Feb 21 morning running shoes footwear experiment

The run I planned for the night of Friday February 20, did not get started until 450 AM Saturday Feb 21. Again I did the six mile course around the block, jogging the first third and fifth miles, walking the second fourth and sixth miles, timing myself after the fifth mile.

Morning of Sat Feb 21 the time was 82 minutes same as previous run. Previous run I had a day's rest, this run I did not.

I wrote the start time down on an index card with a pen, this was relaxing, not having to worry about remembering the start time.

I concluded back when I first ran/walked the round-the-block course of 5 miles in 89 minutes, that I was 1 minute faster on this course than I was on the Main and Moody St 5 mile course. 82 minutes over the five miles on the round-the-block course is real progress.

I remember the days when I would give up after running half of one block on the round-the-block course, due to foot pain and calf pain (around the block twice on the round-the-block course is a mile). Indoor soccer shoes without pads just did'nt cut it for long distance running on concrete, and my calves and the sole area of my feet were weaker back then.

But I did'nt give up and when I got to the speed where foot pain began to develop I persevered and patiently worked out a combination of carefully chosen shoes and footwear add-ons that have produced a situation that is better and better on a daily basis foot-comfort-wise.

What has been happening on the runs has proven that I was correct when I concluded that the reason I had reached a plateau at 90 minutes, not getting any faster than 90 minutes day after day, was that I was experiencing excessive pain in my feet running in the Adidas Powerline cross-trainers.

I was like a slick quarterback the way I figured out the problem and solved it.

Since the time I patiently began working on choosing shoes and then adding padding to the chosen shoes, my personal record time on the round-the-block 5-mile has dropped from 89 minutes to 82 minutes, which I consider equal to 83 minutes on the Main & Moody 5-mile, where my personal best was 90 minutes.

In the two weeks since my first day using these shoes Feb 8, I have dropped my personal best from 89 minutes on the round-the-block course to 82 minutes, an improvement of 8.5%; the 90 minute plateau at which I stagnated has been broken, and a new plateau of 80 minutes has been reached.

Whereas during the plateau phase my rate of progress was such that I could expect to get down to 48 minutes on the run/walk five mile in four years, after all the patient careful work re footwear, looks like I'll be down to 48 minutes in just two months.

Weather during Feb 21 run link:

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/wxStationGraphAll?day=21&year=2009&month=2&ID=KMAWESTO6&type=3&width=500&showsolarradiation=1&showtemp=1&showpressure=1&showwind=1&showwinddir=1&showrain=1

Footwear today:

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

As has always been the case thus far, the removeable insole that comes pre-installed in the shoes were also worn.

Note: Previous blog-post, I accidentally mis-reported that there were 8 layers of Mueller m-wrap in the pad glued to the forefoot gel pad toe area for the right foot. Actually there were 16 layers of Mueller m-wrap in this pad. Wrapping the tape around the hand eight times produces 16 layers, not eight.

Notable in the run today, is the fact that the pad made of m-wrap attached to the forefoot gel pad, was deliberately for experimental purposes, 8 m-wrap layers thick in the left shoe, and 16 m-wrap layers thick in the right shoe.

The foot-wear padding setup used today produced basically good results in terms of comfort except that in the second half of the fifth mile, which was run, discomforts were felt: slight pain in the middle and index toes of the left foot, slight pain in the line that marks the intersection between the toes and the ball of the foot in the right foot, and slight pain in the balls of the left and right feet.

I attribute this pain to the increase in speed that has suddenly come about for me, from 89 minutes to 82 minutes in I guess just 13 days. At the faster speed, certain areas of the foot take more of a pounding.

Generally I was pleased that today for the entire time except the second half of the fifth mile, I could run in exactly the style that comes naturally to me, without having to inhibit this style due to pain produced by the foot hitting the hard unnatural concrete surface.

How great it is to be able to run in one's natural uninhibited style on any surface including unnatural concrete--it's an underestimated pleasure and benefit.

People underestimate the value of such pleasures/benefits, because they have become indoctrinated into the idea that pleasures are expensive, as if the great pleasures and healthy things in life are all bought with alot of money.

For the pleasure of being able to run on any surface in one's own natural style, uninhibited by pain/discomfort, all you need is about $130 for running shoes plus about $30 for pads etc to put into the running shoes = total $160, plus patience with tinkering with pads. That's not alot of money but the pleasure/benefit is still there.

Logical next steps:

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.

If this increased padding is implemented, there will result probably excess constriction of the foot and excess heat for the foot. As of now my long term goal is to combine such increases in padding with getting rid of some or all of the toe-tubes (or replacing the toe-tubes with thinner home-made toe-tubes). Currently I am wearing a toe-tube on my left big toe and on on my right index and middle toes. Maybe the upper part of a toe-tube could be removed leaving just the lower half of the toe-tube, held in place with m-wrap.

Today the glue used again was the 'non-toxic CVS School Glue Gel'; weak as it may be it served its purpose again at least for one run.

90 minutes after the conclusion of the run morning of Sat Feb 21, I was still wearing the shoes I ran in and there was no discomfort except excessive heat in both the left and right feet.

