The weather was lovely in San Francisco today and my dog Lola was driving me crazy. A perfect incentive to go for my first road run in a long while and try out my new OrthoSoles that I received from Aimee Donzis at last week's Outdoor Retailer.
I am a major underpronator or supinator as it is sometimes called. This usually means all the pressure when I run hits the ball and heel of my foot. The metatarsal pads in the OrthoSoles are there to help relieve this pressure, so I decided to start with a "medium" pad and a "light" pad in the arch support. The arch support may have been a bad choice as I will talk about later.
I removed the normal, flat liners from my Asic Gel-Foundation 8's , replaced them with my OrthoSoles and headed out with Lola for a 6 mile run. Normally during a run, my multiply reconstructed left knee, recently mended ankle from a bouldering accident, lower back and hamstrings would all start protesting. Instead, I was blissfully free from back, ankle and hamstring pain even if my knee pain was still there. Granted this was my first road run in awhile and my hamstrings and back usually don't act up until after quite a few miles but the ankle felt great, in large part I believe to the gel heal insert and the metatarsal pad.
One thing I will definitely change next time is the arch support pad. I erroneously thought that having high arches meant I needed "light" support. After doing a little research, it looks like I might want to try the "firm" or at least "medium" support and see if it makes a difference for my knee. My goal is to eliminate the knee pain so I will keep you posted.