I don't think we are out of it just yet, but we are discovering that there is a fairly steep learning curve when it comes to buying shoes and clothes for fitness. A few months ago I never would have suspected the plethora of options and the range of prices that we are trying to navigate.
Shoes have been one of the biggest purchases so far, and yesterday we made another foray into the world of specialty running shoes. You can learn about running shoes from the Runner's World website, but our best learning has come from talking to people.
A friend from work is a shoe tester, has run several Spartans, and plans to do the Spartan Trifecta this year. His advice was to get trail running shoes, even though we have found that this is a much smaller subset of the shoes that are available. He looked at my broken-down ten year old cross trainers and said, "you're going to kill yourself in those." His advice was to have lots of traction. It might pick up mud, but it's very useful on the uphill gravel parts of the race and for getting a grip on obstacles. To keep a waterlogged shoe from weighing you down, the upper needs to be light and drain well. Padding is just going to soak up water. He also reiterated what the Internet will tell you: get synthetic socks. It's pretty easy to understand this when you think about squelching a few miles in your favorite padded cotton socks!
The most knowledgeable salespeople we encountered were at Road Runner Sports. They let us run on a treadmill, then analyzed a slow motion video of how our feet were striking. Sarah's normal arches and gait gave her a wider selection to choose from (although her narrow foot again limited her options). My very flat right foot causes fairly heavy "pronation," which means my ankle rolls in very significantly every time my foot hits the ground. This points toward "support" shoes, which have features to reduce this. The most standard feature seems to be a "medial post," which simply means there is a fairly hard and tall piece of foam below my inner heels. Trail support shoes are rare indeed, with the stores we visited only carrying two or three models.
The next eye opener is length. We both have running shoes a whole size larger than all of our other shoes. I read that you toes should be able to play the piano in the toe box, and that you need a thumb-width of space between your longest toe and the end of the shoe. Also (not news to me, since mom and dad owned a shoe store back in the day), most individuals have a larger and smaller foot. The right is usually larger. Be sure you are fitting to your larger foot. A good salesperson will measure both length and width of both of your feet and give you a size that will probably sound way too big. This was the mistake I made when ordering online. The shoes I got were simply a size too small.
Another hurdle is price. Running shoes average price, either online or in the store, seems to be over $100. Buying last year's models, clearance, returns, and display models can reduce the price, but it is still high. Although the end price for the shoes at Road Runner seemed to be pretty good, it was difficult to navigate the many different upsell ($75 custom insoles?) and VIP programs to understand what was happening. Apparently we were shopping during a fairly good sale, so your mileage may vary.
We paid for our learning. If you know what you are shopping for you can get some great deals online or at outlets. Nordstrom Rack had some deeply discounted trail running shoes as well. Campmor was recommended for online discounts, and in the Portland area there are at least Nike and Pearl Izumi outlets.
Back to shopping... Although the shoes are the biggest single investment, clothing is adding up as well. Running any distance in jeans just doesn't cut it, and my high school athletic shorts are so long gone that I don't even need to question their style or fabric technology. It's going to be hot and cold and it is certainly going to rain. Spartan racers recommend close-fitting synthetics that won't hold on to moisture for everything from shirts to bras and boxers. The good news is that every clothing store seems to carry fitness apparel these days, so deals are certainly available for the savvy shopper. However, understanding the difference between proprietary fabric A and super fabric B, and whether compression this or elite-fit that is worth the price is still far beyond my abilities. Regardless, the price for fitness clothing is higher than for your daily cotton, so we will certainly pay the price (in both time and money) while we continue to learn.
Overall, it's a bit painful for a frugal guy like me to make this transition, but when I realize that this is an investment in not only gear, but in a healthier lifestyle, I think the price is worth it. We are spending time around places and people that are going to encourage us to be better and fitter, and the monetary cost gives us more "skin in the game," making it even more likely that we will carry this through. Lastly, when I think of the difference that this might make in our kid's perspective on exercise, I think we are really doing the right thing. "No pain, no gain," right?
To do is to dare; to fear is to fail.
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