Saturday, June 17, 2006

Apato Feva

I've essentially locked myself in my apartment this weekend to work on the paper. Yuck! But it has to be done. I worked all morning, heard the 12noon bell and hopped on the bike for a cruise downtown to run some errands. Then I worked until 7pm. I finished coding my last interview and I was stir crazy...and going crazy. I jumped up from my computer and decided to run. I grabbed the MP3 player and ran out the door. Okay, it's almost not even worth blogging about...it only lasted 10min. But it's the longest run I've done since last July. I was running slow, more of a light jog. But even then, it's the legs that kill me. I either get a pain in my right hip. Or today, I could feel pain from my arches up to mid-calf on the inside of my legs. What is that??

Okay...it is time for new shoes. But I'm too cheap to buy them unless I know they'll help. The major benefit of running, once you have the shoes, it's free! And you can do it anywhere anytime.

Regardless, I have to run on the PTA relay team again next month. I was the first leg of the team last year and came in last behind all my students! Pathetic!!

Once upon a time, I ran a marathon. I haven't a clue how to get my body back to that again. I'm not sure it's possible!

Back to the paper!

2 comments:

Joe said...

You're now a three sport athlete! You got it all, Baby!!!!

Seriously, if you got sore that quickly, I suspect you either have old shoes or the wrong shoes. To get the right shoes, you'll have to go to a REAL running shoe store. They should watch you walk or run for a couple of minutes.
They should also look at the height of your arches, but they might not. Luckily, you can do it yourself. Just Google something like "wet foot test". It's a quick test you can do to figure out what kind of arches you have.

Once the person at the running store evaluates you, they will recommend one of three types of shoes:
1) Motion control - Usually for flat arched people whose feet and knees tend to rotate inward too much on every step. These people are also called pronators.
2) Cushioning (also called Neutral) - Usually for high arched people, who tend to run on the outer edge of their feet. Often their feet don't rotate inward enough, which leads to jarring. These people need extra cushioning and are sometimes called supinators.
3) Stability - Usually for regular arched people. Stability shoes provide some support to prevent excess inward rolling of the feet, but not as much support as motion control shoes.

Good luck with shoe shopping.

Kirsten said...

Wow!!! Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look into it for sure. I do need new shoes...you'd laugh at what I use for running!! It's pathetic. Now the challenge is finding such a running store in the rice paddies. They must exist because they are SERIOUS about running here, but I have no idea where!!!! And then there is the language barrier...I haven't exactly learned "can you measure my arches?" in Japanese yet. Everyday is a new adventure.