Commander and I enjoy Homeschooling boys (Herogian, Hawk and Gluten), raising chickens, ducks, and dogs ( Penny and Casey), eating gluten free, surviving breast cancer, coach track and field, and loving God for every minute that He gives us to cherish our family.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Altrazerodrop shoes - Awesome

In '08-09 when Commander was deployed my feet started giving me pain while working in the back yard. Wearing muck boots without my orthotics in them - I thought was the problem. But fixing that issue didn't help.
It just kept getting worse to the point that I quit running in our neighborhood. It was embarrassing to run to the church 1/4 a mile down the road  and then have to walk back home because my feet were burning.
Later it was kneeling down on bent toes digging, or building the walkway would cause both feet to burn. The picture's date is July 2011, I just finished
this path to the back patio 2 weeks ago.

THen you probably remember in May - foot surgery on both feet to cut out nerves from between the 3rd and 4th toes that were the size of pencils stuck inbetween the tendons and doubling back on themselves. Oh and the allergic reaction. Oh Bother.

Well, we have made it to the end of August only after a wait of 4 1/2 weeks for these to arrive. They were on backorder.
Altra zero drop running shoes. As you can see from the side edge there isn't a big build up(inches) of cushion under the heels. That's why they are called zero drop. You actually run in a barefoot style of gait. Does it ever feel good! THe toe box is also larger so your toezies have room to spread out. This is super for Morton's toes and neuroma's - give 'em some room! My long old toes can now wiggle dance.

I started running again at the end of July and joined my friend Shannon on some of her runs. I wanted to stay up with her. My ego really didn't want to accept being at square one again with training, and tried to jump ahead. Well, I paid for that leap in the workouts. THe hills in her neighborhood are killers for knees and beginners at that. Then with the hard packed soccer field with clumps of grass sporadically growing - running strides down the middle of the field didn't help with tweaking the knee. IT Band tenderness, bursitis swelling, and pain sent me to the doctor. I took a week off, started back slow with a knee brace, walking most the time, and saving the jogging for races that I had already paid to enter. Tonight, my lookout on running has a smile again. It is because of these shoes. Just walking to the port -a- pot from the car convinced me to take off the knee brace. Walking a mile felt like I was holding the horses back. Picking up the pace on the straight aways at the track felt good -even though I was slow as molasses the foot strike was straight, balanced, no pronation to fight against, the knee felt great for the next mile. There was no clicking, catching, collapsy feeling from the knee for the first time in three weeks. I don't want to take the shoes off. My favorite workout is repeat 200's. They don't feel like a thing of the past, they are now in the future waiting for me.
Want to come run?

1 comment:

Sue D said...

Wonderful to know a pair of shoes can make all the difference!
You Go Girl!