I have just been emailing a guy with regard to foot problems and trail runners and I thought this would make a good blog. Ok...not too exciting but maybe useful for any budding outdoors folk reading this.
Last year I started my pre-trip training by hiking in Berghaus hiking boots and had lots of foot problems. (sorry Berghaus!) Including blisters, shin splints and plantar fascitiis, OUCH! (I did not know the latter at the time) I went to see 2 sports physios. The first tried ripping me off with $500 insoles that I politely turned down. The second guy gave me some free advice.....and some stretching exercises. What a top guy.
He also suggested I throw the boots away! (these were new boots.....& i ended up selling one pair I hadn't used on ebay and throwing the others away...immediately switching to trainers.
It turned out this was good advice and within a week I was back at it.
I tried two different makes......one of which gave me nasty blisters. These got binned also. Well if there is one thing that will get you down a trail its your feet, so treat then well.
My suggestion is some shoes will work with your feet and some may not so be prepared to experiment.
If you wonder why use trail runners at all and what the benefits are. I would suggest the extra weight of a boot adds stress to your foot, or leg muscles. Also the ankle support may not allow your ankles to strengthen. Imagine you have ankle weights on (which is what shoes really are?) You will do more repetitions with lighter weights....so a lighter shoes kind of makes sense. Find what works for you though.
However I have met long distance hikers that use hiking boots with no problems.
The other big factor is stretching exercises......to stretch or not to stretch?
The 'good physiotherapist' I saw gave me some additional stretches and suggested if you hike 10 hours then you should be stretching up to 2 hours! Seriously. This makes sense to me compared to Tae Kwon Do. If we trained for 2 1/2 hours we would stretch out for at least 1/2 hour. 'Hiking is a sport' you know? Well I think it is. Heres a forum I have chatting about this on. You will need to log on. Well if you are training (walking) 10 hours a day for 6 days a week it becomes 'your sport.' Incidentally you should warm up before stretching or you can injure yourself.
I recommend stretching big time...when I start the PCT I will be doing loads. Maybe 2 hours a day. Also I do leg, foot and ankle strengthening exercises too. This is a great site that may help. http://www.coolrunning.com/
However with all the training, stretching and preparation in the world injuries do occur. I hobbled for over 100 miles on the CDT last year and managed to walk through it (ligament injury)...it was a testing time though!
Another point worth mentioning is that of packweight. If you are carrying a heavy load and are not used to it then this may cause injuries. Your ideal packweight will be somewhere between 25 to 50lbs. I weigh 137lb at the moment....and will be starting with a 30lb pack. Last year I started with 33lb which gradually crept up to over 45lb due to extra kit or water in dry areas. If you carry 1/3 to 1/2 your body weight its going to hurt.
As far as I know black bears do not use trainers or hiking boots
