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Orthotics - The criteria of the Fit
Any orthotic that is going to work has to address the underlying repetitive motion of “overpronation” (overpronation is the maximum range of motion the arch makes with each step, which results in, “wear and tear” over time).

By Dr. Dennis Kiper
Posted Friday, 7 April, 2006

The biomechanical damage once it occurs is due to a lifetime of all those
footsteps. Comparatively, each footstep is like a mile in a car. So every
decade of life is like 100,000 miles. In order to repair some, most or all of
that cumulative damage is dependent on two things:

1. The proper prescription fit of the orthotic, must meet 4 criteria:

1. The orthotic must be supportive, the person must feel the support such that
   it is full or snug fitting
2. It “must” be comfortable to wear all day without it causing more discomfort
   or problems [this comfort does not relate to symptoms].
3. It cannot overcorrect your alignment position on the ground, you “must” be
   stable.
4. It “must” fit the way your muscles and feet are working and not necessarily
   the architectural fit of just the foot.

2. The other is much more difficult to understand. The one thing no one can tell is how long it will take to get better. Not “feeling” better does not mean the orthotic is not working for you. In fact, if the orthotic meets the “criteria of the fit”, it is working for you. In most cases particularly if you are under 55 years of age and in good health, symptom relief may start to diminish within 60 days.

To reverse the “tissue health” [100%] that is now felt as pain can take weeks, months or even years to restore. Remember every step you take [including around the house, let alone high activity], antagonizes the time it takes to get better.

Depending on various factors such as age, weight, mandatory daily activities (which antagonize the healing process), chronicity of the problem, complexity of the individual’s biomechanics and lastly if you are athletic and continue to be active despite your pain can result in a long delay in even starting to feel better. This is the area in which many people fail. Your level of frustration and impatience to begin to feel better may cause you to stop wearing the
orthotic prematurely.

So, how does one know? Simply by establishing the “criteria of the fit”. In order for that prescription to be precise, there is no compromise in the criteria. If an orthotic is helping you, but is uncomfortable to wear then that is not a precise fit, but it is probably better than nothing at all.

How long will it take? I can’t tell you that, I do know that correcting your alignment position to the ground will improve your lower extremity mechanics and will reverse the damaging effects that a lifetime of overpronation has caused.

Editor’s Note: Dr. Kiper is the developer of the Silicone Dynamic Orthortic. For more information go to http://drkiper.com/.

Irunawaysclub Note: I didn’t need orthotics until “suddenly one day”, don’t delay, plantar fasciitis is very uncomfortable/painful.

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/3/3_1/three-men-run-4000-miles-.shtml

Three men run 4,000 miles of Sahara in 111 days
Runners first modern athletes to cross Sahara

By The Associated Press
Posted Tuesday, 20 February, 2007

IN THE WESTERN DESERT, Egypt — Three ultra-endurance athletes have just done something most would consider insane: They ran the equivalent of two marathons a day for 111 days to become the first modern runners to cross the Sahara Desert’s grueling 4,000 miles.
“This is 100 percent, without a doubt the hardest thing any of us have done,” said American runner Charlie Engle, 44, while eating tuna and plain pasta during a lunch break about 112 miles northwest of Cairo on Saturday, day 108.

Engle, 38-year-old Ray Zahab of Canada and Kevin Lin, 30, of Taiwan, finished their ultra-marathon Tuesday afternoon at the mouth of the Suez Canal in Egypt after running through the night.

In less than four months, they have run across the world’s largest desert, through six countries — Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya and finally Egypt.

A film crew followed them, chronicling the desert journey for actor Matt Damon’s production company, LivePlanet. Damon plans to narrate the “Running the Sahara” documentary.

Well, it was half a decade ago that I started wearing “running gloves”. I was motivated by the need to keep my hands warm on chilly 10K training runs. After some experience with the gloves I realized that since I’m not shoveling snow and my hands are starting to sweat like mad I probably don’t need “Sgt. Preston’s” style dog sled gloves. The next running session I switched to very lightweight cotton gloves, like the kind you can get at any discount store.  As I suspected I froze for the first 3/4 mile but then a miracle happened, my body started to warm up from the run, I didn’t need the gloves anymore. Since the gloves were only a few bucks I thought for a moment to toss’em. But being in favor of a clean environment, I took them home and washed them. Do you know the care instructions for cheap cotton gloves? It goes like this, put the gloves on, wash the gloves in warm water with mild bar soap, squeeze the water out, carefully remove the gloves so as not to stretch them, hang them from the clips on a pants hanger to drip dry, voila. So, you obviously want my glove recommendation, here it is, I wear Runy Urazzoff imported running gloves. I buy them through our online store, http://runawaysstore.org the best thing about them is after a dozen or so wearings it becomes a quest to see how long you can wear’em before they fall apart. Happy running, don’t foget to put your gloves on!

For more running glove anecdotes go to: http://forums.runnersworld.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/664106038/m/2591028551

Get with the video program. Yes, after all this time we  have added sports video shorts to our website. You can view the latest videos at our friendly web location, http://runawaysclub.org/

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