FIXING YOUR FEET E-zine
Volume 6, Issue 3, March 2006
John Vonhof, Footwork Publications
Copyright, March 2006, All rights reserved
THIS ISSUE IN SUMMARY
My editorial talks about your feet and gives some foot care tips for marathoners—and anyone active outside. A great shoe review from Ryan Jordan of Backpacking Light talks about a new shoe from Timberland—and what makes this shoe perfect for trails and off trail wear. There is one foot care tip and in Non-feet Good Stuff I talk about Halo Headbands.
PURPOSE
The Fixing Your Feet E-zine is published to inform and educate athletes and non-athletes about proper foot care skills and techniques, provide tips on foot care, review foot care products, and highlight problems people have with their feet.
EDITORIAL: They’re Your Feet – Foot Care Tips for Marathoners
At the LA Marathon Expo I handed out a tips sheet for those walking and running the marathon last weekend. Wait, you say, “I don’t run marathons.” That’s OK. These tips work just as well for walker, runners, backpackers, hikers, or anyone who is using their feet for transportation. Sure, it is easy to just go out the door and start—but, they are your feet and don’t you want them to be happy?
If you don’t have a plan for foot care, you may end up on the side of the road or trail nursing bad feet. Here are some tips I think are important and worth your time. If there is one thing I’ve learned over the past years, it is that too many athletes fail to plan. So my question for you is, "What’s your plan for foot care?"
Before the Race
• Toenails too long catches on socks – trim them short.
• Then file toenails smooth.
• Use a nail file to smooth calluses.
• Clean out lint and junk from inside shoes.
• Check your shoelaces and replace if frayed.
Race Morning
• Apply a layer of your favorite lubricant or powder.
• Smooth your socks around your feet.
• Avoid tying laces too tight.
During the Race
• If you feel a hot spot: apply a pad, a bit of tape, a dab of lubricant, or an energy wrapper between your sock and shoe.
• Loosen shoelaces if you have pain on the top of your foot.
After the Race
• Drain blisters only if they are in a pressure area.
• If you have blisters, soak your feet in Epson salts and warm water three times a day.
• Trim edges of loose skin around blisters.
• If feet are swollen, elevate and ice.
SOMETIMES LIFE TOSSES YOU A CURVE
Life is not static. Sometimes we move from day to day in routines in which we are comfortable. In January I was tossed one of life’s curve balls when a health issue became a major concern. I have starteding treatment and this will continue for several years.
This is the reason there were no newsletters in January and early February. Until this is worked out, I will try for one newsletter a month, maybe around the middle of the month. Please bear with me as I work through this. Thanks for your support.
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FOOT CARE TIPS
Resist the urge to buy a new pair of shoes and use them immediately in an event that matters. Case in point? At the LA Marathon Expo were several shoe companies and stores selling running and walking shoes. I saw many people walking the expo carrying bags with shoeboxes. I saw the same thing last summer at the pre-walk registration for the two-day Avon Walk in San Francisco. Allow yourself some time to walk around in the new shoes, or run in them a few times before using them in an event like these. Don’t take a chance on the shoes being wrong for you feet with a rough seam inside, too short too long, the wrong toebox, too narrow or too wide, and so forth. Buying new shoes the day before an event that you have trained for is not a good idea.
FIXING YOUR FEET – The Book
“IMHO, John Vonhof is a god. I own his 2nd edition, and just ordered the 3rd. I thought that I knew everything about my feet too – but I think that his book is better than anything else out there for new & tested ideas.” – Christine "Ceanothus" Kudija – PCT Hiker
“I have your latest copy of Fixing Your Feet. You should see it now, full of turned corners and yellow highlighter.” – Jürgen Ankenbrand, the Ultra Kraut
The 3rd edition of Fixing Your Feet: Prevention and Treatments for Athletes is the book of choice for athletes. It can be ordered through your bookstore, sports store, or visit my website for autographed and personalized copies at Footwork Publications. I offer the book at 20% off, autograph it, and mail it either by Priority Mail or Media Mail (to save a few dollars). It can also be purchased from Amazon.
ARTICLE: Timberland Delerion Pro Shoes
By Ryan Jordan and Matt Colon. Used with permission from two articles at BackpackingLight.com
The perfect shoe does not exist. But if it did, and its design was specified by a long distance trekker, it might have as its most beneficial feature the ability to drain water and dry fast.
