shoe ideas (Read 1317 times)

 The Mizuno Ronins look good, except that it does not look like I can get them in Canada.  If I cannot find a good shoe here, I can always look southward.....will seriously try for Canada, though, as that is overall just easier.

I realize this is a bit late, but you might want to try contacting Runner's Choice in Kitchener/Waterloo (as I recall you live in Southern Ontario).  Our Runner's Choice in Kingston is well-stocked in Mizuno, and carries the Ronins.  

hi nobby.  its a REAL pleasure to talk to you.  your english is incredible.  i have never met another japanese that can write as well as you do.  you should write a running book. 

as far as tokyo marathon 2010, i sucked it up and ran the damn thing to the end.  it was pure hell, even though my body condition was good.  i told myself if i couldnt do this then i am not capable of ever doing an ironman.  one hour of waiting in the rain for the race to start in 5c temperature.   i saw so many ill prepared runners.  most of them waited to the last minute to get into their assigned start blocks.  the spectators at the race were even more miserable and wet waiting for us to come running by. 

i was well prepared for the cold but it still got to me.  ran with my gortex jacket, uniqlo body fit undershirt, 2xu long tights, long thick nike top, smart wool socks, gloves with another pair of plastic gloves on top with rubber bands on my wrists, wool cap with baseball cap on top, and my old too big asics 2140s but they were super comfy with my new custom insoles.  at the last minute before getting to tokyo city hall and checking in my bag, i ran into a convenience store and bought 2 ホッカイロ for my hands and lower back.  that was one of the smartest things i ever did! 

my original plan was to do the first 5k slow, then after that do a steady even pace close to 5min/km, and turn on the gas at the end of the race after 30km.  with the weather as it was, i just said forget it.  it was 42k of pure hell and misery.  it was so cold that i all of sudden had to pee right past 5k, got lucky found a uncrowded toilet, then went off again and not too long thereafter my shoe lace become untied.  i had the hardest time getting it re-tied because my fingers were numbed to the bone because of the cold.  i couldnt even pull out my power gels from my pocket and had to have someone at the aid station pull it out and open it for me.  everyone of those cafe latte power gels was incredibly sweet and delicious.  i could feel my body warm up every time i finished one.  i could not even enjoy the atmosphere or the scenery, i just kept looking at the next runner ahead of me and was counting down how many km were left to go and thinking about getting to the finish gate asap.   

my gun time was 3:52, chip time probably 3:48 or 3:49.  even this awful time re-qualifies me for boston 2011 or 2012.  i am hard on myself and i want to qualify with time like 3:35.  i had this great bib no# gomarusankyupa.  while i was running i ran for 10k with this guy from haiti named ronald who is living in switzerland.  wonderful guy with great running form.  he said his best marathon time was 2:37 but today he was doing a slow run to not get injured.  his shoe laced got untied and then he fell back and i lost him after 21k.  i dont think any one did a good time yesterday.  it was survival of the fittest.  the mens winner knew exactly where to break from the pack near tsukishima and his having a higher fat percentage gave him the advantage to win.   

i wanted to ask you something about running shoes. i have been wearing too long shoes for the longest time without knowing it.  last november, i went to the asics store and got on the machine and they did the 3d scan.  i learned that i had overpronation, was prone to bunions and have slightly high arches.  the shoe fitter told me i needed 25cm shoes, slim fit or 2AA. so i bought those.  to make a long story short, the inside of my right ankle started acting up again every time i very long run.  i suddenly realized that maybe insoles could fix the problem.  i went to this great insole store in nishi-kanda called foot trainer, or foot rescue.  they had me run on the machine, and then they showed me my running form on video, and the sensors on the running machine showed which areas on the soles of my feet were hitting on the trainer.  i found out that i wasnt using my toes at all.  yes, my right ankle was pronating inwards.  my favorite bonesetter could not fix this, but insoles could.