Running Tactics

Tactics Sat Feb 21 were the same as the previous day: counteract the natural tendency to go too slow in the first two miles; exploit the natural tendency to be loose and energetic in the fourth and fifth miles.


@2009 David Virgil Hobbs

Feb 17 running shoes footwear experiment; and re a Meeting with Fearsome yet impressed and hospitable Wampanoag Braves

Feb 17 Result:

Shoes + full-length foam/gel insole + gel forefoot 'toe bed' + toe tube on left big toe + toe tubes on right middle & index toes + front 3 shoelaces loose + top 3 shoelaces tight + (NEW!) foam tape around heels = almost comfortable run on ultra-hilly around-the-block course, heel looseness problems almost solved.

Logical next steps: use foam tape to create toe-tubes for left index and middle toes; use foam tape to increase padding on right middle and index toes; use adhesive tape to prevent foam tape intended to fit around the heel from sliding to underneat heel.

Tuesday night Feb 17, I ran the course around the block, 12 times around the block = 6 miles, first third and fifth miles jogged, second fourth and sixth miles walked. Time after five miles was 86 minutes, 3 minutes faster than my personal best so for of 89 minutes for this round-the-block course, which was a few weeks ago, less than 8 weeks ago.

The around the block course is different from the Main and Moody streets course. This one is Pond st to Bacon st to School st to Exchange st to Pond st, a loop or circle. It is half uphill half downhill, the hills are steeper than the Moody street hill. The forefeet of my feet apparently slap the ground harder both on steep downhills and steep uphills, this results in greater discomfort.

Tuesday night Feb 17 the footwear was the same as Sunday night Feb 15, except that Feb 17 Mueller brand 'M wrap' ( http://www.muellersportsmed.com/Retail_Tape_and_Wrap.htm ) was used to pad the sides and rear of the foot in the heel area to counteract the looseness in the heels.

The package of Mueller 'M-wrap' cost me $3 about a year ago, I bought it at some place like 'Olympia Sports' or 'The Sports Authority'. It is a very thin non-adhesive tape composed of flexible styrofoam type material. The $3 bought me a 2.75 inches by 21.4 yards piece of it, that would be about 3 inches by 257 inches.
I created three pads about five inches wide and three inches high, each one was composed of 37 inches of Mueller M-tape, folded eight times. I put one of these pads around the sides and back of my left heel and two of these pads around the sides and back of my right heel.

The first jogged mile the tightness in the right heel seemed just about correct, the looseness in the heel having been apparently cured; and the left heel looseness-situation was improved but not as satisfactory as the right heel. However when the run was over I discovered that the pads made of the 'M-wrap' had shifted from being behind and to the sides of the heel as intended to being crumpled up beneath the heel.

Feb 17 this M-wrap around the heel was combined with the foot-wear-add-ons of Feb 15, which were: toe-tubes on the left big toe and right index and middle toes; full length gel-foam insole, 'toe bed' (ball of foot and toes, forefoot pad).

Tuesday night on the round the block course I felt some pain in the third mile in the left middle and index toes which did not have toe-tubes on them, and also in the right middle and index toes which had toe-tubes on them. I attribute this to: the wrap in the heel area tightening up the fit of the shoe in general; and, the round-the-block course being hillier.

I stopped for 30 seconds (not counted in the time recorded) after the first mile to tighten up my left shoe-lace. This tightening seemed to result in slight numbness and tingliness in the left foot. I estimate that if the level of padding in the left heel area is increased, this will tighten things up result being I will not have to tighten the laces to the point where the annoying numbness and tingliness set in.

On both shoes today I tied the front three shoe-laces tightly and the top three shoe-laces loosely.

The 74 inches of 'M-wrap' padding around the right heel cost me only 86 cents; much less expensive in terms of price per unit of padding compared to the ready-made pads such as toe-tubes.

During and after the run Fb 17 I did not feel as good mentally and physically as I sometimes do during and after a run. I suspect that the six-mile jog-walk after one day of rest is too little exercise for me. This despite the fact that a day of rest produces faster times.

Wampanoag Interlude

The reason I did not do the jog/walk Monday night Feb 16: Monday evening I allowed myself to have just 12 oz of beer after having been awake for only 3 hours--I thought I could take it, could not, became too lazy to jog for the next 24 hours. Some 'Wampanoag' 'braves' -- the same people that first met the Pilgrims when they landed at Plymouth rock some three hundred plus years ago, entertained me with conversation and food and I decided to have a beer.

No really--except these were half English ancestry, Martha's Vineyard was apparently named after one of their female ancestors whose last name was 'Golding'. They emphatically told me that I looked like I had American Indian ancestry. I told them about a story I've heard re my ancestors, how due to the wildness of the historic American 'wild west' of a couple of hundred years ago, I have some American Indian ancestry.

It surprised me that the 'Wampanoag' 'braves' would be so sure that someone whose American Indian ancestry level is at most less than ten percent of all his ancestry, is 'American Indian'. They were convinced that the Indian ancestry in me is not Asian Indian but American Indian. Naturally I suppose, they appeared to consider 'American Indian', that is the natives of North America type ancestry as a much greater thing than Asian Indian ancestry as in from India.

