Tuesday, October 31, 2023

DIY fun


Tried my hand at making sandals. 

Started with this tutorial 
https://docott.com/sandals/ 
and then diverged wildly. 

Leather (one side smooth, other suede) and leather lacing. Pretty good. Decided I needed an additional toe loop to keep my feet in position (next to the pinky). Makes for slightly complicated lacing.

I tested the pattern out with children's foam and a couple of shoe strings: discovered I needed to reinforce the trial foam version with packing tape or the holes ripped right out.

Walking downhill (I tromped up and down the driveway on my test strolls - driveways out here are all up or all down) disturbed the relationship of my foot to the shoe the most.

I'd like the sole to be curved a bit more so the sole stays under my heel better. You can see how the bottom of the sole shows my heel wandering off to the inside (or the shoe wandering off to the outside). Just a matter of perspective I suppose. It is possible to lace the shoe so that  wandering habit is less pronounced, but I'd rather engineer things so there is less fussing needed.


Overall pleased.

I've been diligently wearing my Correct Toes in my Splay shoes. I can wear them all day now, even at work on a hard floor, so I think it is time to add a little bit of material to the big toe spacer to encourage my big toe to an even better position. I've also been haphazardly doing various toe stretching and foot strengthening exercises.

Get out there and WALK!

Monday, October 2, 2023

A shoe habit

 Well, I caved in and bought a pair of Juuri barefoot sandals. You can buy them in the US from the shop at Anya's Reviews, which is what I did.

A 43 fits me fine.


They lace on with nice wide interchangeable ribbons.

They are pretty easy to adjust and look super cute! These will replace my old Vionic sandals that are NOT zero drop and NOT barefoot.

Their website shows a million ways to tie them. The laces come in two lengths, I believe these are the standard ones, as I have to asymmetrically thread the laces to get the bows on the front of my not-stick-like legs.


When I can, I'll order a variety of colors and so on from Juuri in the longer length. 

Are these the ONLY shoes I ordered. Maaaaaaaybe not... more on that later.

Keep walkin'!


Saturday, September 23, 2023

New shoes for meeeeee! Insoles, too.

 My Splay Freedom sneakers came today.


Awesome. 


I went with 12W because my feet are very very wide. I tried a bunch of different lacing patterns, settling on lock lacing, which keeps the shoe very nicely attached to my foot with minimal heel-slop.

Although I could wish for a little tiny bit of extra height at the toe box, they do fit well enough with the Correct Toes over my Injinji socks!

Freedom, Correct Toes, and battered Keds.

These are replacing my toe-smashing Keds. 






I will want a cushion insole in there because I'm old and fat and my feet are picky.

These shoes come with an optional insole. I will use them for now. I did try stacking both insoles in one shoe and there was still just enough room in the toe.

So, I'll probably go with a Northsole insert, the thinner Legacy3. I don't think the extra cushion version will leave enough height for my toes.

Nice segue!

Those Altra are dying, aren't they?
I got a pair of Northsole Legacy Extra Cushion insoles and trimmed them and stuck them in my dying Altra Torin trail runners (a zero heel, wide toe box shoe) that I use for work. I'll keep wearing the Torin until I can switch to the Freedom for work.

The size large in Northsole was just big enough to trim down for my men's 11 US Altra shoes. Going forward, I'll be buying XL in the Northsoles.


My goal is not to pay $100+ for a pair of shoes every 4 months, but to buy one pair a year and new insoles sometimes. AND to have happy toes.

I suppose I ought to provide a reference pic of my smashed feet. I should have taken a picture a week ago, since I can already see a little space developing between my first and second toes.




Friday, September 22, 2023

Changing the focus a bit

I gave up hiking and backpacking well before the pandemic. Then I briefly enjoyed (so much fun!) trail running, and was working my way up to (and had registered for a 5K) when my knee arthritis reared up and took that away from me. Sad sad day. And on my birthday, no less.

After months of physical therapy (I can do walking lunges! FREAKING WALKING LUNGES now, but I've decided at 60 years of age, running on trails is just too risky. That was a terribly hard decision to make.

So I've turned my attention instead to foot health and proper toe alignment and all that cool stuff. Because I'm pretty sure much of the wear and tear on my knees is from lousy alignment.

No, I have not consulted a podiatrist or other specialist because my insurance is quite difficult about that kind of thing and it is basically not covered. SO DON'T TAKE ANYTHING I SAY TO HEART. And don't nag me either.

I had gone to zero drop footwear several years before, finding that it was just plain more comfortable.

But I had not really paid much attention to my tootsies. My poor smashed toes. I have had bunions for years, decades really. I remember being enchanted by my ability to stack my big toes next each other one Christmas morning, an Xmas that involved Barbie dolls, so I was probably 8 or 9.

Basically, my big toe is tilted alarmingly toward my other toes, so much that I pronate horribly and my pinky toes are trying to become hammer toes from lack of regular ground contact.

So I did a bunch of reading, and studying up on foot structure, and how to correct it (no surgery) and finally settled on Correct Toes. I get NO sponsorship from any of this, just so ya know.

One of the things that the Correct Toes folks point out is that most people, when their big toes are lined up with the rest of the bones there, instead of dodging to the middle like mine do, it is nearly impossible to pronate very much. I was all, "Yeah, right. Watch me! I'm the Queen of Pronation!"

