"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Saving my feet

I've gone from thinking I have one great race left in me to having one good race left to having one race left. I don't want to get to the point where I think I have one run left. One obstacle I have to deal with is heel bursitis:

Some have asked: that's almost as hard as bone, not like a blister.

I'm not having the surgery for a number of reasons, which leaves me with few choices.

Like... taking up swimming. [Next!]

Minimalist shoes are another common suggestion, but moccasins and huaraches don't work in Minnesota winters and neither do most minimalist shoes for the same reasons. I'm looking at a few models that don't seem completely retarded, but really, it's only a few steps from that to arm gaiters and headphones. Maybe I should change my name to Kai, get a mohawk and try out for American N..in.ja W/arr.ior.

I've been cutting the heel counters out of my shoes, but I hate spending a fortune on something that I immediately hack apart with a box cutter and then have to glue back together.

Anyone got a better idea?

9 comments:

Colin said...

Would a shoe without a heel counter work? E.g. this guy says that the New Balance 730 have no plastic heel counter; they're available for $42 here (not a bad price these days). I'd imagine you could run on them in winter, although traction looks questionable for icy days.

Hope you're able to figure something out! If nothing else, there's always this marathon, but I suspect you might have something to say about the $1,500 entry fee. :)

SteveQ said...

Colin, I saw that just before I posted. Thanks

Dale Jamieson said...

I had one of these last year which took about 5 months to clear up. I had to wear angina patches on it every day!

Karen said...

Man that sucks... It's a bummer that you just get one thing to heal and something else happens.

Sorry I don't have any suggestions.

Samantha said...

No suggestions but I have to say that I love Ninja Warrior, so clearly you should change your name to Kai and get a mohawk.

SteveQ said...

Karen, Dale, I've been dealing with this problem for 30 years!

Carilyn said...

Yikes! I'm not convinced the barefoot stuff solves all, but let me know if you try it and it works. Hope you come up with something - so frustrating.

Colin said...

Not sure if a Nike Free would have any better cushioning? I also like my Asics Piranha SP3 which has no traditional heel counter (but there is some external blown rubber around the lower heel). That's my racing shoe of choice these days.

Glaven Q. Heisenberg said...

You could always change your heel's name to Private Ryan and let Spielberg spend 10s of millions saving it for you.

Unless you change it to Private Paul Ryan, in which case your heel deserves to die if it can't survive in the free market without handouts from your parasite commenters. Thus Spake Ayn Rand.