Reminds me of how Hispanics think I look Hispanic, Whites think I look white, Indians from India think they can see India-Indian in me; people who look like my brother, annoyingly pretend I look like my brother. The price I pay for being so good looking I guess, everyone likes to think they can see their own ethnic group in me, people who are similar to my brother annoyingly pretending that I look like my brother.

I listened to the 'Wampanoag' 'brave' give his long speech--while drinking his Budweiser beer with the noise of the TV in the backround-about matters such as: how his 'girlfriend''s son is the fastest sprinter in his grade, how to cook various meals, his five brothers, someone slipped on outdoors steps he built, his birth and youth in Newton Mass, his ancestry, the dangers of nicotine gum, the famous American Indian rock group 'Red Bone', and etc.

Seemed to me like the man I was listening to compared to the fearsome American Indian warrior braves of hundreds of years ago, was sort of like a cat compared to a tiger. Admitting such to be the case reduces the drama and impressiveness out of the narrative but anyway. At least I am able to omit factoids that reduce the level of 'drama' and 'brag' that the 'first people' of our area think of me as one of them, are hospitable with me, and have invited me back to share with them some barbecued pork that I have quickly become expert in cooking.

I forgot to mention to the Catholic 'Wampanoag' 'braves' a thought that had been on my mind: how can Catholics who disagree with their own church about so many things, be so prejudiced against Christians who are not Catholics? It does not compute. But these particular 'Wampanoag' Catholics were not as far as I could tell prejudiced against non-Catholic Christians.

Note: the barbecue pork recipe can be found in an earlier blog post of this month. It produces inexpensive barbecued pork that I can now honestly say, produces the best barbecued-pork tacos I have ever eaten. It produces barbecued pork that, days after it was first cooked and put in the frig, tastes very good both after re-heating/cooking and even without re-cooking or re-heating. By way of contrast, many high-sales-volume restaurants sell you cooked meat that tastes good while it is warm, but does not taste good when it cools down, a sign of inferiority in quality.

Thoughts re Moody street (Waltham) people I jog by during my run; Feb 15 footwear running exp

Thoughts re the Moody Street crowd

During the run on Moody street, I noticed what seems like a signature characteristic of Moody street--the 'attractive' women with black hair and skin "white as milk".

During the run I heard a tall young white man's voice that sounded like a worm burrowing into the earth.

The woman with him and this other woman I ran by, by way of contrast, had voices that sounded something like what one would imagine to be the voice of some somewhat masculine (not unnattractively or strangely masculine) female Catholic saint.

Running on Main and Moody streets, I sort of marvel at how with the economy the way it is, there are all these people with money to spend on drinks and on restaurant meals.

The people doing the spending have money to spend and are happy in part due to factors such as: good parents; good community; good family; good social life, good conduct. I wonder if a person who has experienced the absence of such things could ever internally be like these lucky ones; could the lucky ones ever internally feel what is like to live through the absence of such things?

Gazing upon the bar and restaurant crowd on Moody street, it occurs to me, in certain ways these big spenders have more in common with the richest than they do with the poorest. For the present, at least, they can live like the richest basically.

And plenty of them to some extent are able to bask in a mindset similar to the rich through a blissful ignorance that gives them an unwarranted optimism similar to the more realistic optimism reveled in by the richest. But hey, blissfully ignorant as they may be, they have beautiful voices, beautiful faces, beautiful bodies, their skin is white as milk like the 'princes of Israel of three thousand years ago'--and at least in the Moody street area, their hair is black as a raven, like King Solomon's, black as sackcloth.

Scorned as they are by the Jewish racists, often to the poetic eye they look like they popped right out of the Old Testament like a lost tribe of Israel.

Seems like these 'blessed' truly enjoy themselves on Moody street--I wonder if they know what it feels like to be pretending to enjoy yourself instead of actually enjoying yourself. I admire them for the way they have mastered the art of, in moderation, occasionally enjoying a night out at the bars and restaurants.

They are people from that socio-economic class that is white, goes to church on Sundays or at least once a month, does'nt abuse drugs or alcohol, and is financially in the 60th to the 90th percentile, from the level where 60 percent have a lower income than them, to the level where 90 percent have a lower income than them.

We know they are out there, this class of people, we know there are millions of them, but they disappear into the woodwork--we don't see them on TV, they are not the ones working the cash registers in the stores. You could attend top-notch high schools and colleges and still not run into them because the vast majority of them despite being in the upper half in terms of income are associated with high schools and colleges that are typical. They are a class that is an important, classical, traditional part of this country--but you could go through life never running into them. In the nearby areas of Canada there are millions more who are similar to them.

Seems like we can end up, in our actual lives and also in terms of what we see and hear in the media, being exposed to people who are in the bottom half in income, and being exposed to people who are in the top ten percent in income, but never exposed to the white people who are above average in income but not in the top ten percent, which is a group that is such a historical, classical traditional component of this geographical area of the world. And there are millions and millions of them. It's awesome to think that out of say 100 million of them, there are 100,000, who are in the top ten percent in three unrelated important criteria. There are amongst 100 million of them, ten thousand who are in the top one percent in two different criteria. There are amongst them 100,000 who are in the top one tenth of percent, one out of a thousand, in one criteria.

