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.

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 + 2 layers of padding = no pain (imperfect solution number 1 & possible better solutions)

For background to this post see my earlier post, "Running shoes and gel cushioning insoles have padding in the wrong places" at http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/02/running-shoes-and-gel-cushioning.html .

Wednesday night Feb 12, I again ran the five mile course on Moody and Main, the first third and fifth miles jogged, the second and fourth miles walked. The time this time was 94 minutes (again under-the-weather disadvantaged, as has been case since Feb 5). I ran in the 'Adidas Adistar Control-5' running shoes, with two layers of gel heel-to-toe padding in each shoe. I found this resulted in elimination of pain that was experienced in the balls and toes of the feet with zero or one layer of gel padding added to the "Adistar Control 5' shoes. The pain was Wednesday night replaced with a tingly numbness.

Wednesday night I felt grateful that I was able to run every yard of the three miles run in my natural style--heel and ball of the foot hitting the ground almost simultaneously, without pain; this resulted in a jogged-miles-jogged- fast, walked-miles-walked-slowly type of night.

However the time wednesday night was not very impressive; this imperfect solution elevates the feet in the shoes to a level--3/8 of an inch additional elevation due to the two layers of gel sole padding--where they should not be, excessively high in the shoe; and it adds significant weight to the shoe. But as some famous American general whose name I forgot said, an imperfect solution is better than no solution.

Researching the subject on the internet, I came across foot-care products that I had never seen before, products that I did not know even existed, that could replace and improve upon the two layers of heel to toe gel padding:

Toes Padding

Footsmart Gel Toe Crest, $9 each
http://www.footsmart.com/P-Footsmart-Gel-Toe-Crest-ea-40110.aspx
My Adistar Control 5 shoes already contain a built-in, pronounced, toe-crest of this type.

Footsmart Gel Toe Cap, $10 for two, $5 each
http://www.footsmart.com/P-Gel-Toe-Cap-Set-of-2-98122.aspx
Capping each toe would cost $5X10=$50 with this product!

Footsmart Gel Toe Tubes, $9 for two 4.5" tubes (each cuts up into more than one toe tube/cap)
http://www.footsmart.com/Product.aspx?ProductId=2323&cm_re=xsell-_-product-_-1
This way I could cap two toes and tube eight toes for only $10, much cheaper than the Gel Toe Caps.

Ball of Foot Padding

Silipos ball of foot cushions, $16/pair
http://www.footsmart.com/P-Silipos-Ball-of-Foot-Cushions-40021.aspx

Ultra Gel Forefoot Wrap $20/pair
http://www.footsmart.com/P-FootSmart-Ultra-Gel-Forefoot-Wrap-Pr-40298.aspx
This pads the ball of the foot not the toes

FootSmart Gel Forefoot Pads, Pair $9
http://www.footsmart.com/P-Peda-Bella-Gel-Forefoot-Pads-40013.aspx
Seems this pads ball of foot only

Forefoot Padding

Forefoot Pad with Metatarsal Dome, Pair $20
http://www.footsmart.com/Product.aspx?ProductId=65&cm_re=xsell-_-product-_-2
This pads from the middle of the ball of the foot to the tips of the toes.

Silicone Forefoot Insoles, Pair $12
http://www.footsmart.com/Product.aspx?ProductId=262&cm_re=xsell-_-product-_-1
These pad the area from the ball of the foot to the tips of the toes. They pad the entire ball of the foot not just the middle of the ball of the foot. The blurb at the footsmart site is extraordinarily enthusiastic about this product. This product seems like the best deal in foot comfort for me now.

A remaining task for me now is a task I have found so far, to be surprisingly difficult: to find what local retail outlets sell this kind of stuff. I have never bought this stuff before, to me it seems reasonable that the first time you buy something you buy it at a retail outlet. Buying from a retail outlet: I don't have to wait a few days to take delivery and go through confusion and worry, for example, re will the delivered stuff be stolen from the hallway; I establish someone I can ask questions of, who could be indebted to me for being a customer; and, it is easier to return stuff that does'nt work out.

At a time like this when we are staring into an abyss of a terrifying future featuring an attempt to survive without money in a non-agricultural, cold-temperature, high-population-density environment, people probably think, how could someone be getting into detail re jogging-shoe-add-ons at a time like this?'

I get into this matter in detail because my perspective is: that improved aerobic fitness results in improved performance in 'important' tasks related to survival in difficult environments; jogging on a treadmill strengthens different muscles compared to running on ground and is boring; jogging on a track is impossible during snowstorms and results in interesting encounters with a relatively narrow segment of the population; since I could be a star in soccer and sports similar to soccer if my aerobic/anaerobic fitness improved running is the reasonable path to aerobic fitness for me; improvement in aerobic fitness for me is impaired as a result of pain in the feet.

