Happy Feet

Several months before we moved from Ohio to Colorado, I purchased two identical pairs of workout shoes. They were Nike and I really liked them a lot. They were good cross trainers so I used them for my aerobic workouts in the basement and for walking outside.

They lasted a long time--probably longer than they should have. I never wear the aerobic ones outside--I'm really strict about that. Indoor shoes are indoor, outdoor shoes are outdoor. Nerd.

Anyway, last May or June, when I was starting Insanity (that's a workout program, not a description of my general state of mind. Maybe.) my Beachbody pals who had done Insanity before me said, "Get new shoes." I didn't do it. My shoes were fine.

Except that they weren't. It took me about two high intensity workouts to figure that out. So I went and bought new shoes and I was happy with them at the time. And they've been OK, but not great. It stinks to be stuck with not great shoes, by the way, especially if you figure you'll be wearing them for five years, like I did the last two pairs. This is also a good lesson to spend a little more and buy from someone who actually knows what they're talking about. I just pulled mine off the shelf at Famous Footwear. I should have spent more and talked to someone who knows about sports and exercise, not fashion. Ah well, lesson learned.

Anyway, over the course of this last year, I kept using the unsatisfactory shoes. I finished Insanity, did most of P90X again, and then started TurboFire in January. A few weeks ago, I could really start feeling in my joints that my shoes were starting to break down. So now they just weren't sort of unsatisfactory, they were really unsatisfactory. In addition, even my shoes that I was using for walking, the Ohio Nikes, weren't feeling so great. I had worn out the soles on the outdoor pair and so a year ago I had moved the aerobic ones to outdoor since I had the unsatisfactory ones.

Are you following all of this?

A few weeks ago, I went into a sports store and they were having a sale. AND I had a $20 discount coupon. A very nice man talked to me about my workouts and goals and recommended several pairs of shoes.

I tried two different ones on. And it was then that I realized I must no longer have any cushioning at all left in both of my old pairs of shoes because it felt like I was wearing stilettos. I bought the lower pair becuase the more padded ones felt like I was going to fall off of them.

Here is what I bought:

These are Asics Phoenix. They were on sale for $59.99 and I had the $20 off coupon. Very exciting. I also purchased "athletic" insoles for $20 (so essentially I got the insoles free, I guess) and that made another huge difference. I think I'll buy insoles for all of my workout shoes from now on.

So that's what I started using for my high impact aerobic workouts. But really, I needed to replace my walking shoes, too. I am considering the Couch to 5K program and while I am not a runner, I do know that if you try to run in inappropriate shoes, it's misery. Plus, the Ohio Nikes weren't cutting for walking anymore.

The sports store's sale was still going on. I went back. I had another coupon. I bought these:

I think they're the Asics Cumulus 12. Think. And guess which ones they are? The ones that felt like stilettos. Turns out, they only feel like stilettos when you have nerve damage from having shoes with no padding for so long.

Bottom line: the shoes have made a huge difference. My calf soreness is gone, my knees aren't hurting and I can consistently do the high impact moves (before I could only do them sometimes without feeling soreness).

Now I'm trying to decide which ones I want to use indoors and which ones I want to use outdoors. I've done high impact in both and walked outside in the Phoenix pair. Clearly, I'll have to wash the soles if I decide on the other ones for outside.

This is a very big decision.