But it's like, we spend our lives amongst the elite that is above this white sub-elite, and then the elite kicks us out, pukes us up, and then we spend our time amongst the lower class, never getting to know the great white upper class that is however not the top one percent or even the top ten percent in wealth and/or income.

Not only that, but this elite that is way up there financially, way above the upper middle class, that puked us up, was to such a large extent not white, and not Christian, alas!

I gaze upon these white Christian upper middle class with money to burn on the restaurants and bars of Moody street, and rebelling against the insane Jewish racist scorn for white Christian persons, I think of the people these people are descended from. Some of them are descended from great white Christian kings of medieval times like Charlemagne. Most of them are descended from persons who were once respected honored white Christian citizens of white Christian kingdoms--White Christian kingdoms featuring amongst a certain percentage a spiritual life that was very superior to the typical spiritual life of the typical resident of the USA in the 21st century--

Which is a USA infested with anti-white, murdering, lying, thieving, anti-Christian, racist, elitist, homosexualist, atheist, criminalist, etc etc sub-populations, which render the enormous disservice of corrupting beautiful good-natured well-behaved studious children, and turning them into things that end up being eternally damned to hell.


I must admit it seems the Moody street crowd would be fun and interesting to socialize with. I can't say they are all unfriendly, when the weather is warm when I jog or walk by, sometimes seems like almost every day some 'white as milk' woman amongst them will say something social to me as I go by. But the fact is the cops have drilled me into not responding to such friendliness, by passionately shouting at me when some woman complains about some insignificant pea under the mattress.

What is missing from my life more than women who are interested in me, is males who are 'buddies'.

In this area you are apparently supposed to find such 'buddies' through female friends such as wives; yet it is be natural to find female friends such as wives through male friends. Problem is that there is too much of a certain kind of selfishness amongst the 'white as milk' males around here which is the 'I think I'll avoid him because if he is my friend, the women will ignore me and pay attention to him instead' variant of selfishness, which is considered to be 'natural' and 'acceptable'.

Just one case of this kind of selfishness can produce disastrous results. Imagine there is some guy out there who could have been your friend. Through him you could have met more friends; and through these friends you could have met through him you could have met even more friends--and all of this could have ended up landing you a job paying twice as much as the one you have now. But guess what--the guy was never your friend, because he was afraid that if you were around him the ladies would ignore him. Result: big socio-economic black hole in your life.

Come on guys. Have'nt the priests at your Catholic churches taught you white males that envy and jealousy are sins, that selfishness or the excess thereof is often a sin? Have'nt you heard about the sheep and the goats? If females find a male attractive, that could be because he is possessed of worthy qualities that you should appreciate in a friendly way.

Have you Catholics gotten to the point where non-Christians and atheists are closer to you than Christians who are not Catholic? Have many of you fallen into the misfortune of being amongst a congregation and priests who never taught you the Christian ethics because everything was so focused on bureaucratic ritual, the pope, and Mary?

Sure Mary looked fat when she was pregnant with Christ. And then they passed a law discriminating against fat people. And then employers were afraid to ask if the woman is fat or is it a pregnancy because if they asked they could be sued for discriminating against a fat person. And then all fat persons were assumed to be the living incarnation of the pregnant Virgin Mary herself. And then I could not get a job, even in places where an athlete like me belongs, because they hired the fat incarnation of the Virgin Mary herself.

As for the pope--true, a wise and good man can tell when the thought in his head is most certainly true and infallible; but history itself shows that some of the men who have been pope have not been wise or good. You catholics will say, we are Catholics but we disagree with almost everything the church teaches, we don't think the pope is infallible. Does your unfriendliness have something to do with the fact that you disagree with so much of what your own church teaches?

I don't get it. What is the point in going to a bar with a half dozen people, if you are going to put up an excessively cold wall against persons who are not from your little group? If you want to avoid people who are not from your little group, you could stay at home.

Then you have the attitude: 'he looks like the type of male who gets into trouble with employer-owner types by being good, so I think I'll avoid him'. This is the way to treat someone who seems to be good? Sort of like a coward on a battlefield who avoids the slightest danger thereby making life miserable for the good heroic men? This kind of cowardice is especially contemptible for some of you because you are in a relatively secure position financially. Think about it, the good man who you are like cowards like shunning, might be the one whose ideas if implemented could save your cowardly ass and your family from disaster.

There is this 'dark' side of gay-liberation which goes unrecognized, which is males avoiding friendship with males due to a desire to avoid homosexual males--the result being a cold society. Re this, all I can say is that people in general, some more than others, are able to tell the difference between a gay cruising for sex and a straight being simply friendly. I figure that people should be given to some extent the benefit of the doubt, not assumed to be a gay looking for unwanted sex until it becomes obvious that such is what they are. Generally one can expect that the gay man looking for gay sex will not waste his time hanging around hetero type environments.

