Running and footwear -- most recent developments -- 5 miles in 79 minutes new personal record set

Footwear during February 21 run as reported in the Feb 21 blog post (my last post re running/footwear prior to this one) was:

"Left shoe:
foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad for ball of foot & toes) +
CVS 'toe bandage' (toe tube) for big toe +
pad made of 8 layers Mueller M-wrap glued to toe area of gel forefoot pad beneath big, index and middle toes +
pad made of 16 layers Mueller m-wrap around sides and rear of heel.

Right shoe:
foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad for ball of foot and toes) +
pad made of 16 layers Mueller M-wrap glued to to toe area of gel forefoot pad beneath big, index and middle toes +
CVS 'toe bandage' (toe tube) for index toe +
CVS 'toe bandage' (toe tube) for middle toe +
pad made of 16 layers Mueller m-wrap around sides and rear of heel."

After the run Feb 21 I advised myself that the 'logical next steps' in footwear were as follows:

"Increase padding in pad made of m-wrap for left middle index and big toes from 8 layers to 12 layers; add 4-layer pad made of m-wrap to line between toes and ball of foot on right foot; add 4-layer m-wrap pad to ball-of-foot area in left and right feet."

Prior to the Feb 25 run I implemented the recommendations I made to myself after the Feb 21 run. The result in footwear for the Feb 25 run was:

Left shoe:
foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad for ball of foot and toes) +
4-layer m-wrap pad under ball-of-foot area +
CVS 'toe bandage' (toe tube) for big toe +
pad made of 12 layers Mueller M-wrap glued to toe area of gel forefoot pad beneath big, index and middle toes +
pad made of 16 layers Mueller m-wrap around sides and rear of heel.

Right shoe:
foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad for ball of foot and toes) +
4-layer m-wrap pad under ball-of-foot area +
pad made of 16 layers Mueller M-wrap glued to toe area of gel forefoot pad beneath big, index and middle toes +
4-layer pad made of m-wrap to line between toes and ball of foot on right foot +
CVS 'toe bandage' (toe tube) for index toe +
CVS 'toe bandage' (toe tube) for middle toe +
pad made of 16 layers Mueller m-wrap around sides and rear of heel.

Wednesday Feb 25 I did the round-the-block course, 6 miles, run 1st, 3rd, & 5th miles, walk 2nd, 4th, & 6th miles, take time after 5th mile. I finished up at 12:56 PM. The conditions were good, no snow/ice on the ground. My time over the first 5 miles was a new personal record of 79 minutes.

Note: I was forced to take an 11 minute break after the 1st mile, and an 8 minute break after the 4th mile--but during the run, I did not feel that these breaks gave me extra energy for the run.

Feb 25 the footwear produced a run that was almost perfect comfort-wise, the best run so far comfort-wise; meaning, nothing significant to complain about in terms of pain in the feet.

The next run was Wednesday March 4. Again I did the round-the-block course, 6 miles, run 1st, 3rd, & 5th miles, walk 2nd, 4th, & 6th miles, take time after 5th mile. I finished up at 6:08 PM. Significant segments of the run involved having to run on snow/ice. The air pollution during the run was worse than the Feb 25 run as the run was during rush hour. The time over the first 5 miles was 81 minutes.

Note: I subtracted 4 minutes from an actual time of 85 minutes, due to delays involving: tying shoe-laces (traditional for me to subtract time for this); having to come to a complete halt in segments where the sidewalk was so covered in snow that I could not run on the sidewalk, and simultaneously it was not possible to run on the road (traditional for me to subtract time for such). Traditionally, as was the case with regards to the the March 4 time, I do not subtract any time from the final time due to the slowing down that occurs from having to run over snow and ice that can be run on.

For the March 4 run, I did not wear any toe-tubes on any toes. The result in terms of footwear for the March 4 run was:

Left shoe:
foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad for ball of foot and toes) +
4-layer m-wrap pad under ball-of-foot area +
pad made of 12 layers Mueller M-wrap glued to toe area of gel forefoot pad beneath big, index and middle toes +
pad made of 16 layers Mueller m-wrap around sides and rear of heel

Right shoe:
foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad for ball of foot and toes) +
4-layer m-wrap pad under ball-of-foot area +
pad made of 16 layers Mueller M-wrap glued to toe area of gel forefoot pad beneath big, index and middle toes +
4-layer pad made of m-wrap to line between toes and ball of foot on right foot +
pad made of 16 layers Mueller m-wrap around sides and rear of heel

As it turned out, during the March 4 run I felt some pain in: the joint between the ball of the foot and the toes in both feet (pain worse in left foot than in right foot); the ball of the foot in both feet; the foremost digits of the middle, index and big toes in both feet.

Of podiatric note here is the fact that removing the tube around the big toe of the left foot led to or coincided with some pain in: the joint between the ball of the foot and the toes; the ball of the foot; and, the foremost digits of the middle index and big toes.

Similarly, removing the tubes around the index and middle toes in the right foot led to or coincided with some pain in: the joint between the ball of the foot and the toes; the ball of the foot; and, the foremost digits of the middle index and big toes.

Thus we note the phenomenon that removing padding from one area of the foot led to pain in other areas of the same foot.

I hypothesize this could be due to: me unconsciously or semi-consciously, 'gingerly' reducing the level of stress placed on the areas of the foot from which padding was removed, resulting in increased stress placed on other areas of the foot; and/or, the removed padding had beneficial side-effects in terms of positioning of other areas of the foot different from the previously padded area of the foot.

At this point, I come to a fork in the road podiatry-wise. I can press on to see if a satisfactory solution can be come up with that does away with the toe-tubes, or, I can return to the approach that involves toe-tubes, going back to the Feb 25 setup.

I now estimate the without-toe-tubes approach should next involve:

For left foot: adding pad made of 8 layers Mueller M-wrap to line between ball of foot and toes; increasing the Mueller M-wrap padding level for the left ball of foot area from 4 layers to 8 layers; increasing the Mueller M-wrap padding level beneath the foremost digits of the middle, index and big toes from 12 layers to 20 layers.

For right foot: increasing Mueller M-wrap padding level for line between ball of foot and toes from 4 layers to 8 layers; increasing the Mueller M-wrap padding level for the right ball of foot area from 4 layers to 8 layers; increasing the Mueller M-wrap padding level beneath the foremost digits of the middle, index and big toes from 16 layers to 20 layers.

Doing away with the toe-tubes is attractive because: one no longer has to bother with putting on the toe-tubes prior to a run; and, toe-tubes involve padding on the sides and tops of the toes that is not needed but that takes up space in the foot producing constriction and heat.

I now estimate that the approach to running featured in this blog-post, which is tinkering, 'plodding', meticulous, patient, hard-working, and thoughtful with regards to footwear, combined with a refusal to tolerate any deviation from my own natural style of running being forced upon me due to the pain that arises when a human runs on an unnatural surface such as concrete, has produced excellent results in terms of speed improvement.

I estimate the meticulous foot-wear work combined with a refusal to tolerate being forced into deviation from the natural due to pain caused by inadequate padding, are what allowed me to break the impasse or plateau of 90 minutes for this course, where I was stuck for several runs over the course of a few weeks.


@2009 David Virgil Hobbs