Perfect World vs Life

Hey iRun readers – hope everyones Spring is going well!   This is often the time of year when we start thinking about getting our sandals and summer shoes back out of the closet.  And for many runners and walkers, this comes right around the time our mileage starts getting higher in preparation for spring and summer races.  The combination of these two things can definitely cause a few problems!

The problem is that we often know the benefits of being in our running shoes (they just feel better!), but can’t imagine being in them all the time (for either heat, style or convenience reasons).  So what do we do?  I often recommend a bit of a comprimise here and it depends alot on listening to your body.  Number one priority (especially if you’re injured) should be finding a footwear system that allows you to be comfortable and pain free.  This is generally going to be a running shoe.  Once we have a good system from which to compare to, we can start to find which of our other shoes cause problems.  For example, I definitely wear less than ideal sandals in the summer but I don’t wear them when my feet are sore.  If I’ve done a particularily difficult workout and my feet/knees/legs are sore, I try to wear my running shoes more and avoid my sandals until the pain disappears.  Sounds very simple (which it is) but our bodies are really very good at telling us when we need to do things – we’re just not very good at listening!   If the sandals/dress shoes/casual shoes etc are not causing any problems, then they’re proabably okay for limited wear.  If you really want/need to be wearing sandals or dress shoes and they’re causing problems compared to your running shoes then some changes need to be made.  Finding better sandals/dress shoes, wearing them less or adding inserts (either over the counter or custom made arch supports) are all ways to make a less than optimal system better.

Runners tend to be a grumpy bunch when they’re not able to do the activity they love due to injury (I’m certainly a part of this group)!  Wearing that flip flop for a long walk is often not worth the risk of injury and can easily be avoided by wearing your running shoes.  That being said, there’s often nothing wrong with wearing sandals or dress shoes for casual wear provided there’s no pain. 

Good Luck to everyone in their Spring races!