My Journey With Health And Fitness – Time For New Shoes

Today I did something I have never done before, I forgot my vest. Normally on week days I am in a bit of a rush to get out the door by 4:15am so I have a schedule that I follow each day. I put everything on in order and am always out the door on time. Saturdays I only do a 10km walk 1st thing which means I sleep in a little and head out the door by 5:00am. I guess because I am not as rushed and don’t need things such as my water belt that things aren’t necessarily done in the same order. I got a couple blocks away and realized my reflective vest was still at home. As the route I was walking on is quite well lit and obviously it was a later start so a little brighter out I decided not to go back to get the vest. I will say I was a bit uncomfortable until the sun rose as I always have reflective gear when it is dark.

Now I have 2 pairs of shoes that I wear for walking/running/fitness class. They are the exact same model just different colours and I change them out at least once a week. I am very cognizant about the fact that you should replace shoes before they start showing signs of breaking down and have always followed that rule in the past. However, I was truly hoping I could hold off replacing these ones until after I got back from Mexico (I’m leaving in about 3 weeks). I think because of that I have been ignoring the usual signs of wear and tear.

The other day I was picking up my shoes off the floor and happened to look at the soles and went oh, oh, need to get to my footwear store ASAP. Now I go to a store where they make my orthotics and where I also buy the brace for my ankle. When I was struggling with the brand of shoe my podiatrist wanted me to wear this store did proper measurements of my feet, increased my size by .5 (this is because my feet swell due to the amount of walking/running) and completely changed the brand. I to this day swear I heard angels singing when I tried on the 1st pair and I have never looked back. Anyways, they only had 1 pair in my size that were wide and that were last year’s models (they are cheaper that way) but found one of their other stores had another pair that they could order in.

Yesterday was my first day with my new shoes. I didn’t try them on in the store because I knew they would fit. I put them on yesterday morning and thought they felt pretty good. By 8am I had walked 12.5km and done a fitness class. I will admit they were pressing a bit on my brace so when I met the gang for coffee I took the brace off to give my foot a break but it was back on 1 1/2 hour later as I headed out for another 6.5km walk. By the end of the day I had walked 22.5km and I added another 10km this morning so I think they are broken in now.

I picked up my 2nd set of shoes this morning (super funky colours as opposed to the 1st pair which are black and grey) and they will be broken in on Monday. After I picked them up the store sent me an email saying they estimate I should replace the shoes in a year. Apparently they have absolutely no idea how much I walk each week. I’m lucky if this set lasts 6 months but here’s hoping because they are not exactly cheap.

I’ve decided to be a little better at checking my shoe health going forward. I’ll go back to the first sign of wear and tear they are changed out for a new set. That way I will always be wearing good, supportive fitness shoes.