it's gotta be the shoes

The saga, oh the saga. The saga of hurting legs and feet and hips.

Every time I have spoken with anyone about shoes, each person offers a different (expert) opinion. I have always trusted one shop, and now I'm confused. And less trusting.

I have orthotics. I have pain in my hip and knee when I run. It feels OK when I get up, but hours later it starts. It sometimes even hurts when I bike - this is not OK with me - crosstraining is supposed to help things like this!

I thought I had ITB syndrome. In truth, it probably started as ITB syndrome. I convinced myself this past week that whatever's going on now is not ITB. It's definitely other stuff...I can roll and roll on the roller and there is no ITB pain. My illiotibial band is, in fact, OK.

It must be other stuff...like the lift I've been wearing in my right shoe for months - to correct my (allegedly) wacky hip and leg length discrepancy. The teeny tiny little wedge of foam, no thicker than 1/8 inch. When I finally got brave enough to take the lift out as an experiment, I found I could run farther before the knee pain came on. I also found that my hip stopped hurting.

I've been wearing the foam wedge in my shoes for over a year. So why would I wear that horrid thing for so long if it hurt so much, one might ask? Well, stupidity could certainly figure into it - I'm kinda dense, it has to be said. I also had myself convinced that it was possible that for effective change to occur to my body, that maybe I had to go through some pain. Pain indicates change (or resistance to change) - I figured if I was feeling pain, it would be hard to tell if it was good pain or bad pain. I couldn't separate the pain it was causing from the pain I started out with. I guess I also figured that when it worked, it would stop hurting eventually, and I would forget about it. That never happened. I'm convinced now that if it helped, it is done helping now.

Bye bye, lift.

It could be other stuff like the shoes - the motion control shoes. Could they be over-controlling my gait? Could the orthotics plus control shoes be doing something bad? Surely not - experts numbered 1-293 said no, they don't work like that.

Expert #423 said you don't pronate. Why wear a motion control shoe? Dang - he's right. I don't pronate! What's a motion control shoe, anyway?

Expert opinion #492 told me that in fact, yes the shoes could be overcontrolling! With those high arches and those orthotics I don't need a control shoe, I don't need a stability shoe. I need a cushion shoe.

What? Cushion? You crazy shoe people and your crazy shoes. I'm skeptical. Of course I am very skeptical. I sneer at your cushion shoes.

I took them away on the condition that I could bring them back if they didn't work.

I ran over 10 miles on them over 2 days on the treadmill: one short run, one long.

Huh. Knee pain, while not totally, gone, does not get worse as per usual script (knee pain is probably still there because I've jacked my legs for so many months now running with the frickin' control shoes). And now that I think about it, all my problems may have started with that one pair of shoes...the ones I was convinced were not the problem.

Bye bye, control shoes.

We'll try these for awhile. I'm not convinced there's one single *right* answer, but so far there's a whole lot of wrong ones. And it's true - if the only tool you have is a hammer...

Knee pain totally in the background for now. Healing, I hope.

Which leaves me to focus on other things...

Like chi running.

It's gotta be the shoes. Please, God, let it be the shoes!