New Shoes!

Running is a fairly straight forward process, All you need is your feet and some ground. Or so I thought. It turns out that shoes help a lot too. I found this out when, to my surprise, my big toe starting scraping against blistering hot asphalt through the sole of my running shoes.

Luckily, my toe came through alright. Not too much damage was done. But I felt that it then became paramount that I get new shoes. The problem is thus: not all shoes are created equal. Some shoes are better for dancing, some better climbing, and some better for putting in your enemies... keister. So I turned to my most trusted font of wisdom: the internet. And boy was there a durth of information available to me. To much information! Did I want a minimalist shoe, or something with a sole large enough to absorb the impact of a land mine? What exactly is a crossfit shoe? Or should I have no shoes at all (a la paleo)? The debate seems to rage on with people so dogmatic I swear running was the new religion! So I did what any sensible person would do: I went to target. 

There were a few different styles of shoes. Some were more mesh than anything else, some were clearly targeted towards basketball players, and there was one shoe the design of which I recognized from when my 90 year old grandfather used to wear to the YMCA. Ultimately, I settled on these:

The fit all of my metrics. They were in my size, they felt great on my feet, and primarily they were affordable. Only $35! So I brought them home, unboxed them, and started breaking them in. I haven't taken them running yet, that's tomorrow. But then I started getting a bit of a pain right under then tongue of the shoe. I once again turned to the internet, and apparently I have what's called a "steep instep." 

Using this lovely chart, I laced up my shoes all special-like as according to number 1. 

Then I thought that looked ugly. So I re-laced it up to make it look a little prettier. I know it's a silly thing to worry about. Aesthetics shouldn't matter when functionality that ultimately matters, right? Well, they looked much better after round 2.

Much better. Also, here's my cat trying to help me unbox these babies. She loves helping.

After that, they fit like a dream. I really can't wait to take them running tomorrow. I don't know if they'll shave time off of my runs, making jump higher, or what. After all, they are only $35 shoes. What I do know is that they will keep my feet from being ground into sausage against the pavement. And really, isn't that ultimately what matters?