Still not quite running, but my new Zero-Drop Altra 5 Trail shoes arrived today!!!!
So here’s the story of how I became an unapologetic shoe-floozy!
In the last weeks before heading to the IC I was already two-timing my New Balance Hierro Trail shoes with my husbands’ of the same make. My toes were ecstatic, but now I’ve gone even further, embarking on a foursome with my new Altra Lone Peak Trails added to the fun.
So here’s the story how I got to be such a complete shoe-tart.
I started Couch25k in April 2020 with my 10+ year old tennis shoes! Adidas, I believe. Yup, the white dilapidated ones in the picture to the left. The leather had gotten hard and brittle and by the end of C25k the sole was coming off. But they stood by me through the C25k journey including consolidation and thus will always be an object of fond remembrance. But you can’t run in a ‘soul’-less shoe, right?
Once the sole was starting to come off in August ‘20 there was no way of continuing to run in them and I shoved them into the attic of abandoned shoes! (Yes, they make their appearance once in a while for a photo shoot!) But I had already slowly moved over to another existing pair of black, comfy soft-trainers, depicted with my tennis shoes in the bottom first picture. Not running shoes, and humbly being a no-brand, I had bought these a couple of years earlier in order to have some slip-on trainers without laces. And they just were meant to be there to tide me over until I bought my first dedicated running shoes. At least I didn’t need to stop running for the next 2 weeks or so, as I geared up to get my next pair. I still was a one-pair-of-shoes-at-a-time gal! And this running gal was gearing up for her first visit to the athlete’s play-room, a gait-analysing running shop!
But Aldi got there first at the end of Sept 2020 with a special offer for cheap and cheerful running shoes. My first bought dedicated running shoes (2nd column of pics) ended up thus being a low-cost solution from Aldi. They were somewhere around a 5mm drop shoe, and they really stood me well accompanied me all the way through the magic plan towards 10k. These no-name Aldi shoes felt actually really good, and you wouldn’t believe the low price! They graduated with me on 10k. But as the mud season approached, their weakness in not having sufficient grip became apparent in the number of slides and slips during my winter runs. I needed some dedicated trail shoes with much more grip! So I started conniving about finding another pair of shoes to add to my shoe-entourage!
But this loyal one-time-shoe-girl took until June 2021 until her first ever gait analysis at a dedicated running shop! The outcome was my first experience of having two shoes on the go simultaneously, my trusty, down to earth Aldi shoes being joined by high stack, gorgeous looking New Balance Fresh Foam Hierro shoes with a high-drop of 10mm. They did feel great, brilliant grip, great bounce but when tired, I found myself heel striking. And I started running in my old Aldi shoes once in a while to keep a check on my running technique. My two-timing shoe-cheating athlete live had started!
Retrospectively I now wonder if I was guided to the wrong shoe. I was Japanese slow jogging, but still I was advised towards this high drop shoe. With a high-stack, it probably was considered the shoe for catering to the more heavy weights of runners like myself, but a drop of 10mm I now know to be slightly more problematic for fore-foot strike runners. But otherwise the shoe felt great, gave me the needed impact absorption and support.
But then several things happened when running in my Hierros for a length of time. Besides me developing ball-of-the foot pain, I also encountered two black little toes. I had put them down to tight socks, and I borrowed my husband’s Hierros, which he had only run in once, as he struggled at the time with his own calf injuries. So I took his more spacious versions of my shoes and gave them several spins out on my trails. They did feel more spacious around my ever-so-cute toes (cute toes, because I think we all have to learn to adore our feet more!), but I did have to stop running as the ball of the foot pain got worse and worse.
By Nov 2021 I was on the IC caring for my metatarsals, but in my head I played around with the next time out on the trails, wishfully researching into sexy Zero-drop shoes. I had found an entry level pair of minimal shoes for 40 GBP, known to often be used for indoor rowing, which - as luck would have it - I had just started. That made adding another shoe to my collection easy. I started walking around in the house on them, as I knew I had to get very slowly used to zero drops. Flexible, comfy and very flat, they were the third shoe to be added to my new shoe-floozy lifestyle.
But I knew I was a long way from running in minimal shoes. What I needed was a high stack (high impact absorption) zero-drop shoe, representing a good entry shoe into the zero-drop way of life! High stack for absorption as I am not exactly a lightweight and zero drop for supporting a healthy, forefoot, slow running technique.
And whilst on the IC, I hatched a plan which ended up in a foursome relationship I am about to embark on. And yesterday they came: finally a sale of last year’s Zero-Drop Altra 5 Trails, and now I’m ready….
… ready to not only embark on my four-some shoe relationship but also start afresh on another C25k and B210 journey. And I’m looking forward to keeping my feet feeling refreshed by exchanging shoes once in a while.
Way back when still a newbie, this forum warned me that running shoes have a tendency to multiply like little colourful gremlins, if you just let them out on a run! And so they did!
So here’s to shoe-floozy-rich running lifestyle!
Keep on keeping on everyone !
