new shoes, old blues

[forgotten_aria]

I ran with the new shoes and they were not a win.

My left foot was cramping in the way it does when the shoe is fighting with it (it happens in ice skates all the time.) This might have been my sock slipping down, but in general, the fancy shoes didn't improve much. I will try them one more time with different socks and the back hole laced up, but I'm very disappointed. I'm a little worried she looked at my weight and went a little over board with the cushioning.

I was so hopeful. They felt really good in the store.

I also worry I got the wrong size because my feet were, perhaps, swollen that day.

I'm going to feel horrible if I have to return them.

Comments

[tla]

I know I keep going on at you about shoes, but:

Before I had the On shoes, I had been to a running store and, after trying out ever more extreme stability shoes, was sent away with the most seriously "dammit we MEAN IT" stability shoes they had, and was told that even in those shoes I was still pronating. After I got them home my knees hurt during and after every run, and I had in desperation to just go back to my previous "bought off the internet" shoes. Shortly thereafter I came across the Cloudsurfers and the problems went away entirely.

Also, I know a running coach whose clientele is mostly non-skinny women relatively new to running, and she is pretty adamant about the virtues of having a neutral shoe and getting into the habit of foot-strengthening exercises (e.g. standing on one foot at a time for up to a minute, hopping around if you have to in order to keep your balance.) She's not the only one I've seen to claim that it's not necessarily a bad thing if your feet pronate, so long as the supporting foot/leg muscles are strong enough to support it.

At any rate, this is all meant more as experience-sharing than advice, so please read it like that. ;)

[forgotten_aria]

If I do end up returning these (I really hope I don't have to) maybe I'll go for sturdier On's because I do love that my On don't tell my foot what to do and hugs it pretty closely.

[tla]

*nod* I did also eventually get a pair of Brooks Pure Flow shoes, which I also like, simply because the Cloudsurfers wear out on me before they've hit 400k, which is pretty short-lived for such expensive shoes. I have had better luck with the Clouds, but I have no idea whatsoever how durable their newer models are.

[bluepapercup]

Shoes are so darn frustrating!!

I've had good luck recently with shoes from Altra, their trail running shoe is zero-drop but has great cushioning. I prefer low-cushion for everything but running, because like you, I'm not a small person and I have a bit of mass coming down on each foot when I take those strides.

I've been on the "strengthen my feet not the shoe" thing for a few years now and it really does seem to help.