I went to see a sports physio on Thursday for advice on all my aches and pains. Apparently it is common to have a lot of niggles in the first few years of running and there was nothing majorly wrong which was a relief. He recommended that I change my shoes - he thought they were fairly worn even though I've only had them for a few months and he advised that I needed greater stability. He also suggested knee length compression socks, some exercises to stretch my nerves and spent a painful half hour massaging my legs.
So yesterday we went shopping at Sweatshop and had gait analysis - in much more detail than the last time at Startfitness. They had me standing on a special machine and moulded insoles to fit the movement of my feet then filmed me running on a treadmill in my trainers and then trainers with more stability. The physio had suggested I get Brooks or Asics trainers and they had one pair of Brooks in my size but they were £95 and the same shoes in last season's colours were available on their website for £65 so we went away to think.
Sweatshop offer a 30 day money back deal on their shoes - however much you have used them and even if they are filthy, they also suggested that I could use this time to go back to the physio and see what he thought of them. Online it was only a 2 week period so we decided to go back and buy the £95 shoes. But when I tried them on again they felt a bit tight at the sides - I have very wide feet - and the assistants in the shop recommended that I try different makes with the same level of stability.
I immediately found the Mizunos most comfortable - the same make as my last pair - so despite the physio's advice I bought them and tried them out last night for a 2 mile run - and my legs don't hurt as much as normal and my shins are fairly pain free so maybe I've got the right ones. I'll be making an appointment to go back to the physio to see what he thinks too.
Now I'm planning on going out for another run just to test them out again!
