Rediscovering the Library

In the last post I said I wanted to do some more research on orthotics. Searching on the internet is a fairly decent start, but it is just not as good as going to the library and picking up a good book. Even a library within a town of 5000 people has a few books on the foot. The book that I am currently reading is called the "Foot Doctor". It is mostly about orthotics. He goes on and talks about a lot of the problems in bio-mechanics that the foot can have. I had trouble truly understanding a lot of details that the podiatrist, doctor, and physio therapist have discussed with me. It probably would have been better for me to have read this book a few months ago.

Here are a few of the relevant things that I picked up:

• periostitis - inflammation of the lining of the bone, caused by the lining pulling away from the bone, which I had thought was of the muscle
  
• gate cycle has 2 parts; stance and swing,
• the stance part (foot in contact with the ground) has 3 parts; heel-strike, mid-stance, propulsion
• in first and last part there is a normal amount of pronation and supination (±4%), the mid-stance should be neutral
  
• pronation is when parts of the foots, mostly the subtalar (1 of 3 bones that make up the rear foot) rollsinwardss
• supination is when parts of the foot, mostly the midtarsal, rolls outwards
• 25% of the bones in your body are located in the foot, so pronation and supination can be a little more complicated than what I have mentioned above
  
• a computerized gait analyses may help in truly answering the question of my foot being "flat" while weight bearing as well as the amount of pronation and supination
  
• using heat on the shins may increase the blood flow to the problem areas and help with the recovery, by "superinflamingg", a type of physio therapy that worked well on my injured neck a while ago, icing afterwards is a good idea
  
• mis-alignment of the metatarsils, namely the balls of the feet, can cause over pronation or supination, which the podiatrist in London determined, that my metatarisl of my big toe is lower than the other 4, making contact to the ground first, which is why I wear the Asics Gel Empires, with the dynamic forefoot cradle.
  
• A good podiatrist can determine a persons gait by watching them walk in bare feet on a flat surface, which is what the podiatrist in London had me do
  
• So many other problems exist that I don't seem to have can cause problems (i.e. there are more good things about my mechanics than bad)
• Orthotics can not heal the wounds, but properly fitted ones may prevent an injury from reoccurring
  

What did the podiatrist say about my running problems; Overstriding and overuse! Too much too fast. When I told him that I was trying to follow the Lydiard training, he told me that I should be following the Jack Dainels or Pete Fitzinger's training instead. At this point, I really don't see that there is any difference. I am sure that Jack Daniels and Lydiard would say the same things as Robert said, too much too fast, or too fast too soon. I trained harder and not smarter.

Here is my plan for the next 2 weeks:

• try to get in to see Robert Taylor in London and talk about the overstriding and possibly getting orthotics again
  
• continue reading about the foot
• orthotics will not fix everything, but may still yet help, a computerized gait analysess may really help me choose them
• let my shins heal, and take it each day, each week and each month at a time

I have not been sleeping well lately, I think that it is too much stress from work. I have been only getting 5 to 6 hours of sleep. I ran 5k on Friday and there was a slight flare up of the shins. It may take some time to heal, but in the mean time I have an appointment with the sports medicine doctor in Toronto next Wednesday (24th of May). I will ask them if they do a computerized gait analyses. If not, then I will not be getting orthotics from them. My friend Ken speaks very highly of Robert and he has helped out some of the top runners in Canada. This is nice to know, but that really doesn't help me. Right now it is the advice that he gives to me that I need to take in and use.