Just got professionally fitted for running shoes..

AsellusReborn

...and am a little confused.

I went to my local running store and the woman who helped me was awesome, although she also admitted my gait was a little odd.

The sum of what I learned in helpful bullet-point presentation:

-I do not over-pronate - in fact, I tend to supinate on my right side. (But not my left.)
-My arches are low but not flat. (We tried arch supports - they felt awful!)
-I was running in shoes that were an entire size too smal.
-And on that note, my left foot is almost half a size under my right.


I ended up in Adidas Adistar Ride 2s. She had them on clearance because they weren't carrying adidas any more - she had tried me out in several different Asics shoes but to be honest none of them felt too much better than my old K-Swiss other than being bigger (which did feel better on my right foot, lol). For $105 I wasn't totally sold on how much more awesome they were than my regular shoes, so she brought out the adidas because she knew I was on a budget. They were $40 and to be honest - they felt better than the Asics (although the asics were much cuter).


But anyway, long story short - I wanted to ask. My gait is apparently different on my left than my right; on my right I supinate but on my left I have a normal neutral gait. Is that normal? Is it something I should be trying to correct?


And second, I have been running in these:


http://www.finishline.com/store/catalog/product.jsp?productId=prod692510


That's also a neutral shoe. Other than being too small (lol) was there really any difference between my K-Swiss and my new pair of adidas? The store I went to didn't sell K-Swiss so she told me she didn't feel comfortable criticizing them because she didn't know, which was fair enough.

AsellusReborn

Bump

2hobbit1

leg length discrepancies can cause different motion between the two sides. I tend to get a toe out on one side if I don't have a proper lift on my short side. If you stand barefoot with your weight distributed evenly is there a difference in the height of you hip points? If you walk and don't think about foot placement does one foot track straight and the other toe in or out? If so you have a leg length difference, if it is big enough it can cause back and hip pain over the long run. a simple heel inset on your short side can make a huge difference in the motion of your stride.

AsellusReborn

Thank you for the response!

I actually feel a little silly, because in thinking about it I realized why my gait was weird yesterday - from running in my previous set of shoes I got runners toe, and it hurt so I realized walking that I'd been busy keeping the weight off that toe. Hence the weird gait on my right side. Now that it's feeling better today I was paying attention to how I walked I'm not noticing what she she pointed out, walking on the outside of my foot. So I feel a little better, lol!


I am more and more convinced that my KSwiss would have been fine if they were the right size. And feeling dumber by the moment lol. My new adidas actually gave me a blister on the bottom inner right side of my left heel today! Insult to injury :P

acstansell

The gait thing is something you could work on, but changing the way you run can be difficult. I pronate and when I run my arches go flat. Also, I am heel striker. but if you think about your gait while running you can take little steps to correct your process. Keep in mind, you may have soreness in different muscle groups from engaging those groups while changing your gait.