Pick Your Own Running Shoes

When buying a pair of running shoes, what is your top priority? Price, brand, fashion, or your individual needs?

Last time I would go for the cheapest shoes and not care much about the shoe’s brand and design. I felt that no matter how good the running shoes can be, it will still need to be replaced after some time of wear or some distance of run. So why spend so much on it? But running with a poorly designed and engineered shoes is likely to risk your feet to injuries that could lead to a disaster for you. I learned the lesson when the bunion on my right big toe was obviously worsening during my intensive half marathon training. It hurt whenever I put on my running shoes. My doctor had advised me to invest in a pair of good shoes that meet my biomechanical needs. The most important factors are quality, comfort, and safety; price, the last.

When a person recommends you to buy some big-branded shoes for they will improve your running performance, don’t take his words for granted. Not even if he is able to explain to you the strengths of the shoes in details. His feet are not equal to your feet. He and you do not run the same. So, the best is, you understand your biomechanical needs and running conditions, and you choose your own pair of shoes that suit you well based on your individual needs.

Basically, running shoes can be classified into three major categories: cushioned shoes, stability shoes, and motion-control shoes, according to individual’s biomechanical needs; and three minor ones: performance training shoes, racing shoes, and off-road shoes, which are designed for specific running conditions. Major manufacturers such as Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Asics, to name but a new are well versed in designing and innovating the running shoes to provide greater comfort, stability, breathability, durability, motion control and lighter weight for different types of runner. However, there are no perfect shoes for everyone, although some shoes could be perfect to you. Despite of their high reliability, all these brands have their pros and cons in many different aspects. So, it is wise to do a thorough research before you decide to buy. Find out more information here.

As for me, I need roomy shoes with wide toe box, so that there is enough space for my bunion and orthotics. I prefer New Balance’s motion control running shoes for this reason. I’ve got a pair of New Balance W587 and I love it very much. It looks really plain but provides excellent comfort and stability. An advice for you anyway, if you plan to order one from the online stores. Do order a half size larger than your regular street shoes as New Balance runs small.

All in all, good luck in picking your own shoes.

On A Rough Track

I love running. So long as my legs are functioning, I will not quit from running. That’s a lifetime passion.

I’m a little bit unlucky, my running track is pretty rough and rocky. Sometimes I stumbled over some stones and fell down on the track out of balance. I bled and I was upset. I sat there staring at my wound, the more I stared the more I felt painful and lousy. Whenever I looked up, my partner would stand far ahead me, waving to me. A simple act but gives great support and encouragement. Each time I stood up from the place I fell and moved on, I learned to bear the pain better and be able to avoid more obstacles. Those are what you can hardly learn when you’re on a smooth track, it’s easy but lack challenges.

Now, I’ve learned not to care about the ranking anymore, it’s just a title to acknowledge my achievement, nothing else. Which race I’m in is no longer important to me, to reach the finish line I still have to make my own effort. I just want to run, keep running…

I enjoy the moment I’m running. I listen to every step I make. I can feel my performance is progressing, slow and steady. I become stronger each time, physically and mentally. And I’m glad I’ve found an excellent partner, who guides me on the track and motivates me to achieve higher from time to time.

Those are what simply satisfy me on the track.

Back to The Track

After losing in touch with running for almost a month (I got my toe injured for the past weeks), this morning I’m back to the track again. Due to the whole night raining, the weather is chilly, it’s just nice to have a morning jog!

However I can feel my performance is dropping AGAIN, obviously I am not as fit as last time. *sigh*~ Funny is… while I was jogging I couldn’t stop thinking of kata, felt like doing the hand techniques like wauke and boshiken but I controlled myself of course, I don’t want to look like an idiot on the track. (=.=)

Now I want to make myself commit more in this workout, I have a plan of joining the Penang Bridge Marathon in 2oo9. Wonder if I will be fit enough to participate the full marathon (42.2km), if not, I will aim for half marathon, at least maintain or surpass my previous (and the first) half marathon record (21.1km, 1:54:25, 25th in Women Open) in the Malacca International Marathon. Oh, now recalling, that’s really a memorable achievement.

Protected: Marathon and Karate-do: My Training Psychology

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The Wolff’s Law

I’ve been studying biomechanics these few days, and learned another interesting topic about the bone response to stress.

Wolff’s Law, a widely known bone adaptation theory in the orthopedics, was developed by the German anatomist Julius Wolff in 1892:

The form of a bone being given, the bone elements place or displace themselves in the direction of functional forces and increase or decrease their mass to reflect the amount of the functional forces.

According to Wolff’s Law, bone grows in proportion to mechanical stress. A healthy living bone models and remodels in response to the mechanical stress it experiences so as to produce a minimal weight structure that is adapted to the stresses acted on it.

