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

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