the specialist at the store had me stand one legged and do all sorts of balancing so that he could figure out how to customize my insoles.  once he made up the insoles he had me run again on the machine to check my pronation.  i think it must have changed by 5%.  he said that its not easy to use your toes for running, but with the insoles i think that you can train your feet to use your toes now.  then he told me that my 25cm asics and nikes were way too big with the insoles.  because of the high arches in the custom insoles my feet got shorter, therefore i needed to get shorter shoes.  he measured my foot to be 23.8 cm and said that probably 24cm is right but of course it depends on the the shoe maker.  he also said that most people wear running shoes that are too big for their feet because they find big is comfortable.  you dont really need as much extra room as you think in your shoes.  having listened to what he said, i went out on a shoe search again. 

there are only 2 models of slim shoes here in japan.  wave rider narrow by mizuno, and asics 2150 slim.  i tried on the 24.5 cm and they were over 1cm too long on top and too wide.  then i tried on the 24cm and they fit like a glove, a tightly fitting glove.  with thin socks on, the shoes have almost exactly 1cm room length above my largest toe when i stand up.  not one thumbs length as what americans seem to recommend.  my foot is not jammed to the top, but it feels tightly fitting.  then i said to myself, i have to remember that the shoe fabric stretches out.  i realized that i have just gotten so used to too big shoes that i dont know what a proper fitting shoe should feel like, if that makes sense.  the other thing that i thought is how can you use your toes for running, or run faster if your shoes are too big and you are wasting energy with every step and push off from the ground.  the mizunos feel seem small compared to what i am used to, but i am going to give them a try.  after all, my next race is boston and i have no proper fitting broken in shoes to wear yet.  the faster you run the better fitting shoes you need.  how can you run fast if your shoes dont fit right either.  the only way to get better at anything is practice, making mistakes, and being open minded about trying new things. 

if the weather had been sunny, tokyo marathon would have been great yesterday. i am very curious to see how boston marathons atmosphere compares to tokyo marathon.  i dont know anyone who has run them both.  two other marathons i want to run are hokkaido marathon in august and naha marathon in december.  also one other is tateyama in january.  it is an incredibly hilly marathon.  

i wanted to ask you something about running shoes. i have been wearing too long shoes for the longest time without knowing it.  last november, i went to the asics store and got on the machine and they did the 3d scan.  i learned that i had overpronation, was prone to bunions and have slightly high arches.  the shoe fitter told me i needed 25cm shoes, slim fit or 2AA. so i bought those.  to make a long story short, the inside of my right ankle started acting up again every time i very long run.  i suddenly realized that maybe insoles could fix the problem.  i went to this great insole store in nishi-kanda called foot trainer, or foot rescue.  they had me run on the machine, and then they showed me my running form on video, and the sensors on the running machine showed which areas on the soles of my feet were hitting on the trainer.  i found out that i wasnt using my toes at all.  yes, my right ankle was pronating inwards.  my favorite bonesetter could not fix this, but insoles could.

 

the specialist at the store had me stand one legged and do all sorts of balancing so that he could figure out how to customize my insoles.  once he made up the insoles he had me run again on the machine to check my pronation.  i think it must have changed by 5%.  he said that its not easy to use your toes for running, but with the insoles i think that you can train your feet to use your toes now.  then he told me that my 25cm asics and nikes were way too big with the insoles.  because of the high arches in the custom insoles my feet got shorter, therefore i needed to get shorter shoes.  he measured my foot to be 23.8 cm and said that probably 24cm is right but of course it depends on the the shoe maker.  he also said that most people wear running shoes that are too big for their feet because they find big is comfortable.  you dont really need as much extra room as you think in your shoes.  having listened to what he said, i went out on a shoe search again. 