Feb 15 footwear experiment

Shoes + full-length foam/gel insole + gel 'toe bed' + three 'toe bandages' + shoelaces loose + top 3 shoelaces tight = comfortable run but loose heels

Sunday night Feb 15, I ran the outdoors Main & Moody streets five-mile course again with the first third and fifth miles jogged and the second and fourth miles walked. Time was 93 minutes. Foot-wear ingredients: same as Saturday Feb 14, but with toe-tubes NOT used on middle and index toes of left foot and NOT used on big toe of right foot--result being CVS brand 'toe bandages' (toe tubes) on left big toe and on middle and index toe of right foot.

The temperature was 25 degrees, slightly cooler than the previous night. For some reason I did not think the weather was so great or become mentally carefree like I did the previous night.

Today finally in the left foot: there was no numbness or tingliness; the feeling of unevenness below the sole of the foot was almost gone; I still felt this feeling of an annoying ridge below the left toe, but this feeling quickly went away after walking instead of jogging for a few minutes.

Today I tied the bottom four laces loosely while tying the top two laces tightly. During the run there was this annoying loose feeling in the heels and at the end of the fifth mile the top lace on the left shoe had come un-tied. Alternatives I can think of now to correct this: padding of some sort behind the heel to tighten up the heel; tying the bottom three shoes laces loose but the top three laces tight; carving out a hole where the heel is in the insole layer that reaches from the toe to the heel.


@2009 David Virgil Hobbs

Shoes + heel-to-toe gel/foam insole + gel 'toe bed' + minimal use of 'toe bandages' + shoelaces loose + top shoelaces tight = painless smooth running?

Sat night Feb 14, I ran the outdoors Main & Moody streets five-mile course again with the first third and fifth miles jogged and the second and fourth miles walked. Time was 96 minutes. Foot-wear ingredients: same as Friday Feb 13, but with 'Profoot' brand toe-tubes added to middle and index toes of left foot and big toe of right foot--result being toe tubes on middle index and big toes of both feet.

The run Sat night Feb 14 was very pleasurable and relaxing, sort of like being half asleep out on the sea at night, without a care in the world, and with the weather just right; this was partly due to the weather which was perfect for jogging in the heavy winter coat and the sweatshirt combined--for the first time in years I felt like, as I breathed in the air...'ah...New England air...love it!". For a few days prior I had not consumed any alcohol.

The relaxed pleasure was also due to the fact that tonight I knew that I would be able to jog all the miles in my natural way feeling little or zero pain, ball of foot and heel hitting the ground almost simultaneously, forefoot sort of slapping the ground. And that's what I did, jog my natural way the whole time. For me there is relaxed exuberance in jogging in my own natural way.

The weather was: 29 degrees fahrenheit, wind calm 0-3 mph, delightful cool wind gusts of 3-7 mph, humidity 49-52 percent, no rainfall, barometric pressure 29.85.

Apparently the wind direction was from the northwest, from inland Canada, even though it felt like it was coming in from the Atlantic ocean as fresh as an 'Old Spice' commercial. At least I can glory in the idea that the wind that felt so good on my face and in my lungs, was from the North pole of our planet, land of Santa Klaus.

Air quality index during the run was listed as good, possible pollutants being ozone and pm 2.

( http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KMAWESTO6&month=2&day=15&year=2009 ) ( http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=02451 ).

The lesson learned today in foot-wear was that adding toe-tubes to toes that do not hurt can produce pain that did not exist before the toe-tubes were added, this despite the fact that toe-tubes can work wonderful pain-alleviation when they are needed.

As soon as I started jogging Saturday night Feb 14, I knew that I was going to have a problem with the excess toe padding on the left foot constricting and twisting the toes. Second half of the third mile jogged I felt pain in the middle and index toes of the left foot, toes in which I had never or rarely felt pain before, toes that I had anyway put toe-tubes on for the night, as an experiment.

Sant night Feb 14, I added the toe tubes to the middle and index toes of the left foot and the big toe of the right foot, because I wanted to be symmetric, have both feet the same way; I was so impressed with the way my right foot felt on Feb 13 that on Feb 14 I wanted everything on the left foot to be the same as the right foot was Feb 13.

As of now certain thoughts re the hyper-symmetrical approach come to mind: plenty of symmetry is already present because the left and right shoe are identical twins--in fact, maybe excessively identical given the wonders of modern technology; machines like jet airplanes are perfectly symmetrical, but that does not mean that the clothes footwear etc a human wears should be perfectly symmetrical; humans tend to be left or right handed and footed as opposed to ambidextrous; the human face is not symmetrical; the left breast in the human female is generally larger than the right breast.

During the Saturday Feb 14 run, for both left and right feet I had the spaces between the flaps on the shoelaces at 32 16ths of an inch--two inches-- for the 3rd and 5th shoe lace pairs and at 48 16ths of an inch--three inches--for the top 6th shoe-lace-hole pair. This is what the setting were for the right foot Friday night Feb 13. During the run Sat night Feb 14, the situation in the left foot was much improved compared to the previous night in terms of the numbness, tingliness and feelings of unevenness in the sole of the left foot.

I now estimate that the wise thing to do for next run is to get rid of the toe-tubes that were placed on toes that had never felt pain, and to combine this with the shoes not being tied too tight. Excess of padding and shoe-laces drawn too tight both have the same effect of creating excess constriction of the foot.