Imagine my utter shock and delight when, having stuffed my toes into my brand new Correct Toe thing-a-ma-bobs, admiring my almost straight big toe, I COULD NOT FLOP MY FEET IN much at all.

Well, I'm sold on the concept. I wore them around while doing household chores for about half an hour (what they recommend) and my leg muscles were in shock. "What is this now? We are quite tired and out of sorts so would you PLEASE take those things off and give us a break."

I have been wearing them about half an hour a day, while cooking dinner or doing chores. I will start adding time (probably 10 minutes a day) next week. I like to take changes like this very slowly.

I have also added some toe independence exercises (the only toe that really wants to move is my big toe. The next one over will feebly wave, and my pinky just lies there and laughs hysterically, "You want me to do what!?"

I have determined that my Altra Torin road shoes (wide toe box, zero drop) will fit well enough when I'm wearing my Correct Toes. So I'll be able to wear them at work (retail) when I can work up to a couple hours at a time.

My Altra shoes are not holding up as well as I'd like, but they are quite pricy to replace, so I've added some Shoe Goo to the failing uppers (not failing enough to make the shoe non-functional, this is preventative, preemptive repair) and stuck some new cushy insoles from Northsole (Legacy extra cushion) in there.

I have ordered some Splay Freedom sneakers in wide, so we'll see when they come if they, plus cushy insoles, will be a suitable work alternative. Plus, they are cute sneakers. Much better then my old Keds.

I also decided to commit (almost) fully to wide shoes with zero drop and tossed out about 6 old pairs of low heeled and flat toe-smashing shoes and sandals. I kept one pair of Dansko because they are not as bad as the others (and so cute), and I kept my beloved Vionic sandals because, although they are not zero drop, my toes can wiggle around as much as they like in those shoes. The rest of my shoes are various zero drop wide toe box running shoes. Okay, okay, except for my reproduction 1920 - 1940 shoes. Not giving those up, although I expect in a year or two I'll have to because my feet will have completely adapted to a proper shape and those shoes will be impossible.

I've started looking for one pair of dress shoes (mostly for concerts) that fit my new requirements, and I've pretty much settled on the Shapen Poppy in wide. We'll see if I actually buy them.

I also spent several happy hours playing with kids foam sheets, tape, and string, trying to devise a hurache type barefoot sandal lacing pattern that stays put under my feet. I think I have a pattern that will work, so I'll post about that when I get it made. My plan is to incorporate Correct Toes into the sandal so I can have cool homemade hippy shoes, cool comfortable feet, and be fixing my toes as I flit about. Correct Toes have slits placed in such a way to accommodate thong style sandals.

To use them with my Vionic sandals, I'd have to cut into the Correct Toes and I'm not ready to do that.

Well, that's enough about my feet and thoughts for now.

Sunday, August 13, 2017

The struggle is real

I've been having various physical issues in my legs and feet over the last year or so, so I have not been hiking.

I'll update this blog if and when I return to The Great Outdoors.

Monday, August 1, 2016

Return to Winnemucca!

August 1st, 2016

My yoga-friends and I finally got our acts together and went on a hike this year.
They had never been on the Carson pass to Winnemucca version. So we did that.

We got to the trailhead at 8:30 and took about 1.5 hours to go the 2.5 miles to the lake. Back was probably a bit quicker since we had already spent some time gawping at flowers.

So, on to the good stuff! Pictures! I'm too lazy to organize them so I'll just write a bunch of captions.

Caples Lake. I take this pic every time I hike this hike. Love it.

Elephant's Back.

Tilted landscape, pretty level trail.

A hip-deep sea of flowers

Astounding variety.

Even though the rangers put out these leashes, some hikers ignored the rules.

My new small Deuter daypack.

Snow in August.

Lake Winnemucca

Your lupins or your life!

More

Still more

Flower overload yet?

I'm in the middle. Thank you, The Stickpic

Everybody loves flowers

My hiking companions.


Loyal followers should not despair, I HAVE been out on the trails this year, learning to trail run! It is soooo fun, but does not really fit my idea of this blog. So, all the silence since last year.
I will admit to having missed blogging about an earlier trip to Bassi Falls. Mea culpa.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

2013: Sky Trailhead, Sky Trail, Pt. Reyes Nat'l Seashore, Marin County, California

Oh my! I never finished this post!! Here you go.



September 16th and 17th, 2013

A friend of mine and I decided to get out with our hammocks for a short overnight. We chose Point Reyes National Seashore, and picked the shortest trip that would take us to our reserved campsite, Sky Camp #5.


We took a quick detour down to Limantour Beach, then back to the trailhead to climb up to Sky Camp.


It was damp and dark in there! So we kept leaving camp and seeking sun: first we checked out all the other (mostly empty) camps, then down to where the privy and water are for more sun.


Point Reyes is so popular they've put in infrastructure to keep people from trashing the place. I like it.

We ate dinner at the unoccupied camp #11 in hopes of getting some great sunset. I got fog and clouds, but they were pretty.







First thing the next day we packed up, munching food bars for breakfast. 1/2 hour later, back at the cars and driving home.