Running Sneakers – When to Replace Them and Where to Donate Old Shoes

I wrote an article last year on running shoes and the importance of wearing the right shoe when we exercise.  I was reminded of this when I accidently forgot to change my shoes before weekly tennis night and had to play in my old 7-year old walking shoes. I suffered through an hour wearing shoes with zero support and getting killed by my opponent because the sneakers I was wearing did not support my lateral movements on the court. After a while I just stopped trying because my chances of injury were increased every time I dove for the ball.

According to an article on About.com, we should replace our running shoes every 300-400 miles. They say “Running in old or worn-out shoes is one of the most common causes of running injuries.”

Since running shoes lose shock absorption, cushioning and stability over time continuing to run in them after about six months increases the stress and impact on your legs and joints, which can lead to long term injuries (like shin splints) from stress fractures to other nagging injuries. Replacing shoes frequently is the best defense against injury.  It is also highly recommended that if you run daily, to alternate shoes from day to day – therefore, having two pairs of shoes is best.

I personally recommend buying two pairs of shoes a year – or every six months if you are like me and run every other day and are a moderate runner – say running 10 to 30 miles a week. 

Signs Your Shoes Need To Be Replaced:

1. Pain

If your knees, hips or shins are hurting that is probably the #1 classic sign that your shoes are too worn down.

2. Shoe is not form fitting

If you put on your shoes and they feel loose and you have to tighten the laces to make your shoe fit tighter it’s time for a new pair.

3. Failing twist test

Twist your shoes. If they twist; especially in the center – they’re done. 

Donate Old Shoes

So once you are done with a  pair, where should you donate your old shoes? The answer is to NOT throw them away; we runners should not be responsible for filling landfills.

I have heard negative things about the the Nike-Reusa-A-Shoe program but I found a new site that is interesting and lets you be pro-active  to collect and send old shoes- visit www.letmeplay.com/reuseashoe - this site is for people who want to see their shoes literally reused by being ground down and made into track or something like that.

This photo is right from the letmeplay.com Web site.

Also try the following sites for donating worn shoes.

Soles4Soles – www.soles4souls.org

Shoe Bank – www.shoebank.org

Sole Responsibility – www.soleresponsibility.org

Shoes for Africa – www.shoes4africa.org

Am I Running on Plastic?

Am I Running on Plastic?
Plastics (and other toxins) are running up the food chain to our plates 

As a runner, I am thinking constantly about workouts, future races, and running strategies, but top of my list has always been food. Since diet is the most important aspect of a runner’s training aside from sleeping and well, running of course, food can help or hinder one’s work out. 

I read something recently that has put me on alert about diet. On January 22, 2009, legislators in Virgina have been considering banning plastic bags at grocery stroes and chain retailers like Target and Walmart. This is due to the bags’ environmental impact.   

This is welcome news – especially since I spent many years training myself to bring my own bags to the grocery store and other places, so that I don’t need to use a plastic bag. I don’t care how stupid I look – in fact, today I noticed just how “in” taking one’s bags to the market are. I noticed at least three other families with their wares in reusable sacks.  

As you can imagine, LA, being all “environmental” and all with it’s air pollution and energy issues the LA Times announced in June 2008 that plastic bags would be banned from supermarkets so if you forget your bags, you can pay 25 cents for a bag. Now really, I would be nice if I was paid 25 cents for bringing a bag. I am lucky if I get anything back at all, and if I do it’s  measly 10 cents. Trust me. People in LA will shell out the 25 cents so nice, LA, you’ve done nothing but enable people.   

  

So let me get to the issue of what is now becoming a diatribe and soap box speech.  Years ago I read something about how our oceans are becoming landfills. Being the eco-conscious person I am, I registered this information but didn’t really do much with it until after I read about the potential ban on plastic bags in Virginia.

  

By the way, the articles on this topic are numerous.  Other familiar names for this “land mass” are the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” or “trash vortex.”  This nasty soup of flotsam is composed of plastic gunk; it floats just below the surface about a foot down.  A sailor names Charles Moore, came across the sea of waste by chance in 1997 while sailing home from an international yacht race.  He ran into this mess and found himself surrounding by garbage as far as the eye could see.

It turns out the eye could not see far enough. You really have to fly over this mass in order to get an idea of its emensity.  

  

Sea Turtle with Plastic Bag.

 

So here is the bad part.  Millions of fish and birds are ingesting the contents of this soup and many are dying. Others are getting caught in plastic netting. Mr. Moore, who was once a rich oil boy and now is a well-known oceanographer and ocean activist is warning us to cut bag on plastics use.  His concern? 

This plastic soup could double in the next 20 years. 

Whale wrapped in plastic fish net

 

What is the most frightening is that not only is this hellacious human-made mess an embarrassment to the piggishness of our behaviour, as the plastic falls apart or decomposes, they are ingested by microplankton. Fish eat the microplankton. Fish also eat small plastic byproducts called nurdles, or small plastic remnants from the plastics industry that make their ways to our waterways through spills and other poor management practices. The problem with them is that they absorb chemicals like pesticides and hydrocarbons (aka carcinogenic material) which is eaten by fish which we then eat.  It’s like the oceanic version of when eagles ate aminals and insects laced with DDT back in Rachel Carson’s day. The shells of eagle’s eggs were noticably thinner, as noticed in numerous ecological studies. 