Water and feet don’t mix. To perform at their peak day after day over hundreds of miles, your feet need to stay dry, at least intermittently. I don’t really want to take "river shoes" and I sure as heck don’t want to remove socks and footwear every time I have to cross a creek or river. I want to charge in with my hiking shoes, not break stride when reaching the other side, and have the walking action pump most of the water from the shoe. The rest of the water will dry quickly, because the shoe is made largely of nonabsorbent materials.
Design Assessment
Designed and marketed by Timberland and GoLite for their co-sponsored adventure racing team, the Delerion Pros are made entirely of low-absorption synthetic materials (to enhance drying time), have an upper composed primarily of fine plastic mesh (to aid water drainage while keeping dirt and sand out), have a very flexible midsole (to complement the natural biomechanics of a "fit" foot), a rapid lacing system (to quickly take the shoe on/off without untying/retying), and an integrated gaiter (to prevent entry of foreign materials into the shoe). My Delerion Pro shoes, in a Men’s size 9 (US), weigh 23.3 oz per pair (without insoles). The gaiters weigh 1.3 oz per pair.
The shoe features a unique midsole described as the Timberland™ Agile IQ stability plate. The midsole is split in the forefoot. Timberland says this enhances balance. The shoe also features a starburst shaped cut-out under the heel cup to aid in proper heel set. The idea here is to ensure the foot stays put by sucking the heel deep into the cup with every stride and minimize the danger of blistering.
Field Notes
As of this writing, I’ve hiked and ran 240 trail miles in the Timberland Delerion Pro, but my most severe test to date has been in the desert canyons of southern Utah.
The shoes were subjected to extensive wet-dry cycles resulting from wading canyon creeks and hiking through fine desert sands. They were subjected to fine clay muds and creek silts known throughout the desert backpacking community to permeate everything from the down-filled chambers of sleeping bags to body orificies you didn’t know you had. During a four-day traverse of Coyote, Escalante, and Stevens canyons, I only had to rinse the inside of my shoes once per day to remove caked silt inside the shoe. This is a remarkable performance metric, considering that equivalent conditions with other mesh upper shoes (and non-integrated gaiters), including Montrail Hardrocks and Inov-8 Flyrocs, resulted in so much silt getting into the shoes that rinsing the clay cakes out of them became a regular ritual that occurred several times a day.
Water drainage out of the Timberland Delerion Pro is excellent. On average, about fifty steps were required after exiting a creek to pump enough water out to eliminate the perception of "sponginess" in the shoe. Combined with only a very small amount of water-absorbent synthetic materials (used only in the heel cup and tongue for padding), the Delerion Pros felt dryer than any shoe I’ve used for wet conditions hiking. This has important and more practical ramifications that extend beyond your need to perceive drier feet. First, less water absorption means that on very cold subfreezing mornings, the shoes weren’t bricks of ice. While still "frozen" on a 20 degree morning in the Utah desert, I found that only two or three minutes of walking resulted in restoration of the shoe’s flexibility to its original feel. Second, lack of any significant water absorption means that socks stay drier, feet stay drier, and the common "raisin-foot" skin condition that occurs after a day of intermittent wading or canyoneering is all but gone when the shoes are removed in the evening.
Carol Crooker [of BackpackingLight.com] is conducting a comprehensive test of water drainage and drying times for the most popular models of trail running shoes favored by the ultralight hiking community, and the Timberland Delerion Pros are included. I’m told, based on preliminary data, that my hunch that these might be the fastest drying shoe on the market is going to be validated with meaningful data.
All this talk would be meaningless if these shoes did not offer other features important to the long distance hiker, namely, light weight, flexibility, and an effective trail tread pattern. At less than 24 oz per pair, the Delerion Pros are certainly light. They are among the most flexible shoes on the market (the only trail running shoes I’ve tried that are more flexible are the racing models from Inov-8). Finally, a shallow lug pattern with durable, but sticky-enough rubber, worked well enough on slickrock slab traverses while shedding desert mud effectively. The Delerion’s soles use a dual density rubber which is harder along the perimeter for edging and bite, and softer under the center of the foot for smear type traction. This design provides excellent traction in a variety of conditions.
The Delerion uses an integrated stretch gaiter which works well enough. It’s breathable (not waterproof, thank goodness) and stretchy (nylon). The gaiter is held in place by a pair of hooks, front and back, and on the sides by a track system that allows you to slide the bottom of the gaiter into grooves. This system creates a seal that keeps debris out of the shoe. The shoes may be worn with or without the gaiter.
