Hattori Love/Hate continues...

Hattori Love/Hate continues...

Boy!  Do I love these Hattories!... Boy!  Do I hate some things about these Hattories!

After running in "free" huaraches, cheap flipuaraches and water socks it was quite a stretch to buy running shoes!  I decided to take the plunge with a great deal and good return policy at my local Road Runner Sports (Westminster, CO, 104th and I36).

After my first 4.5 miles in the new shoes I had to get out of them and finish with 1.5 barefoot.  That was a perfect combination!...

In the middle of my next run of 7.5 miles, I got to do about 2 miles bare on a side walk, then put the shoes back on to finish.  At about 6 miles they were causing pain on the ball of my big toe because of the edge of the rubber wear pads on the inner edge... great rubber, bad application!  I stopped, pulled the shoes off, found a 2 pound rock and beat the shoes until they gave up... I thought...  It did help a lot and I got back to the car OK.  The toe box issue was still not so good.

Before my next run I knew I had to do something about the restricted toe box and wear pad edges or take them back!  You see, Saucony went to a great deal of trouble to put "side walls" on the toe box that really bothered my feet!  Why do that???

So... when I saw the side rubber coming disconnected from the left shoe upper fabric, I felt comfortable pulling it away a bit more to ensure that I could remove some sidewall without unattaching the upper.  It lookeded like it was good for a try...

So... I cut it off!  Yep... brand new shoes... cut off the beautiful siderails...

Now for the other shoe... oops... the side rails on the right shoe were still firmly attached and I had to work hard to get them off!  (Good - tough bond!  Bad - Why different than other shoe?  First shoe siderail came unbonded on the first run...)

I had to do some undercutting and then pulled the side rail rubber off with a pliers.  not so pretty, but I did not damage the upper, so I called it a success.

The third run was about 8 miles and all on sidewalk, so I was able to go bare several times to give my feet a break.  I do really enjoy the shoes when they aer not causing problems!  I also noted some wrinkling of the soft inner padding... I may have to loose that!  I decided to give it a try to grind down the edges of the big toe pads to stop the pain they cause to the balls of my feet (In an earlier post I described doing a similar thing to the trailing edge of the ball pad).  I hit it with some course and fine sandpaper and appreciate just how tough that rubber is!  Cool Saucony!  Really great rubber... just extend it out over the 2nd metatarsal joint and taper the edges, PLEASE!

The fourth run was pretty good, but I still was not satisfied with the toe box... it still has raised edges!  I had little metatarsal stress pain with the less restricted side movement.  The pad sanding helped a lot and I did not have any issues with the soft liner.  I decided to make one more set of modifications...

I did some undercutting to cut edge relief grooves on the inner edges.  That allowed the last of the inner ridge to lie flat while protecting the attachment of the upper... hard telling if it will last...

I also decided to remove some of the arch support.  I do not need it or want it and I fear that it will cause me to slack on my barefoot form.  The trusty knife did a great job but revealed a small void in the arch area of both shoes.  I grabbed some silicon calk and filled that in and feathered the edges to anchor it.  Also hard telling how long that will last.

Well, I do not suppose RoadRunner will be too excited to take back these babies now!  I loved them enough to perform surgery to save them!!!

I took the Hattories back to the store to show off my handiwork.  I missed seeing my barefoot expert, but got to see other folks give me that..."you did what??" look while trying to remember "the customer is always right" - ya'know?

I got to take a look at the newly arrived New Balance Minimus Trail MT20...  tune in for my next post about that experience.
Barely running

Breathing your way to low blood pressure

Breathing your way to low blood pressure

I did an interesting experiment the last few weeks that you might like to hear about. I love synthesis, so everything I think about gets all jumbled together... lets see... running, tooting flutes, being healthy... should be something in that intersection...

When I got my heart pacer in November, the doc was concerned about my blood pressure. It has always been low (~130/74), so I never worried about it (low cholesterol too... go figure...). So, with my BP at mid 140's he said I should start working on it. I went to the web and read about blood pressure lowering exercise... Guess what... slow deep breathing is the best exercise! Just like the best way to breathe while running! Synthesis!!!... Then I got to thinking, what else do I do that requires slow steady, infrequent breathing... yep, playing flutes!... So we have a triple synthesis! I love it!

