The Laughing Wolf

For Want of a Nail

There is much I need to get done today, and a lot of it is not getting done. I have felt a bit off, and even had to cut the time at the gym a bit short. Then again, I have found one the causes of some of the pain in my life: my shoes.

I am a creature of habit, and can and do get into ruts. One such are my tennis shoes, which I have bought for many years now without complaint. I get them, they last six months to a year, I replace them. The problem is, that this time the ol’ Reebok classics did not even make two good months.

My feet and legs have been bothering me a bit of late, and the back has had some complaints as well. I thought a lot of the back was related to lack of healing, foolish moves on my part, and all such as that. Then, something made me look at my shoes.

They had caved. More than just a slide, the inner sides of my shoes had collapsed better than a quarter inch in comparison with the outer side under the pounding of my whopping two miles a day on the treadmill. Seems they are not made for serious walking or use at a gym. Seems that working out and them wearing them around during normal activities is more than they are designed to withstand.

Now, I liked my classics. They were understated, even boring, and as such I could get away with wearing them lots of places so that I was much more comfortable than I would otherwise have been. They were reliable, after all I had been buying them for the last 15 or so years.

Tennis shoes today have little or nothing to do with tennis. They have everything to do with flash and are designed to attract the over-stimulated minds of the tweens. I don’t care for a lot of flash, which take all your cash, because I don’t talk trash, I do the bash. Yet, within this brave new world of shoes I have been successfully avoiding for some time, there are some pockets of sanity.

A salesman today, who had no chance of making me a sale, gave good advice after he pointed out that he sold flash, and I was more interested in structure. He made recommendations as to specific shoes, specific features, and even told me the stores that sold them. If I can ever steer business his way, I will. For those that can’t do the walk, I will send them to the best place for the flash.

There were two brands recommended to me, with several different models. I ended up getting two pairs of shoes: one for the gym, and one for the rest of the day. The Reeboks are clearly no long up to the challenge, so they are gone. Shame as there is an outlet store for them up in Nashville… Sorry, the Scot in me coming out.

What I settled on were New Balance. I got the 580 for everyday use, and the 855 for gym and treadmill. Both have anti-roll systems to prevent cave-ins, turns, and problems with the arches, along with extra padding in the places where I like it. The next-runner-up was a good brand, but did not feel as good in the fit. I am going to try some new super-duper inserts as well on the 855s to see how they do.

The only drawback right now is that the feet are having to adjust to not being off by so many degrees and/or turned. Doing all the shopping also let the blood sugar get out of whack a bit, since most snacks at a mall or shopping centers tend to be high carb. Things are evening out all around, and the feet will soon adjust. It is not how I planned or needed to spend the day in terms of work, but it quite clearly was how I needed to spend it for my health.

It also is helping me out of a rut, for simply because there is so much flash in the shoe market today, doesn’t mean that it is nothing but trash.

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