It's all in the feet

This week I learned three things. First off, just how hard it is to take a picture of your own feet, and secondly, how important it is to look after said feet. The third thing I learned was if you want to buy proper sports shoes go to a sports shoe shop and not a major chain shoe store in the mall, but I'll get to that later.

With the gradual increase in physical activity I've been subjecting myself to lately, it had come to my attention that while I may be the equivilant to a male Imelda Marcos (due to the amount of shoes I own, not the extreme wealth and subsequent exile, obviously), I didn't own any comfortable shoes to use for walking/light jogging duties.

Case in point, I recently discovered that the shoes I used to use for ninety percent of my walking to work (7km round trip not counting amount of distance on the bus) were doing me more harm than good. While they are extremely comfortable, a great colour, 100% animal friendly and made by a brand I like a lot - not to mention I think they look really cool, they are very stiff soled and made mostly for street and dirt jump biking. Not walking. I learned of this when while removing my shoes the other day the girlthing pointed out the large blood blister in my heel, caused not by ill-fitting shoes rubbing, but from repeated impact on a hard surface (i.e. the stiff soled, made for cycling shoe). Ouch.

I had been given a voucher for a well known shoe store for my Birthday a few weeks ago, and decided now was the time to finally buy some shoes I could use for more than riding my bike. Upon finding out where the closest store to us was, the girlthing and I took an expedition to our local mall. Due to previous online research I knew roughly the pair of shoes I wanted, so it should have been a straight case of go in and buy them.

This was not to be as when I got to the store they had a much larger selection of shoes than what they showed online, so I enlisted the "help" of one of the salespeople behind the counter. I explained to them exactly what I wanted (A shoe used mainly for walking or cross training) and they proceeded to show me the most expensive running shoe in the store. They then tried to tell me this was a superior shoe because it was made from 100 percent leather and was better for winter than those other shoes because they didn't breathe as much so your feet would be warmer. The next selling point was the grip on the sole of the shoe (which she demonstrated by getting down and the floor and trying to push it along the showroom floor like a toy car) and how these shoes would wear better because the soles were a lot stiffer and not as soft as the other shoes. Yikes.

I took that as a sign that with the prior research I had done online I knew more about what I should be buying than what she should be selling me so pointed out a couple of pairs I had been looking at earlier and tried them on.

Long story short I am now the proud owner of a pair of New Balance 470v3's which, over the course of the last week of walking to work I have found to be the most comfortable shoes for walking in that I have ever owned. A big call, as I have owned sports shoes from most of the big name shoe companies over the years.

Now I really don't have any excuses - it's time to get out there and walking more often!

Until next time - see you round , like a rissole!

:Doug