A shoe rant - a follow up

In A Shoe Rant I aired my frustrations of constantly having to change shoe manufacturers. 6 weeks on, I thought I'd post a follow up.

I just can't get used to the New Balance 1060s I mentioned in that post. It seemed that every time I used them they'd strain the outsides of my calves - the peroneus longus. I wasn't sure at first as I was using them on recovery runs during a period of increasing mileage, so couldn't be sure the aching was directly connected to the shoes. I stopped using them for a few weeks and everything settled down.

This week is a big mileage week - 70 miles if I do today's 20-miler as planned - but my legs were feeling good. For some reason, probably the fact that I'd used the same Mizunos for 6 days in a row, I decided yesterday to do a recovery run in the New Balance 1060s. A few hours later I could feel the aching again! I could feel a knot on the outside of my calf a few inches below the knee. Fortunately I have the experience to spot the danger signs and managed to massage it out.

This morning, my leg is moving OK, but I can still feel a bit of fatigue in my legs. The massage has helped. I'm hoping the 20 miles goes OK, but with hindsight I should not have used the 1060s yesterday.

The problem muscle is the peroneus longus. It's the long muscle/tendon down the side of the leg which goes round the ankle and on to the big toe. If you press down with the big toe, this is the muscle used - you can feel this by placing your hand on the outside of your calf as you push with your big toe. I'm thinking there is some sort of overpronation device in the shoe which is trying to lift the ball of the foot or big toe and straining the peroneus longus. When you look at the shoes they have a lump of asymmetric orange rubber across the ball of the foot. I'm told they're neutral, but I'm not so sure!

Hopefully, I won't be reporting back later that the 20-miler has caused problems. If I had set out on the run with the knot in the muscle though, I would have strained the muscle or tendon. Having massaged it out I will hopefully be OK.

I guess I'm going to have to find yet another make of shoes!