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Plantar Fasciitis: Comparing Shoes and Orthotics
The background... (links will open .wmv videos of Dave on the treadmill)
I wanted to go through a couple of different shoes to see if I can release some of the pressure on my arch. I have been battling Plantar Fasciitis for about 6 weeks. It started on the squash court. Playing too much too fast. A common mistake by people every day. The problem is that 6 weeks later after a few treatments and plenty of home massage the problem hasn't gone away.
The goal is to get a shoe or a shoe/orthotic combo that will reduce the amount of pronation in my feet. I think the reason for the Plantar Fasciitis is too much movement on each running stride. Basically I think I need to control the amount of torque in my foot through my gait.
So for the past 6 months I have been running in a Nike LunarEclipse and slightly pronating. I have never worried about a little pronation because of my history with track spikes (provide no support) — I have always been able to deal with it. So I wanted to try a Nike Structure Triax to see if it would improve.
The Structure Triax doesn't provide the support I need. You can see that if you pause the tape with my foot on the ground and see the amount of roll inwards. The shoe just isn't built up enough on the medial side of the shoe. Interestingly enough, I don't want a really really posted shoe because of my efficiency. My stride doesn't really “pound” into the heel like most. I'm more of a mid-foot striker.
So after seeing the Structure Triax not holding up I went back to the LunarEclipse and want to put something inside that might help fill up the shoe and slow and decrease the torque. So on the left shoe I used a Superfeet insole and on the right one I put in a Sole Ultra. The Superfeet wasn't bad. It just dug a little to much into my arch but I'm sure I could get use to that extra support. The right one is a classic mistake, look at how the othotic pushes my foot out to the right. It is too much correction. This suggested the red Sole Orthotic might work.
So I tried the lesser support of the red model from Sole. I felt the most comfortable and still gave me the support I was looking for. I was able to run for 30 minutes on it without pain so for a first time with an un-broken in Orthotic I thought that was pretty good. So I've grabbed a new pair of LunarEclipses and a red Sole and we'll see how this works. The reason I grabbed a new pair of shoes is because I'm trying to decrease torque and the old shoes have been broken in pretty good and that bagging out doesn't help decrease torque. For those who have had Plantar Fasciitis, I feel your pain. I am going to try ShockWave Therapy on it this week. I'll keep you posted on that.
Dave
Watch Videos:
Videos are in .wmv format and will open in Windows Media Player in a new window.
Nike LunarEclipse with nothing inside
Nike LunarEclipse with a Superfeet in the left shoe, Sole Ultra in the right
Nike LunarEclipse with the red model of the Sole Orthotics inside