Monday, August 23, 2010

Twinge be gone; killing and rotating shoes…

My knee/quad tendon is better…yay! Hopefully this will not be listed as my famous last words!  Two strips of KTTape over the space of 10 days, some icing, some babying and we’re back on track. One thing that I did do was retire my shoes; 325 miles on my Brooks Adrenaline 10s, a little earlier than I hoped; about 50 miles shy of what I was expecting.

One thing I wondered was what the impact of wearing my runners to the gym, not a drama on an elliptical machine but when using a leg press there’s a lot of squishing going on! Add to that calf raises and few other things and there has to be some impact, excuse the pun. So I have dug out a pair of old shoes for the gym specifically!

The other thing was shoe rotation typically I rotate my shoes but I got out of the habit, switching orthotics and all that it’s a bit of a faff, so I am going to make the effort. In case you’re wondering on the wisdom of shoe rotation here are some soundbites and links to articles:

Buying two pairs of identical shoes and rotating them each day you run will give your shoes the amount of time you need to decompress and help prolong the useful life of your running shoes. There is an old saying, buy two, get the life of three”…full article

“Whenever possible, you should avoid running in the same pair of shoes more than once a day, and would preferably not wear the same shoes two days in a row. When you run in a pair of shoes, even on a warm or cool day with no precipitation and a dry surface, your shoes still get a little wet. Your feet sweat, and the fabric can absorb some of the humidity from the air. By not wearing your shoes two days in a row, you will allow your shoes to completely dry out”…full article

“It takes up to 48 hours after just a few miles of running for the midsoles of running shoes to fully recover their shock absorption properties. Allowing them time to recover at least that long reduces one's risk of injury and extends the life span of the shoes”…full article

So the next pair enter the fray with 123 miles on them I will be rolling a second pair into rotation, of course, inevitably, Brooks is about to retire the 10s so it might be time to stock up!