Shoes

Maybe it's just me, but I never really thought that much about my shoes while I was doing my walking.  I had purchased a pair of "hiking shoes" and those were what I wore on a daily basis.  They were comfortable.

And then I started reading articles about walking and how important it was to buy a good pair of walking shoes if I was going to do some serious walking.  10,000 steps a day?  To me that is serious walking so I thought I would do some more investigating.  And more.  And more.  Until it finally got to the point where I now have a personal goal to compete in a 5K walk next year.

Yeah, that came out of the blue didn't it.

Well, now that I have this goal I guess I better get serious about walking.  In order to get serious it looked like I was going to need some new shoes.  I did my research, discovered that everyone liked different things because different shoes offered different capabilities.  I picked out my top two or three and then went shopping at the Running Room?  Why the Running Room?  Well, to be honest, I liked their approach to running / walking and I liked the way they supported the communities they were in.  They had a single focus and they wanted to be as good as they could doing what they love.

So, I walked in the door, went to the walking shoes, found my top pick and said "I'd like to try on these."  No go.  They didn't have my size.  Pick number two?  Right size, but too narrow.  Pick three?  Larger size, but too narrow.  Feeling a little frustrated and ready to go on to the next Running Room store to see if they had what I wanted, the girl (anyone my daughters age is called a girl, no offence intended, just my old age kicking in) brought out a pair of New Balance M840V2 shoes.  Who new that shoes had such fancy names?

Well, I tried on the shoes and I fell in love.  The shoes weigh about the same as my naked iPad and they were so comfortable.  They were wide (apparently my feet really are like flippers) and my toes felt very comfortable in these lightweight monstrosities.  Needless to say, I paid for them and walked out the door, promising myself that I would test them that very night.

And I did.  And I was still in love.  They were very comfortable on my 2K walk and I got to experience the feeling of wind on my toes as a small breeze came up.  After finishing the 2K walk in one of my best times this year (OK, it was only the third or fourth time I had walked this route in my life so it's not hard to set a record) my legs did not feel cramped nor was I suffering from any shin splints.

New shoes for walking?  Priceless

 Status for September 14th

• Weight - 333 lbs
• Blood Sugar - 6.0 mmol/L