life, I am learning to try to place my feet firmly on the ground or I have no chance of any balance when trying to perform some movements on one leg! I am addressing this problem and I am improving this particular downfall. It’s never too late for correction.

Yesterday I spoke about it being a rest day the first in nine weeks. Just out of interest; we did run very early this morning and the Garmin Forerunner on Steve’s wrist, recorded that during our run, we had three new PB ’s for the year. One for 1 mile, another for 5 km and a final new PB for 10 km. How nice was that? We all love a PB it makes us very happy to see that all the training is actually getting somewhere.

If you look at any of the photos today of me running, you will see that my heel is just about to meet the road on the outside of my shoe, ready to roll along the side of my foot.
   

Note: Supination, also known as under pronation, is the insufficient inward roll of the foot after landing. ... If you're a runner who is a habitual supinator, you place extra stress on the outer side of the foot, which can trigger a whole host of other issues you might not be aware of.