Running shoes and gel cushioning insoles have padding in the wrong places

On Monday January 26, 2009, I bought a pair of the 'Adistar Control 5' ( http://www.netsweat.com/Running/Online_Running_Store/Category/Mens-Road-Running-Shoes.htm ) ( http://www.runningwarehouse.com/descpageMRS-ASTCT5M.html ) running shoes at Marathon Sports in Cambridge MA ( www.marathonsports.com ) (617-354-4161). The shoes cost $130.

On Sunday Feb 8 (13 days after I bought the shoes) I wore them outdoors for the first time; while wearing them I ran this outdoors course that I run on Main and Moody Sts in Waltham on the sidewalk, five miles, the first third and fifth miles jogged, the second and fourth miles walked--my time was 92 minutes 2 minutes worse than my personal best of 90 minutes. The course features a run uphill on Moody St going south on the fifth mile, and a walk uphill going south on Moody St on the second mile. On Tuesday Feb 10 I ran the same course a second time, this time with one gel insole ( http://www.paragonsports.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Category_Insoles%20&%20Pads_10551_10051__20523_-1_1.htm ) for padding in each shoe. The second run my time was 94 minutes, 4 minutes worse than my personal best of 90 minutes.

Since Thursday Thursday Feb 5 I had been in a way 'under the weather', which impaired my performance. Conversely, On the Feb 8 and Feb 10 runs the clothing I wore was lighter than it was when I did my 90 minutes personal best.

I bought the shoes because I estimated that my time for this run had reached a plateau of 90 minutes, and not gotten any faster than 90 minutes, because at the 90 minute speed the pain factor became significant--along this line, the slower you run the easier it is to minimize pain.

One could reasonably theorize, that the time at which the difference produced by a new shoe is most clearly felt, is during the first few hundred yards run in the shoes. While running the first few hundred yards I ever ran in these 'Adistar Control 5' shoes I could tell right away, that the shoes (compared to the cheaper Adidas cross-trainers) made it easier to generate and maintain momentum, similarly to the way a wheel makes it easier to maintain and generate momentum.

However after the first mile on the first run, during the second mile jogged on the first run, I noticed that there was pain in the toes that was slowing me down. The first run in the end my time was 92 minutes, 2 minutes slower than my personal best run in the Adidas 'Powerpoint' cross-trainers.

The second run, run using the gel insoles, combined with the 'Adistar Control 5' shoes, there was pain in the front sole section of the foot again, this time the pain was in the ball of the foot and also the toes, not just the toes; and the pain in the second run started during the first mile jogged not the second mile jogged. Compared to the first run, the pain was more inhibiting during the second run; it got to the point that I switched from my natural style of the heel and the ball of the foot striking the ground at the same time, to the heel striking the ground before the ball of the foot strikes the ground, which is a style that I find to be unnatural dainty and inefficient.

I was disappointed that the Adistar Control 5 shoes failed to provide the level of cushioning support that I need. Seems to me that the shoes and also the gel insoles (from some company that was not Adidas), have not distributed the padding in a way that corresponds to my personal needs.

The Adistar control 5's sole is 1" thick at the ball of the foot, 1.75" thick at the heel, and approx 0.5" thick at the extreme front end of the toe. The gel-padded insole is thickest in the arch of the foot area and the heel, and thinnest in the ball of the foot and the toes area. The Adistar Control 5 shoes like most shoes, force the foot into a position wherein the heel is (compared to barefoot) unnaturally high.

By way of contrast, my feet while running in the Adistar Control-5 shoes both with and without the added gel insole, need padding in the balls of the foot area and the toe area, and have more than enough padding in the heel area.

When I run long-distance type running the heel and the ball of the foot hit the ground at approx the same time. I estimate given my state of knowledge as of now, that this is normal for long-distance running; running on the balls of the foot is the style used for sprinting not long distance running. The heel striking the ground before the balls of the feet strike the ground is characteristic of walking, characteristic of a clumsy type of running.

Alternatives I face now: replace the shoes; get yet another pair of shoes; find gel insoles with padding in the right places; create gel insoles with padding in the right places using scissors etc makeshift style.

I suspect that my tactic of buying the motion control shoe that had the most padding amongst motion control shoes, may have been erroneous. Perhaps I should have just gotten the shoes with the most padding period, and to hell with 'motion control'.

Now I'll find out exactly what Marathon Sports meant when they said that they could let me try out another pair of shoes if these shoes did not work out.