This means that if you are pregnant there is even more reason to avoid fish during your pregnany. 

For me this is no brainer. Just like I promised myself to get off of disposable water bottles, I am doing it with plastics bags and other plastic materials. At the supermarket everything is covered in plastic – from the deli meat that gets put into a plastic bag and brought home, to the plastic bags we put the apples and tomatoes in, to the plastic bags the salads come in to the plastic meat is wrapped in.  Now that I know that I am potentially eating plastic and lord knows what other chemicals in my fish, I think twice now before I eat fish. 

For more information read: 

Plastic Trash in the Ocean as Far as One Can See
www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Pacific-Garbage-Patch30oct07.htm 

Giant Patch of Ocean Debris Carries, Plastic Ghost Nets, Trash Onto Island Shores 
http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Honolulu-Patch-Of-Plastic13feb06.htm 

Ocean Debris: Habitat for Some, Havoc for Environment, Experts Say http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070423-ocean-plastic.html 

Turtle photo from: http://tourdeturtles.org/maritime-cause.html 

Whale photo from: http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/News2?abbr=bpm_&page=NewsArticle&id=10057 

Philanthropic Running – A New President and New Attitude Toward Running for a Cause

What kind of runner will you be this year?  With Barak Obama in the White House – a man who represents hope and change for our country, I cannot think of a better time to think about my running goals for next year and whether I will be able to use running to make a difference in someone else’s life. 

Why even think this way? Because President-elect Obama was asked in the debates about the sacrifices this county would need to make to turn the ship that is America around and sail it into brighter waters.  Our president has called on us to look outside ourselves and to work together for a new America – and that will take sacrifice in every facet of our lives.  This means we all are responsible for everything from turning down the heat, to driving and spending less, to donating our time, not just our money, to helping America get back on its feet. For all of us who say we don’t want big government, the best way to prevent the growth of our government is for us to use our own creative resources toward helping each other without depending on the government to help us when we make mistakes.

So this means that Americans stop looking for handouts from free pens to low-cost mortgages. Somehow we got caught up in Paris Hilton and life became about a house or a car or a fur coat. We forgot – life is about family, clean air, clean water, and the right to be treated well by our bretheren.  Throw away the People Magazine America. If you know that Britney Spears has two kids but you did not know that Africa is a contintent made up of numerous countries like Ethiopia and Sudan, both of which have been in the international news for decades, America is in big trouble.  We have become the DIY nation of debt and now look at us. We are  dependent on the government because we spent money, bought things we did not need, drove huge cars just because we could, and now like a college student who rung up too many charges on their credit card, we turn to the parent that is our government and ask for a bailout. Some superpower.

I realize that we are all selfish in our own right. We have families, jobs, and blogs to update, but in this world where we are all overstimulated by television, radio, computers, personal hand-held devices and cell phones, we need to stop the texting and twittering and turn all of these things off long enough to think about what we as Americans can do to change our behavior and attitude about just about everything.

So I ask, what can I do for my country and I can I do it while pursuing my goals as a runner?  The good news is yes.

Every year I look to be a faster, more efficient athlete. With all my hang ups and physcial inperfections I always look to better myself, which is why I guess, that running never bores me. But even as I plan my races – I look to see where I can make a difference – like when I trained my sister for her first road race and drove four hours to see her or when I helped another friend train for the NYC Marathon, or even when I ran with a friend and gave her nutrition advice to enable her to lose 60 pounds after giving birth to her children.

Next year will be no different. I want to run 2-3 10-milers and I want to run them in 1:30 or better for my own personal edification.   I am planning on the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in DC (April), the Philadelphia Broad Street 10-miler in PA (June), and the Army 10-miler in VA/DC (September).  In between, I would like to do some smaller races – and concentrate on those races that are for a cause. Why? I have learned that when I get intimately involved with a cause, I have a higher probability of donating my time and money .

For example, 2002 I ran the San Diego Marathon and raised $5,000 with Team in Training for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. While I do not want to go through the program again, since I have run the race I have donated money to the local and national groups every year. In fact, each year I look for opportunities to be a volunteer coach – and I aspire to do that – because it benefits the cause and all the people training. I have the experience training and it’s not too much of a sacrifice for me to help people do something I also love doing.

Until that opportunity with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society comes along, one race I thought I would try – because it’s on a holiday and because it is a cause-related run is the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot supported by SOME – So Others Might Eat.  Not only am I going to commit to running the race, but I want to actually volunteer too. I have always wanted to serve food a food kitchen and I am thinking that over the Thanksgiving holiday would be a good opportunity for me. We won’t have guests this year so why not?  Even if I don’t like the experience I can say I tried. That’s the best any of us can do.

In a time when we need to change the way we think and do things – there is no better time to adopt the depression era mentality of saving money, using fewer resources, and helping others.  I for one am willing to make those changes….as long as I can run too – and I believe there is room for both.