Blue Runnings

I’ve spent an unnecessary amount of time this week thinking about my feet. I guess it’s not really surprising as I’m increasing my time spent on them, but for various reasons I have spent quite a lot of time considering them.

I’ve been back on my drill sessions this week, with a few foot twinges afterwards. I used to have high arches to my feet, but over the last few years for reasons likely relating to inactivity and weight gain I am now almost completely flat footed. My shoe size has also increased by about half a size so my feet are clearly now more like splayed frog flippers, except that unlike a frog I am a poor swimmer.

This does not bode well for someone who wants to up their time on their feet again: I read somewhere the army does not take people with flat feet as they’re unable to do long marches without injury due to the reduced springing of the foot (this is an unaccredited snippet of info and I will not vouch for its accuracy!). Medical websites suggest it improves in children, but is normally permanent in adults, other sites suggest you buy the seller’s shoes or insoles which ‘may give some improvement’.

I’m not sure about the reversibility of flat feet – whether its just that without work they won’t reverse and few people put the work in, or if it genuinely is something you can’t get back, but by deciding not to research further and therefore be proven wrong I have decided the arch is formed by a muscle and therefore I should be able to train something back. I haven’t yet figured out a good way to take feet-prints to chart my progress but I shall continue to give this some thought.

I’m making a conscious but unstructured effort to wiggle things – stand on tiptoes and heels (good for improving balance if nothing else), lift alternating big toe then other toes, smoosh feet against the floor into the shape I feel they should be and hope they magically remember. We’ll see if it does anything over the next few months. If nothing else, stronger flat feet should be less prone to pain and injury than floppy flat feet right?!

The splaying of my feet has become particularly obvious to me this week with the discovery that despite being about as far from athletic as one can be at the moment, I also have athlete’s foot which has resulted in a lovely split between my middle and ‘ring’ toes on one foot. So as well as spending a lot of time thinking about feet this week, I also get to spend extra time washing them and smearing anti-fungals about. This is a very sad time for a long-term sock lover.