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.

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