The toe tubes added Saturday night Feb 14, that were not used the previous night, were 'Profoot'brand 'toe bandages' ( http://www.profootcare.com/p-toe-bandages.html ), price $4.71 with tax at Walgreens, package contained three 4 inch tubes. These 'Profoot' brand toe tubes are less expensive than the CVS brand toe-tubes (which CVS calls toe-bandages), but they do not come in three sizes in one package like the CVS brand--they are all the same size.

The 'Profoot' brand toe tubes seem thicker than the CVS toe tubes and too big for the middle and index toes though appropriate for the big toe.

The 'Profoot' brand toe tubes seem to be more resilient to wear and tear than the CVS toe tubes; but the CVS toe tubes coming in different sizes appear to be the better choice for use on the middle and index toe because they take up less space in the shoe.

Saturday night Feb 14th, there was a slight annoyance of looseness in the heel, which probably results in less efficient use of physical energy. I estimate this can be corrected by tightening up the top shoe-lace pair and the one below it, while keeping the lower shoelace pairs loose.

It somewhat grieves my heart that although there are hundreds of different models of running shoes, I could not find one running shoe with the high ankles, as in basketball shoes. I estimate that the laces on the high ankles could be used to tighten up the heel area looseness which is created due to an approach that involves looseness in the ball of the foot area.

After all, army boots have the high ankles. The great boxer of old times Cassius Clay, who changed his name to Muhammad Ali, used to train for his fights by jogging in army boots.


@2009 David Virgil Hobbs

Adidas 'Adistar Control 5' Running Shoes + heel-to-toe insole + gel 'toe bed' + 'toe bandages' + shoes not tied too tightly = heaven on earth?

Friday night, Feb 13, I jog-walked the outdoors 5 mile course on Main/Moody streets, 1st 3rd 5th miles jogged, 2nd, 4th miles walked, in 94 minutes. Wore Adidas 'Adistar Control 5' shoes + gel 'toe bed' ( http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/catalog/shop_product_detail.jsp?filterBy=&skuId=334568&productId=334568&navAction=jump&navCount=3 ) + 'toe bandages' + gray and blue gel heel-to-toe insole (same as Feb 12 run except for addition of toe-bandages). Ran using my natural preferred heel & ball-of-foot strike ground at the same time style of running. Did not feel pain. Felt irritating sensory illusions of wrinkled sock wrinkled out-of-place gel pads and tingly numbness in left foot.

Alleluia, finally, right foot felt almost perfect, like a tiger's paw on the earth, even though it was a human foot on the concrete sidewalk.

I would have avoided 'toe bandages' because they sound gruesome and I consider myself too healthy for things like 'toe bandages'. But I was alert to consider them because online I saw other companies call them 'toe-tubes' or toe-caps'. Hey a tube sounds like some high-speed train line and some top athletes wear caps.

The footwear ingredients Friday Feb 13 were the same as Thursday Feb 12 but with the addition of the CVS brand 'Foam Toe Bandages', which are foam on the outside cloth on the inside tubes that you cut into pieces and then put your toes into. I used the three 4 inch length tubes to create tubes for my left big toe, my right index toe, and my right middle toe; these choices were based on the experience of the Feb 12 run. This to my surprise used up almost all of the tubes in the $5.24 (tx incl) package--I decided to pad the toes from base of toe to tip of toe as I was worried that the toe-tube might slip out of place. Accidentally I thought the narrowest tube was the middle-diameter tube. I put the tubes on to the (left big-toe, right index-toe, right middle-toe) toes and then cut off the excess length of tube.

I estimate that the numbness, tingliness and discomfort experienced in the left foot during the Feb 13 run, was a result of the shoe-laces being drawn too tightly in the left shoe.

We err if we dismiss an excellent control like a shoe-lace, simply because it is not composed of flashing lights and buttons. Thus I resolved to carefully note how my shoes were tied differently in the left foot as compared to the right foot during the Feb 13 run.

Counting the shoelace loop-hole pair closest to the toes as loop-hole pair 1, the third pair of loop-holes up is loop-holes-pair 3. At loop-hole-pair 3, the width between the left leather flap the shoelaces run through and the right leather flap, was during the Feb 13 run, 21 16ths of an inch on the left shoe and 30 16ths of an inch on the right shoe. That is a difference of 9 16ths of an inch, about half an inch; the distance for the left foot today was 30% less than it was for the right in this measurement.

(following measurements from Feb 13 run)

At loop-hole pair 5, the distance between the flaps was 20 16ths of an inch on the left shoe, and 30 16ths of an inch on the right; the left distance was 33% less than the right at this loop-hole pair.

At loop-hole pair 7, the loop-hole pair closest to the ankle, the distance between the flaps was 40 16ths of an inch on the left shoe and 48 16ths of an inch on the right shoe; the left distance was 17% less than the right.

On the left shoe, 12.5 inches of shoe-laces exited beyond the left loop-hole at loop-hole pair 7, and 13.5 inches exited beyond the right; total 26 inches.