So, I set up an experiment -- The doc gave me a sheet to record BP & Pulse morning and evening, so I put that into a spreadsheet and added a "comments" column to track my "exercise". I recorded data with no exercise for a couple of days, except for the 15 ro so miles a week that I run and relaxing a few minutes in the chair before taking the measurement. Sure enough I was in the 146/84 range, with a few in the low 150s! (Pulse is great though, often in the mid 50s!) So, I started doing the deep breathing exercises while sitting in a chair relaxing just before the measurement. Wow! in a few days I was measuring 130/72!!! I could not believe it! If people paid me to teach them to breathe what it costs them for all the dangerous meds they buy, I would be rich several times over!

OK, so success! Now to add the flute playing. I expected that the results would stay level, but I would not have been surprised if they went even lower! Nope... they went back up into the mid 140s to low 150's! What??? How can that be??? I made sure to only play soft, medatiative, tunes, and not practicing hard fast Irish jigs! The only thing I can figure is that holding my arms bent close to my body is stressing my system... I can hardly play my ocarina because I have to hold my hands close to my mouth so long! My arms are so big that it takes quite a bit of force to fold them up that much!

So, for whatever reason, my early experiments with using flute playing to lower blood pressure have failed! Maybe that is why my blood pressure has gone up in the last 5 years! Nah... couldn't be, could it???

Back to barely breathing while barely running.

New Hattoris... jury is still out...

If you read any of my other posts you will see that I mostly use really cheap, minimal running shoes.  A while back the "fam" bought me some 5-finger KSOs which I blew through in 150 miles, so they have had multiple layers of duct tape, which is not working well anymore.  I also use conveyor belt huaraches, flip flop flipuaraches, water socks... on and on...

Last week on a 6 mile, I got pretty bad 2nd metatarsal blisters from my pretty bad water socks, so I decided I needed to try something new...  I just signed up to run a 1/2 marathon on April Fool's day... yes, I really am running!... so it had to be done quickly!  I went to Road Runner Sports near I36 and 104th is Westminster, CO.  They have a resident barefooter, Javier, so he and I talked the same language!  One of the other salesman was also a friend that I did not know worked there!  We started talking about shoes... he started talking about how to avoid toe blisters when you push off... uh... that's a no-no for barefooters... Javier and I looked at each other... the friend sort of drifted away and let us talk shop...

Javier says he always runs in Saucony Hattoris, so I gave them a hard look.  They have little or no heal rise and while they have pretty deep tread, the overall thickness was not too bad.  I succumbed and got a great price with a VIP membership!  Ain't money fiun... still a shock after my free huaraches and $6 water socks... oh well...

The Sunday blisters felt pretty good in the Hattoris after a 3/4 mile loop when I got home, so in anticipation of snow Tuesday night, so I slipped out of work a little early and hit a sand/gravel lake trail for another 6 miles.  I was concerned in the store about a arch support in the Hattoris but did not notice them when I ran a few strides in the store.  Same on the trail... I never felt them!  My barefootin' has developed some great arches in these old feet in spite of the warnings that going bare would ruin my feet!  What happened to "Use it or loose it"????

The blisters were still feeling great at 4 miles, but an old cross-metatarsal pain I used to get speed walking came back... funny, that was the last time I wore running shoes... So, I abandoned the gravel at 4.5 miles, did some foot stretching and noticed that the blisters felt fine bare... so... I took off on a sidewalk near the lake and did a good feeling mile.  I got close to the 6 mile plan - 5.64 if you want to know... pretty slow for me now too... ain't sayin'...

So, the jurry is out on the Hattoris!  They felt good, and a first run of 6 miles in them may have been a bit optimistic... ya think?  They are so light and flexible that I just thought it would not be a problem!  Actually I may know what it is... my feet are wide and are used to the wide open space of flipuaraches - ya'know?  I was a little concerned about that in the store and was going to try a 12 but the 11s I bought had lots of toe length and I did not want them sticking out too far beyond my toes!  What's a barefooter to do???

Road Runner has a good return policy and I may have to try that out!  I will see if they break in.  I need to do 3x6 per week for quick prep for the 1/2 marathon, so... wish me luck!

If you feel like joining in supporting me for the run fund raiser, it is a Polycom event to build a children's play yard in Africa via Right to Play.  Check it out!   Throw money...   Barely Running

http://righttoplay.akaraisin.com/Common/Event/Home.aspx?seid=4038&mid=8

Update 3/13/2012
Well... the jury is close...  I think I like them!  with the 1/2 marathon on April Fool's Day, I have to get some training miles in...  I need to feel comfortable in these shoes!  I got in 3, 6 mile runs last week and did about 1 mile each time barefoot.  The Hattoris felt good!  So far this week I have been sick and the days are drifting by... hopefully I will be able to hit the trail tomorrow!