[at-l] Achilles Tendons/Heel Spurs

[jurbine at west-chester.com (Joel P. Urbine)]

New Blance are definitely the way to go right now, although I'm currently using a Nike Goretex XCR trail shoe.  I'm working on my own trail shoe design, we'll see. High top boots give many people a false sense of security.  The best remedy other than dead wrapping an ankle with tape up to the lower part of the calf muscle is wearing an ankle brace.  I found "ACTIVE ANKLES" brand many years ago at a sporting goods manufactures show. These braces are light and simple to use and take on and off.  Tape would be very expensive and a pain pretty much out of the question for long treks. Many of the volleyball players in the program I run wear these and have had great success.  The company had to upgrade their design only slightly over the many years they've been on the market. I gave Baltimore Jack a pair in Damascus a few year back when he unknowingly had a severe stress fracture and he finished the trail with them. The latest brace is the ACTIVE ANKLE T-2. The only drawback is that now the pressure is somewhat transferred to the knees and hips. Oh well, guess we must suffer some, it's the nature of the beast.  
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Bagby [mailto:spur@mac.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 1:49 PM
To: Joel P. Urbine
Subject: RE: [at-l] Achilles Tendons/Heel Spurs


Tricks,
You should post this to at-l. Your observations about boots are all right on. I can't think of anything to continue the list at the moment. You covered it all. Maybe at-l-ers will have something more to add.

I've never thought that hightop boots helped stabilize ankles effectively. To have any real effect, you'd have to lace them so tight there'd be no blood circulation. Fortunately I've been blessed with big-bone/strong ankles. In PA they just glide over the rocks like it was flat ground, at least after I got over the psychological resistance to doing so.

Trekking poles seem to be the best antidote to ankle turning for me. Whenever I realize I have a bad footplant in progress, I just sag that knee immediately and bear down on my poles. It's worked so far.

Best performance I ever got out of a pair of trailrunners were some used New Balance 803s that Sly sold me for $30 during my PCT hike in 02. I got over a thousand miles out of them myself. Talk about walking a few hundred miles in your brother's shoes....

Ready says hi back. Oh yeah, got word this afternoon that Profile and Almanac are picking up Takoma Tedd and Mary Lou at Woody Gap at 4 PM today for an overnight at their new hostel. Weather's good down here today, but it was tough earlier in the week. Hope they're doing okay out there.

Later,
Spur

On Thursday, February 19, 2004, at 12:04PM, Joel P. Urbine <jurbine@west-chester.com> wrote:

>SPUR,
>I've always had trouble with boots and believed "I MUST" wear them to "support" my weak ankles from my earlier years of running on uneven surfaces.  
>Typical problems I've found with most OffTrailboots.
>1.-The cost. REMEMBER TWO PAIRS
>2.-Break-in time, before hike, sometime resulting in blisters.
>3.-The second pair you broke-in before your hike does not fit now because your feet have  
>   expanded temporarily. So you buy new boots,(usually not finding what you want)or suffer.
>4.-Considerable foot(bottom)and ankle fatigue from a non-flexing hard soles and shanks 
>5.-Seem to take forever or never dry out -(more blisters now with other "fungi" potential)
>6.-Heavy-legs fatigue sooner
>7.-And for waterproofing?? forget it, isn't nothing' waterproof out there.
>8.-Please continue
>With the more recent lite hiking craze I've seen the transformation in footwear slowly turning to trail runners and sandals. And for the most part they seem to work, for some. 
>Hey maybe the Barefoot Sisters have something.  Let me first say that all three have their place.  I was reluctant at first to try trail runners due to my weak ankles. Even with higher cut OTBoots I still was good for an ankle roll or two especially walking over smaller potato to melon size (not shaped)rocks in my backyard of PA. I now feel a large part of my past problems with my feet, ankles, and legs were due to those OTBoot, which I believed I had to but now only occasionally wear.  Rolling ankles from those non-flex hardsoles and last,your ankle went where the foot was placed. Heavy leather boots fatigued my feet and legs sooner, and also attributed to excessive heat build-up and the potential for more blisters.  By decreasing my pack weight with some of the new lite weight gear and using two not one hiking poles I was able to walk comfortably all day in trail runners. I'm not a true "GO-LITE" but going lite made a world of difference and made the trekking a little more comfortable. And out there it's all about the comfort level. Tell READY I said HELLO
>BAG"o"TRICKS  
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Chris Bagby [mailto:spur@mac.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 11:22 PM
>To: at-l@backcountry.net
>Subject: [at-l] Achilles Tendons/Heel Spurs
>
>
>Jan,
>Don't know if this is inspiring or not (it's not), but the bottoms of my 
>feet were sore for 6 months after my first thruhike, gradually diminishing. 
>Of course, I wore hard-soled boots for most of that hike, which I now 
>realize gave me less cushioning and shock absorption (and more pain) than 
>the various trailrunners I wore on subsequent hikes.
>
>Does it make you feel a little better to know that my feet were once sore?
>And now, years later, (and despite many more miles), they're not sore any more.
>Is that inspiring???
>
>Spur
>
>http://www.artofthetrail.com
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