In the process of reading about how one prepares to walk a long way one frequent recommendation was to go to a store like EMS, find someone who knows a lot about footwear, and follow their advice. So, I go to a local EMS store and ask the right question. What luck! An ultra marathoner works there so I am now in good hands. I explain my situation and quest and ask his advice.
He showed me a bunch of shoes, bent them a few times, talked about shoe breathing and asked me to walk up and down a ramp. "how do they feel?" Well, after walking a about 30 feet, on a ramp, in a store, in a shopping center I said "they feel OK" Well there ya go. If you want to walk around your house for a week or so to see if you like them, and you don't, you can bring them back.
But if you walk outside the shoes are yours. Well I tried walking around the house for a few days and, as stimulating as that was, I decided to take a 6 mile walk outside. The shoes are now mine. My feet were killing me. Within no time I had developed big blisters on both of my little toes and I had this terrible "hot spot" along the base of my toes.
I spent that afternoon learning about blisters, whether to pop them or not, sweaty feet, the different types of socks, mole skin, hot spots, shoe fitting, etc etc. I chose not to pop the blisters but gave them a few days to heal themselves and develop a tougher underskin. That worked. The bottoms of my small toes are now like rawhide.
I concluded that my feet needed to be both stronger and tougher. Becoming stronger by walking a lot. Becoming tougher by developing blisters and letting them heal. Then, as I am coming home one night, my grandson, who basically lives barefoot in the summer, came running, full speed, up to meet me across a gravel driveway, then a bunch of pea stone, then hot blacktop. No shoes. Aha! I don't have to develop blisters I can just start going barefoot whenever I can. So that's what I have been doing for the last ten days or so and it seems to be helping. My driveway is 500 feet long to the mailbox. The first time I tried it barefoot it took me 15 minutes roundtrip. I would say I can do it now in under 5 after only 10 days.
My wife came home one day and caught me walking barefoot around our circular paved driveway. "what are you doing?" she asked. Toughening my feet. "Oh, of course!"
you are hilarious! now I want to read more..hope people feel that way about my blog
ReplyDeleteJoey you and I have the same problem... my feet are way freakin' wide in the toe box. Your solution for running/walking shoes is the same as mine, New Balance. For walking hiking shoes I found Keen made ones that actually fit my big stumps. I bought both the low shoe and the mid boot. The mid boot was hands down the winner. Socks... nothing I've ever used for running, hiking or walking beats the Smartwool socks. I like the mid size sock or higher. Low socks look cool but they are more likely to slide down and bunch up... and cramp your toes! BUT, whatever sock you get, get one that's big enough. Good socks are sized and ones that are too small kill my feet worse than any shoe. Also, keep those toenails trimmed. Easiest way to blacken and lose a toe nail is to have it banging/catching away on the end of your shoe... a particular problem on downhill treks. The guy at EMS wanted you to walk on an incline board to check if your foot slides in the shoe/boot though he might not have explained that. That's all it's even minimally useful for. If your foot slides forward in your shoe on downhill walks when it's laced tight, you'll have nasty sore toes and probably black toe nail(s).
ReplyDeleteBTW, love your writing, Joey. You have a real talent.