footsies, part 1

i don't have a foot fetish, which is to say, i've never had to change my shorts on account of looking at feet, though lord knows i've tried.

still, evidently, i have a foot obsession. unfortunately, i'm obsessed not with some distant, infrequently encountered pair of shoe-stuffers, but with my very own pair of ass-kickers. or maybe that's fortunate. i don't know, but the point is this: i'm obsessed with 'em.

maybe it's because i run, hike, climb, and can't seem to do any of that at less than 195lbs. that's gotta put the hurt on my poor little footsies. also, i can't find good shoes for any of those activities on account of i've got wide-ass hobbitfeet, and i guess hobbitses are expected to run, hike, climb, and weight 195 barefoot.

i thought the solution was superfeet. my hiking shoes and my running shoes have had superfeet in them for a long-damn-while now. i've only been climbing two weeks and i use rental shoes, and besides, my own feet can barely fit in those things, much less my feet + orthotics.

anyhow, i get soreness on the insides of my shins, mostly on the right one. it's hard to say whether it's muscle, tendon, or bone soreness. standing, walking, or just sitting and touching is tender/sore. it's not maddeningly painful, though it is distracting, especially when paired with my obsession. it's the sort of thing i'd be happy to live without. as it is, i now live with it pretty much all the time, not just when i'm exercising the legs.

so i figured: maybe the problem is that i run and hike with superfeet but everyday-walk without. so last week i bought a pair of superfeet for my everyday-walk shoes. it seems that these made things a little worse, actually.

"aha!" said i, at this point, this point being yesterday afternoon. "perhaps it's the superfeet causing that little pain! what if i remove all superfeet for this weekends pavement and trail pounding?"

so that i did, dear reader, and i do mean "reader", because at this point i'm sure it's just you and me. i ran about 5 miles with no superfeet.

it kind of sucked but that might be general tiredness. i enjoyed the softsquishyness of the shoes without the hard superfeet, but at about 3.5mi i was missing the arch support. still, this was for science, so i pushed on.

right now i've got a heaping helping of the selfsame soreness, but the experiment has just begun. i've got a lot of man-about-town shit to do today, and i reckon i'll do it all sans-superfeet. stay tuned!