On the right shoe, 10.5 inches of shoe-laces exited beyond the left loop-hole at loop-hole pair 7, and 10.0 inches exited beyond the right; total 20.5 inches.

On the left shoe I had 5.5 more inches left over to tie the knot with compared to the right foot. The amount left over to tie the knot with was 27% greater on the left foot compared to the right.

(reminds me of the depressing fact that some have alot more money to marry or tie the knot with than others, which promotes persons basing marriages on things other than love)

To properly conclude this aspect of the experiment, I should pull out the shoelaces that were worn today and measure them but I beg off--it would be better to simply call the store and ask them what the length of the shoelaces is.

This mini-study of shoelace tightness is meaningful to me because what I felt today in the left foot, that was not pain but was annoying and irritating, the numb tingliness, the feeling of wrinkled pads and socks, though not pain is similar to pain, is something that definitely can be physically felt, something that significantly detracts from the pleasure of the run. Though it is not pain, one senses that it is a discomfort that could turn into pain, and this could impair the performance level and the pleasure of the run.

It's been boring and depressing the past few days, working out this shoe problem. Advertising trains us to expect that if we spend 130 dollars on a pair of carefully chosen shoes, as soon as we put on the shoes and run we will be god-like. But now that I am on the verge of victory with regards to the problem, I can appreciate what a great thing it will be to be able to jog or run on any surface, using my natural style of running; I feel like I have cleverly accomplished something good and great by banishing pain from the act of running.

If I have the footwear ingredients problem for running on a very hard surface like a concrete sidewalk conquered, then I have the problem conquered for rubber tracks, wood basketball courts, grass fields, concrete basketball courts, concrete tennis courts, you name it. I'll have the internal pleasure of knowing that I have done all that I could do, to banish pain from the act of running on some surface.

The banishment of pain will improve my physical endurance, as I will not be burdened by pain while engaging in exercises that build up my level of endurance. The banishment of pain will improve my emotional state of mind; the banishment of pain will allow me to painlesly engage in activities I excel in and enjoy, unburdened by the tragedy (ya, for a star like me it's tragic) of not being able to keep up due to pain or exhaustion.

Seems to me like for me it is a religious good work, to banish pain from running on the various different surfaces that are found in our world. Could such be what is meant by the 'hallowing' of 'God's name'? Sometimes an athlete running can be a significant expression of God's spirit.

Christ and his apostles were a vocal music singing group like the Beach Boys and the Beatles, except with less emphasis on sophisticated instrumentation. I estimate that to a significant extent aerobic health correlates with and improves vocal and simple instrumental musical performance.

So the tedium of working out the foot-pain during running problem was well worth it for me, especially taking into account my unique characteristics as an individual.

This conquering of pain that I take pleasure in, was in part a result of me having internalized a tactical lesson, the lesson being that often even in activities in which spirit and genius play a significant part in, simply focusing one's attention on applying one's common-sense cunning (as opposed to spirit or genius) can produce success--which reminds me of how the prophet extolled worldy wisdom as neglected and under-emphasized by the religious. Sometimes just applying, with attention focus and energy, mental capabilities found even amongst those of average or below average so-called 'intelligence' helps us to achieve significant victories.

Things dont come easy. Reminds me of how in the 'Book of Proverbs' over and over again you are exhorted to hard work, to refrain from resting, to eschew pleasures. Money success happiness and also even pain relief--are apparently the result of hard work, the use of the mind (thinking can be hard work). I guess the media the movies and the songs can deceive us, make us feel like if we are meant to succeed we will succeed by just waving a wand and if waving the wand does'nt work we are not meant to succeed--the everything is talent and natural ability idea.

Don't pass up the high priority stuff while getting absorbed in low priority stuff. Remember to put the stuff you use often where you can reach it easily, remember to put the stuff you don't use often in the hard to reach places.

Plan for Feb 14 run: same foot-wear ingredients as Feb 13 run + toe bandages for left middle and left index toes to emulate the success had Feb 13 with the right foot.


@2009 David Virgil Hobbs

Running Shoes + 1 layer gel heel-to-toe insole + 1 layer 'toe bed' + 'toe tubes' = lighter-weight solution for no pain?

Thursday during the day I did not get a chance to scout around town over the phone, finding out which stores had a big selection of foot padding type stuff.

Thursday evening I visited the local CVS and Walgreens stores looking for foot padding type stuff that would provide an improvement over the two layers of heel to toe gel padding solution used Wednesday night, which was a heavy solution. Seemed as if both stores carried more items of this type of stuff than they used to previously.

Possible buys I found at Walgreens:


Ball of foot:

Gel padding $2.60 on sale
Covers ball of foot area only. Hard to believe that it would not slip out of place during use. One suspects that the reason the prices for this thing have been repeatedly slashed, is that it slips out of place.

