Hi folks!
About a year ago, I gave myself patellofemoral syndrome. At first I thought I'd overtrained, but turns out it was mostly wrong posture, resulting from unwittingly correcting a foot deformity I didn't know about. I also gave myself osteoarthritis in both knees and one hip from it.
Anyway, I got orthotics now, and can run pain free with them+taped knees. So I'd like to start again.
Thing is, most training plans I can find are aimed at either people who are in training, running wise, or starting from 'couch', ie, being mostly or completely sedentary. I'm neither, as I've replaced with walking 5k+ per day most days and swimming 1.5k (breaststroke, keeping my head over water, and in just under 40 min if it matters) once or twice a week.
I also hike, but not all that regularly. Did 20k with 300m altitude (I know, more of a long brisk walk than a hike) last week and it didn't cause any pain during or after. Just in case that's a relevant clue.
Since my pool membership is running out and running is virtually free, id like to get back into it now that I'm mostly pain free and have my orthotics. Does anyone have a link or advice for how to pick it back up without doing more harm than good?
tia!
Ok so I tried out those new barefoot shoes. It didn't take a lot of getting used to, I guess I do walk genuinely barefoot enough for it not to be strange. It was about -5°C and dry and I wasn't cold at all walking. They say on the website that you'll be warmer in them than you think because of increased blood flow, I think that turned out to be true! When I was waiting for the bus for 10 mins, I was super cold though. Can't wait to try them for running, I only walked about 5k to work for a start.
I considered to wear them for a hike, but was glad I decided against it because the path was like this:
Haha yeah, every run is context, that's great.
If they didn't feel weird straight off, you should have a very comfortable transition to minimum soles, i was very lucky last month to have a nice barefoot track in my neighborhood, but I'm running in sandals again in Bacolod, which is still fine.
I'm very happy your new shoes are comfortable.
No footwear is do or die, but after personal trial and error it does seem like minimal soles are comfortable and healthy.
Let me know if you have any questions/updates, how your minimum sole experiment continues, I'm curious how things go with other people after my own experience.