I have been actively walking for over a year. What I discovered very early on is that good footwear is a must and that has taken some time to find.
Sketchers do some amazing shoes called Go Walks which are like wearing a pair of slippers. The first pair that I owned I wore a hole in within the first six weeks; I don't think that they are meant for someone who was doing as much walking as me! The second pair that I bought were Go Walks III; Sketchers seemed to have looked at the sole on this model and made it more substantial.
I'm still not 100% sure that they are actually manufactured for someone who was averaging 10,000 steps a day. I have also come to realise that I am getting older and that my body does not do what it used to do; it takes longer to recover and can't do some of the things that I used to take for granted when I was even 10 years younger than I am now!
I have been doing approximately 8 miles on a Saturday and Sunday as a planned walk with friends. Sometimes I walked on my own and sometimes it was with a group of 5 or 6 people. When the clocks changed I dropped the Saturday walks as they were an afternoon walk.
My right ankle started to hurt after the walks, which then affected my right knee and my right hip. I actually think my right hip was the thing that first started to ache. I have noticed that if I am carrying any extra weight then this hip hurts. The knee and ankle pain were probably as a result of walking to compensate for that hip. Google and You Tube are great places to help you out when you've got things that may be wrong with you. Stretching was probably the main bit of advice that I took from everything that I was reading. I have realised that I have tight calf muscles. I wasn't sure why but that I have also recently worked out why; we'll come to that later!
The Christmas holidays came and I knew that with the New Year I would be starting to think seriously about the #MoonwalkLondon2016. Nina Barough is the founder of Walk the Walk and suggested a couple of pairs of shoes that would be good for the job. One day between Christmas and New Year I made my way to Go Outdoors in search of the perfect pair of walking shoes for me. I ended up buying a pair of Salomon's; not for anyone looking for a fashionable shoe but definitely someone looking to do a power walk!
I have worn shoes for walking that have given me blisters, even a pair of Sketchers did this. Admittedly they weren't a pair of Go Walks! My first walk in my new Salomon's was an 8-miler; go hard or go home!! Amazingly, no blisters and the pain that I had had in my right ankle and knee had gone after one walk in these shoes. Wow!
I had, up until two years ago, never suffered an injury related to exercise. When people that I knew did I really didn't have any sympathy; well surely they had brought it on themselves by exercising?!? That changed after I damaged my right shoulder mis-handling a 20kg kettlebell. I know what frustration is not being able to do something that you actually like doing because you have injured yourself.
The third walk that I did in my new shoes was a 10 mile walk; about 2 miles from home I started to get a pain in my left heel. I couldn't explain it; it was just a niggle. It didn't put me off and I still continued to walk the mile to and from work every day. Two weeks later, having done two more 10 mile Sunday walks, I had difficulty weight bearing on my left heel. Interestingly, I walk to work in flat shoes and then when I get to work I put a pair of heels on. The heels actually made the pain in my heel not so bad. I did some research on, again, Google and discovered that I most definitely had plantar fasciitis. The following link is one of several that gives lots of information on plantar fasciitis; http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/heel-pain/Pages/Introduction.aspx
I wear heels every day at work and I am really considering that whilst I am in training I need to wear flat shoes. My ageing body does not appear to be coping with the miles that I am doing, a regular day at work, going for a walk at lunchtime in heels and everyday body stresses.
Knowing what you may have and then finding some treatments that might work also involved the internet; this time You Tube. I watched two great videos; one by Dr. Josh Axe and the other by Dr. Scott A Mills, both gave some great advice which I have followed for the last two weeks. I now take a magnesium supplement; interestingly I had this already as it was something that I tried to combat my perimenopausal symptoms but I kept forgetting to take it! I had also previously bought some massage balls which I had used on my ankle. I now use the hard ball every morning before I get out of bed and I take the magnesium supplement every night when I go to bed.
I cannot tell you what an overnight success the magnesium supplement was. I woke up the following morning for the first time in two weeks without any pain. The following week was great. I was on half-term and wore either no shoes, flipflops or flats all week even managing a couple of long walks. The pain was getting less and less.
A week back at work, wearing heels 3 out of 5 days has had a significant impact on the plantar fasciitis. What I have realised is that I have tight calf muscles and ankles plus the plantar injury; most probably caused by wearing heels and shortening my calf muscles! Hence, the real thought that whilst I am in training I need to wear flats to work. Stretching is something that Nina Barough strongly recommends and I totally get why!
I am not complaining. Part of training is just that; training for the endurance and to remind myself that the niggles are just niggles. I am doing this, foremost, to raise money for Breast Cancer based on the scare that I had last year. The little niggles and small amount of pain are part of the journey and the reminder that this is nothing compared to what others are going through, affected by cancer, on a daily basis. Once I stop doing what I am doing the pain will, hopefully, go away. Others are not so lucky; people close to me have loved ones who are going through daily battles with one form of cancer or another.
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