The complexity of shoes

Since I’m inconveniently laid up with chickenpox and thus awake at 2 in the morning, I thought I’d blog about something I never thought I’d have to do – go and buy running shoes! This might sound like a trivial and mundane process, but believe me, my eyes were opened over the course of an hour spent at Moti, a specialist running shop in Bristol. Andy has convinced us that running will be a really good way to up our fitness, so Diana and I have decided to go together for jogs. Weak knees run in my family, so in addition to muscle strengthening exercises suggested by my doctor, I thought having the right shoes in which to train might help. Diana also wanted a pair, so on Tuesday lunchtime we met up in the shop and were confronted by the oddest set of instructions I’ve ever encountered whilst shopping! The first was to roll up my trousers, which was unfortunate – er, since this is intended to be a frank and honest blog – I do tend to resemble a yeti in winter, so the poor shop assistant had to put up with my furry legs. Oh well, I’m sure they’ve seen it all before... Then he got me to balance on each leg and bob up and down, squat down as far as I could with my feet flat and generally try and see whether my knees or ankles tended to fall in- or outwards. I assumed I’d be awful as I’m not the muscliest person by a long way, but he said I did quite well (if this is a sales tactic, I don’t want to know please – I need all the encouragement I can get!) Or maybe the 18 months of figure skating training I had when I was younger worked in my favour. Either way, the next thing he did was introduce me to running socks – something I never previously knew existed! They look very high-tech, with different thicknesses of material to ensure airflow, prevent blisters and protect tendons. And there I was thinking socks were socks were socks. Boy, did I feel a fool!

Diana had got to the shop before me and so was the brave pioneer in the shoe purchasing process. Having subjected us to balance tests, she was then put in a pair of ‘neutral’ shoes and filmed running on a treadmill (something which made me quail in terror; I have been known to undignifiedly shoot off the back of them!) I managed it without disgracing myself too much thankfully – it’s actually rather interesting watching your legs run, as it’s such an unconscious action normally. Their computer could measure the angle at which your ankles fell when your heel strikes the floor, which then told them whether or not you needed slightly corrective shoes. I did, so three were ferried up for me to try. By now, we were amassing many, many boxes around us! I tried all three pairs and was filmed running in them (desperately trying to stop my jeans slipping down all the while – no one said I’d need to come ready to actually run!) and fortunately for the shop assistant, felt very comfy in one of the pairs – saved him fetching even more shoeboxes! I went gulping slightly to the checkout, trying not to imagine how much all of it would cost, with a pair of running socks thrown in as I’d been sold on their effectiveness (and as Diana said, what point is there in spending £70+ on shoes only to wear the wrong socks?) but it wasn’t too bad – and now I’ve spent all that money, I’ve definitely got to get out there and do some running.

I’ve spotted an event called the Hogweed Trot (http://www.hogweedtrotters.co.uk/hogweedtrot.asp) in May, which is a 10k race run on flat country lanes. It’s a lot cheaper than the new Bristol 10k I was originally planning to enter and gives us an extra 2 weeks to attempt fitness! I think I’ll give it a go, it’ll definitely be more motivation if I know I’ve got an event to participate in – and I don’t want to come in last (although I think just finishing would be an encouraging achievement). Diana and I were intending to go out and jog on Tuesday evening – but whilst we know that we will have to jog in the rain sometimes, the gale force (almost) winds and horizontal precipitation that took place that evening (plus the most irritating onset of my chickenpox) convinced us that we’d be better to start next week, when we’re both fit (in the sense of healthy rather than marathon-capable!) and hopefully the weather will be kinder. Look out for updates – in the meantime I’m going to go and tape oven mitts to my hands...