The shoe’s key strength is also its weakness: the integrated gaiter. The gaiter is not the easiest accoutrement to engage with cold hands or muddy shoes. It requires fine motor skills to insert the gaiter pin into the gutter, attached to the shoe. Two tiny hooks are then used to further fix the front and the rear of the gaiter to the shoe. I found it best to simply leave the gaiter on the shoe at all times.
What’s missing from this review is an assessment of the Delerion Pro’s durability? Unlike any shoe I’ve tried, the Delerion Pros looked "almost new" after cleaning them up following four days of brutal desert canyon hiking. They exhibited little seam wear or abrasion, and the interior of the shoe suffered only miniscule amounts of damage in spite of the effects of abrasive desert sand. This was a welcome surprise: I’ve thrown other shoes in the garbage after such a trip.
The adventure racers I spoke with were full of praise for the shoe. They say it performs spectacularly well in a variety of conditions, dries quickly and helps to dry wet socks through a hydraulic flushing action.
Editor’s note: It is important that athletes check out shoes for how they fit their feet. I like Backpacking Light because they have reader reviews that can be helpful in personal application. Two readers wrote about their experiences with these shoes. One said the shoes bent wrong over his forefoot and toes. Both however, like the shoes.
I encourage you to check out Backpacking Light. Parts of the site are subscriber accessible only for a low yearly fee. Anyone interested in trail running, adventure racing, fast packing, hiking, and, of course, backpacking, will benefit from what the site offers. In addition to product reviews, they have articles on lightweight backpacking and hiking, products, and several publications including the new book Backpacking Light at their web site.
Citation:
"Timberland Delerion Pro Shoes SPOTLITE REVIEW," by Ryan Jordan and "Timberland Delerion PRO Adventure Racing Shoes (Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2005)," by Matt Colon. http://www.BackpackingLight.com.
NEW HAPPY FEET BOOKLET
My booklet, Happy Feet! Foot Care Advice for Walkers and Travelers is in stock and ready for the walkers in your life. This booklet is 3.75 x 8.5 and 36 pages in length. In an easy read format, it gives advice on biomechanics and gait, buying footwear, fit, lacing, insole and toenail tips, skin care, powders and lubricants, blister care, sprains, foot care kits, and more. It’s a bargain at $5.00. Click here to read more or to order.
GOT A STORY TO SHARE?
I am always on the look out for stories to share about their adventures with some type of connection to feet. If you have something to share, please send me an email.
NON-FEET GOOD STUFF
Walking the aisles at the LA Marathon Expo was fun. It is always interesting to see stuff that you never see or hear about through your ordinary contacts. Several things caught my eye. This month I’ll tell you about one of the best. Halo Headbands are a great improvement over the ordinary headband or sweatband. Halo Headbands use Sweat Block Technology with its watertight seal that directs sweat away from eyes towards the ears. The non-slip surface keeps the headband in place. The headbands are made with high performance Dryline fabric to control moisture. I bought the visor and find it very comfortable.
A watertight seal runs along the bottom edge of the headband over the eyes, controlling sweat and sunscreen and keeping them out of your eyes. If you are tired of wiping sweat out of your eyes or enduring the stinging of sunscreen in your eyes, this product is made for you. Halo Headbands are offered in a pullover or tie headband, a bandanna design for use under helmets, a baseball style sports cap), a visor, a skull cap, and an Anti-Freeze style for cold weather wear. Most styles are available in red, black, and white, with some also in blue. Custom printing can be ordered for event promotions.
I talked to the owners and like the product. This is one of those items you look at and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” With summer soon here, I highly recommend Halo Headbands. Disclaimer: As usual, I have no financial interest in this product.
THE HAPPY FEET BLOG
If you like to stay informed about foot care issues and information, check out my blog, Happy Feet: Expert Foot Care Advice for People Who Love Their Feet. This is different from this ezine. The Happy Feet blog will have a new short topic every other day.
READER FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS
Reader feedback to this E-zine and its articles is welcome and encouraged. Please send me an email any foot care ideas or tips that you have tried and would like to share with others, or ideas for an article for the e-zine.
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CONTACT INFORMATION
You are welcome to contact John Vonhof by email about this E-zine or the book Fixing Your Feet. Snail mail is welcome at 352 Fragrance Court, Manteca, CA 95337.