A trip to the podiatrist

Yes, I've FINALLY visited a podiatrist yesterday. With my PANCAKE flat feet, one can only wonder what sort of severe damage all my running (or even walking) have done to my ankles, shins, knees, hips, posture etc. without any orthotics or shoe insoles.

My appointment was with Vivian Oldfield at Peak Podiatry. The guy (yes, he ACTUALLY IS a guy!) is very knowledgeable... I was lucky that he deals a lot with a triathletes (perhaps a triathlete himself? I should have asked)...

He did a video assessment of my gait. I was placed on a treadmill, running at 9kph for just over 2 minutes, with a video camera each on my front, back and side.

He was pretty amazed that although with my flat feet, I don't pronate that much and I actually land almost perfectly straight. However, the lower half of my legs swing inwardly, causing a bit of a strain on my gluts and hips. He reckons is because my gluts lack strength (haiya, need to pad up my butt more!)... could be due to training too much in aero position during my bike rides. As the aero position is meant to conserve energy for the run, so if I keep on training in that position, those muscles are not worked as much. MAKES SO MUCH SENSE! How do you like that? A podiatrist who gives you triathlon training tips...

I wished I could get a copy of the video assessment, but he was pretty reluctant. Maybe due to copyright issues.

I was told to change a pair of shoes every 600 to 800kms (with my weekly average running of 30km, that's only about 25 weeks!) I'm so glad he didn't prescribe me any heavyweight motion control shoes. Just as long as they have dual density. Good thing the Saucony shoes I'm looking for have those.

I got my feet taped again, to give them an artificial arch for me to try out. The results were AWESOME! I was pretty tired during my run yesterday evening, so I slowed down my pace quite significantly... but was still able to clock some good times! So this is how people with NORMAL arches feel like... I'll definitely consider getting custom made orthotics... something worth investing in!