Fore-foot

'Toe Beds', gel padding for ball of foot and toes area, 1 pair, $5.50

Toes

Gel corn-protectors pair for $6.50

Gel toe protector 1 for $6.50

Toe bandages, 3 4" tubes $4.50

Heel-to-toe insoles

Dr. Scholls gel, $15

Aero 3 gel, $12.50

Walgreens gel, $10

Lightweight foam padding, $3


Possible buys I found at CVS:

Ball of foot

LifeFitness gel pad, pair, $8

Toes

Gel corn-protectors pair for $6.00

Gel toe protector 1 for $6.00

Foam toe bandages three approx 3" bandages (diameters 1 small tube, 1 medium tube, 1 large tube), $5
Seems like great deal given you get a narrow tube, a mid width tube, and a wide width tube and you can then cut these tubes up and fit them over your toes.

Heel-to-toe insoles

CVS Lightweight foam, $2.5-4

Lifefitness Gel insoles, $11-13

CVS gel insole, $11

Dr. Scholl's gel, $ 15

Aero $14

SoleX, on sale, $23

Time was running out and I had to make a decision fast before Walgreens closed, so that I would be able to mount a worthy experiment in foot padding during the night's run. What would be the wise decision in terms of what to buy tonight?

I decided in the end to make just one relatively inexpensive purchase: the 'Profoot' brand 'toe beds' sold at Walgreens ( http://profootcare.com/p-toe-beds.html ). These 'toe beds' pad the ball of the foot and the toe areas, which are my problem areas pain-wise.

The instructions on the package were to remove the protective wrapper and glue the gel 'toe bed' to the shoe. I did not want to glue it to the shoes as I fantasize about the possibility of returning the shoes to the store to obtain something better instead. I glued the toe beds to these heel-to-foot, gray and blue gel insoles; I did not want to glue them to the blue and orange gel insoles that I use in my indoor soccer shoes, because I am not sure I need such ball-of-foot and toes gel padding in the indoor soccer shoes.

I felt as if it was a stroke of genius on my part that for for the Thursday night Feb 12 run, in the shoes I put the detachable insole that came with the Adidas Adistar Control 5' shoes ON TOP of the blue and gray gel insole to which I had glued the 'Profoot' brand 'toe beds'. This produced a smooth surface and decreased the possibility of the gel 'toe beds' being forced out of place due to the running.

Night of Thursday February 12 I jog-walked the outdoors 5 mile Main and Moody course in 98 minutes; I was able to jog in my natural style featuring heel and ball of foot striking the ground almost simultaneously, without pain for the three miles run during the five mile course--except that during the third mile there was some pain in the left big toe and in the index and middle toes of the right foot. For most of the five miles the feet in the balls of the foot area felt numb and tingly. The run was done in what I call an 'under-the-weather' physical state, Thursday was the third day in a row on which I had run this five mile course.

Although during the run it felt like an annoying prominent ridge of padding was under the big toe of each foot, and it felt as if the padding and/or the socks had gotten irritatingly crinkled up under the ball of the left foot--apparently such perceptions were merely sensory illusions.

When I got home and sat down I was suprised to find that it no longer felt as if there was an elevated prominent ridge of padding under the left and right big toes; and I no longer felt as if the padding and/or sock under the ball of the left foot had gotten irritatingly crumpled up (I noticed this sensory illusion phenom on a previous run).

After the run I found that the 'Profoot' brand 'toe beds' that I had glued to the gray foam side of the gray and blue gel insoles, had maintained their affixed position on the gray and blue insoles, they had not been moved out of place.

I conclude that a possible solution to the pain problem would be to combine the padding used Thursday night Feb 12, with toe tubes or toe caps over the left big toe and the middle and index right toes. This would be lighter than the first solution that eliminated pain, the two layers of heel-to-toe gel.

Thursday I could not help but notice, that Adidas seems to be foolish, in that in the 'Adistar Control 5' they combined very thick 1 and 3/4 inch thick padding in the heel area, with only 0.5" thick padding in the toe area, creating a HIGH-HEELED shoe featuring inadequate padding in the ball of the foot area; this despite the fact that even a novice upon beginning to investigate the foot-padding mysteries, immediately notices that ball-of-foot padding is especially made for, targetted at, and needed by, women who wear HIGH HEELED shoes, due to the pressure placed on the balls of the feet by the high heels. All this despite the obvious fact that in the state of nature, the heel and the ball of the foot are level in altitude.

Hey Adidas genius MBAs and engineering Phds, here's an idea that you somehow apparently missed: create a shoe that is the Adistar Control 5, except with half an inch of padding added to the toes area and a half an inch of padding removed from the heel area, creating a shoe with 1.25" thick padding in the heel area and 1" thick padding in the toes area. Name it the 'Adidas Wehumblyreturntocommonsense 1 running shoe'.

Stroke of genius: what shoes that are not so-called 'running shoes', have this kind of distribution of padding, 1.25" in the heel area and 1.0" in the toe area?...those could be the best so-called 'running shoes' for me.

Could be I should not allow feelings of irritation to arise within me with regards to such matters, but I feel irritated that it should take me so much time energy and money to solve the problem of footwear that allows me to run a few miles in my natural style of running on a sidewalk, without feeling pain. Seems like the shoe producing corporations and other corporations are churning out too much low quality in terms of goods, services, customer-service, and user-manuals.

Related Links:

http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/02/running-shoes-2-layers-of-padding-no.html

http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/02/running-shoes-and-gel-cushioning.html