#TrainingTipTuesday
Hey Runner or Triathlete – do you wear inserts in your shoes such as SuperFeet?
How often do you take them out of your running shoes and actually look at them? You don’t?? You’re not alone!
After my last marathon last fall, I took mine out because I was going to wash my shoes, because well…they were nasty and gross!
I was going to be replacing my running shoes soon because the others had logged lots of hot, sweaty miles and knew they weren’t quite going to get the normal 500-ish miles out of them.
Now the good news is that SuperFeet don’t have to be replaced every 500 miles like your shoes,. But they do need to be replaced after about 12-18 months, or 1000-1500 miles (depending on how many miles you log per month!), or every 2nd-3rd pair of running shoes.
When I took my SuperFeet out of my shoes, I noticed a crack on the inside part of the heel. Basically the support they were supposed to be providing had broken and wasn’t providing the support I thought I was getting. I have high arches so having some added arch support in my running shoes keeps my body happier logging all those miles. So that’s when it made sense why I had developed a knot in my left quad that I couldn’t get rid of for the last 2 months of marathon training, despite all sorts of strength training and deep tissue work I did, plus several visits to my favorite massage therapist, Stephanie Pender!
Fast forward to this week and I was evaluating a new physical therapy client with knee pain and she asked me about when she should replace her SuperFeet. I took them out of her shoe and guess what I found??
Yep! The same broken plastic I saw on mine last fall! Just like me, she was shocked that they were broken! When I found mine broken, that I knew needed to be replaced, I pitched mine in the trash without another thought. Unlike that, though, this time I thought to take a picture of it to help someone else learn what to look for before you develop an ache or pain with training!
So, if you wear SuperFeet or some other off the shelf shoe insert, take them out periodically, flip them upside down and look at them and twist them back and forth a little to make sure they’re still intact! If they’re not, go replace them! Your body will thank you!