 

there are only 2 models of slim shoes here in japan.  wave rider narrow by mizuno, and asics 2150 slim.  i tried on the 24.5 cm and they were over 1cm too long on top and too wide.  then i tried on the 24cm and they fit like a glove, a tightly fitting glove.  with thin socks on, the shoes have almost exactly 1cm room length above my largest toe when i stand up.  not one thumbs length as what americans seem to recommend.  my foot is not jammed to the top, but it feels tightly fitting.  then i said to myself, i have to remember that the shoe fabric stretches out.  i realized that i have just gotten so used to too big shoes that i dont know what a proper fitting shoe should feel like, if that makes sense.  the other thing that i thought is how can you use your toes for running, or run faster if your shoes are too big and you are wasting energy with every step and push off from the ground.  the mizunos feel seem small compared to what i am used to, but i am going to give them a try.  after all, my next race is boston and i have no proper fitting broken in shoes to wear yet.  the faster you run the better fitting shoes you need.  how can you run fast if your shoes dont fit right either.  the only way to get better at anything is practice, making mistakes, and being open minded about trying new things. 

Brioche:

Sorry I left you hanging.  Your feet do swell up slightly so you don't want your toes up against the tip of the shoe.  Also, your foot will slide forward slightly when you bend your toes (right before the take-off) so you may want enough extra room to accommodate those.  But, you're right, if there's too much "dead space" at the tip of your shoe, you'll be losing energy at your take-off.  When you look at some of track spike shoes, you can see some "teeth" at the tip of the shoe.  It is because that's where you really "grip" the ground.  In fact, I remember watching this TV program when synthetic track first came out (way back in the 60s and early 70s and when I was still in a grade school but it had a lasting impression on me).  They had this university professor in physics or biomechanics or whatever, explaining "the most effective track (spike) shoes for synthetic track".  He had a regular spike shoes with 6 pins but only the top 2 are left and the rest of the plate were all ground-up.  He said those two (on the tip) are the most important pins.  Fast-forward years later in the 1980s; I remember Arthur Lydiatd talking about shoes and all the BS about having to have "a thumb width" at the tip of the shoe.  "Even the slowest runner in the world (whoever it may be...) kick at the tip of the foot.  If you only have a 'flab' at the end of the shoe, you'll be losing energy..."  It was one of those moments that I could remember that TV program and it made a perfect sense to me. 

The shoe too big also have other issues as well.  In most cases, unless the shoe manufacturers intentionally make shoes slightly longer, they make the shoe to fit the human foot.  If that is the case, if you wear a shoe one size, not a half size but one size, too big, what's gonna happen is that the widest part of your foot wouldn't fit into the widest part of the shoe.  In other words, where the widest part of the foot sits in would be where the shoe actually start to narrow, creating extra friction mostly on the front end of the arch.  Those who frequently get a blister at this area in many cases are wearing the shoe too big.  Another issue is that, because today's shoes are so stiff, your heel feels like it is constantly slipping off.  This invariably creates friction on your heel and get a blister on your heel from rubbing. 

If your shoe size is small--24cm is pretty small--, you'd have to be extra careful because the smaller the shoe, the stiffer they get.  This is because (1) even though the shoe size is smaller, the materials they use are the same.  In other words, for example, the upper is thicker in proportion to the rest of the shoe.  I noticed this when I was in college; one of my roommates who ran went to get the same shoes as I had and I noticed that his shoes were much more bulky and stiffer.  Exactly the same shoes but mine was 9.5 and his was something like 7 (for men).  Also, (2) the shorter the material, the more force it requires to bend--it won't go up and down linearly.  So runners with small feet are subjected to stiffer shoes more than runners with bigger feet. 

I don't believe in orthotics.  I believe in more minimalist kind of shoes.  I would suggest you try out something more of a line of ASICS Tarther (you're lucky you live in Japan...) and see how they feel.  I believe they come with "slim" model as well??? 

So you're coming to Boston, huh?  Lorraine (Moller) and I had just talked about it yesterday.  We haven't decided if we come to Boston this year or not; but it would be fun if we could get together.  So do you live in Tokyo (from all the names of the area you had mentioned)???  I come to Tokyo for business quite frequently (I mean, once a year or so); maybe we'll get together and go for a run in Tokyo, huh? ;o)