The changes in bone density, size and shape are the work of two specialized bone cells called osteoblasts and osteoclasts, which respectively form and resorb bone tissue. The bone remodeling occurs throughout life. During the process, resorption precedes formation, so as old bone tissue is replaced by new bone tissue. Remodeling can be in either “conservation mode” with no change in bone mass, or “disuse mode” with a net loss of bone mass characterized by an enlarged marrow cavity and thin cortex. The latter leads to osteoporosis, results from either excessive resorption or inadequate formation. The bone modeling occurs during growth and healing. Unlike remodeling, the osteoblasts predominate the activity (formation) with a net gain in bone mass.

Dynamic mechanical loading causes bones to deform or strain; the larger the loads, the greater the strain. When strain exceeds the remodeling threshold, bone remodeling occurs in conservation mode with balanced resorption and formation. When strain exceeds the higher modeling threshold, the bone modeling occurs, with bone density and mass increased. Disuse mode remodeling is triggered when strain stays below the remodeling threshold, induces a slow loss of bone.

A physically active individual tends to develop denser and more mineralized bones, particularly at the stressed sites. For example, a tennis player has a stronger and denser radius at the racquet-holding arm than the other arm due to the repetitive high stresses exerted on it. Likewise, a trained runner has an increased bone density at the lower extremity due to the high-impact of the running motion. Interesting to note that a competitive swimmer who spends a lot of time in the water however may have less dense bones than a sedentary individual as the buoyant force exerted on the body has counteracted the body weight (gravity).

The law also explains why astronauts suffer from a kind of bone-loss similar to osteoporosis after a long stay in space. Due to the microgravity, the floating human body undergoes a weightless and almost immobile condition. Since no weight is acted on the skeleton and the body do not have to fight the gravity to move about, the bone mass diminishes, hence the strength and the bone mineral density decrease. Bedridden patients and individuals who lead a sedentary or inactive lifestyle tend to have a decrease in bone mass too as a result of reduced mechanical stress and weightbearing activity. The bones become more susceptible to fractures.

In many traditional Okinawan karate-do and Chinese martial arts, body conditioning is crucial as part of the training routine to strengthen muscles and bones, as well as to elevate the pain threshold. Uechi-ryu karate-do emphasizes conditioning on knuckles, forearms, abdomen, tips of toes, dorsal feet, shins, thighs and calves by repetitively blocking and striking the areas to produce slight trauma to them. Other practices like rubbing, knuckle push-ups, rolling a stick on the shin are formulated for conditioning purpose as well. The principle founded by the ancient Chinese masters is the same as the Wolff’s law theory: the bones become denser and stronger after bearing a long period of dynamic mechanical loadings provided by the body conditioning, thus minimize the possible injuries caused by training and sparring.

However, if the applied mechanical loadings are beyond the power of (re)modeling, it leads to fatigue or stress fractures. This problem is very common to athletes who run and jump on the hard surfaces such as distance runners, basketball players, and ballet dancers. The most common affected bones are femur, tibia, navicular and metatarsals. Similarly, martial artists who overtrain themselves may encounter the same problem, when the stresses applied to the bone exceed the bone’s ability to adapt. Therefore it is important for martial artists to ensure the training is done within safe bounds.

A Delightful Morning

I was awakened by the alarm around 6, gonna resume my morning workout since last week, as I was busy preparing for my 2 midterm papers on Monday and Tuesday. As usual, few slices of wholemeal bread and a cup of horlicks oatmeal made my simple-yet-never-sated-with breakfast. After preparing myself, I cycled to the campus field by 7.

The weather was quite cold and breezy due to the midnight rain. I warmed up my body with a lap of slow jog, followed by some stretchings and then started to jog faster for 10 laps. Surprisingly, this time I’ve broken my previous record, ha! 23 mins 33 secs, 33 secs faster! A slight but meaningful time to me, in fact, how many of the students here would actually mind of it in their daily life, when hanging out with friends at those mamak stalls (so-called “yamcha”) takes hours? After the jog, I did some push-ups and also light practice of few kihon rentsu. I ended my workout by some cool-downs and went to toilet to change my attires for the my lab and lecture classes later.

8:30, another 30 mins before the lab session started, I decided to have a drink at the campus foodcourt. I ordered a cup of hot plain nescafe and 2 pieces of kuih-muih, then chose to sit at my favourite spot, the very right corner of the food court. Somehow I become fixed to the place whenever I go there alone. A lonely corner huh? Not really… sitting there allows me to observe most people around, that’s my little pleasure when being alone, to observe the surroundings and analyze. Just like me, many people were there for breakfast before running day activities. I read through the labsheet to have more understandings of the lab while sipping the hot coffee slowly and enjoying the morning breeze, it’s just a relaxing moment I always long for.

8:55, done reading, just a perfect time to leave for the lab. I reached the lab right at 9, guess I did surprise some of my groupmates with my early apperance, it’s just so… strange, haha… It’s a Line Encoding experiment, students are supposed to form a group of 2 to conduct it but I managed to complete it alone, yeah~ ALONE again? So who says being alone is something terrible? At least I have a wonderful morning for being alone!