The pain in Mike Levad’s heel first pricked up after the Twin Cities Marathon last fall. “It felt like someone had whacked my heel with a hammer,” he said, describing a pain that shot through his foot and up the leg when he got out of bed in the morning.

In April, Levad ran the Boston Marathon.

“I finished in 3 hours, 5 minutes and 46 seconds,” he said. “But then the pain in my heel got worse.”

Levad is victim of an injury caused not by a one-time traumatic incident, but by the repetitive strain of feet pounding pavement.



Indeed, during peak training times, runners such as Levad tick off 30, 40 or more miles in running shoes each week, striking foot to road tens of thousands of times. The abuse can affect the physiology of the foot, creating conditions unique to the running world that -- as in Levad’s case -- are difficult for some doctors to diagnose or treat.

In a story I wrote last month -- "Meet Dr. Feet" -- I look into Levad's case through the lens of Dr. Paul Langer, a podiatrist, a clinical faculty member at the University of Minnesota Medical School, and a veteran of two dozen marathons, several triathlons and the Ironman.

Levad was diagnosed with a heel malady called plantar fasciitis.

Dr. Langer's prescription for healing may surprise you.

Go here for the full article: http://thegearjunkie.com/meet-dr-feet

Yesterday in this blog I reminisced about a trip I took
through **** one year back, the 110-mile mountain bike epic that is North
Dakota's Maah Daah Hey Trail. This is where we ran out of water and were forced
to pour brown-algae slug through T-shirts to filter sediment before dropping in
a half-dozen iodine pills. We rode the trail in 30 hours, nearly straight
through, in 110-degree heat. Only three of the six from my group made the whole
length, the others' bleached bones still out there crackling somewhere in the
Badlands sun. (O.k., that last part I made up.)

But the days before this bike trip, at the start of the long
weekend we spent in North Dakota last July, I experienced a wholly different
type of adventure: Sailing on Lake Sakakawea.

Indeed, if the Maah Daah Hey that weekend was a bit of ****,
then Sakakawea -- a 368,000-acre reservoir
of the Missouri River -- was a big dose of heaven.



I sailed with guide Mike Quinn on the 34-foot Sovereign, a
white and gleaming craft with teakwood decks and a cabin to sleep five.

By numbers alone, Lake Sakakawea is an impressive body of
water, with more than 1,200 miles of shoreline, most of it uninhabited and
wild. At about 170 miles long, the winding lake heads westward through North
Dakota in a massive S-curve to the Montana border.

Clear water up to 180 feet deep is measured at the Garrison
Dam near the lake's eastern end.

In fact, Sakakawea is among the world's largest artificial
lakes, ranking at No. 3 in size in the United States after Lake Mead and Lake
Powell, the reservoirs of the Colorado River in the Desert Southwest.

Our trip -- which I wrote about in New York Times here, http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/travel/escapes/22sail.html

• included two days of doing nothing much more than pulling sheets, tying off

We zigzagged and tacked for the day and into the evening
toward the slowly sinking summer sun. We anchored in a bay near the start of
the state's Badlands region, where Sakakawea casts its long arms into dry hills
and desert canyons. We dove off the boat and swam, and we hiked into the wild
hills during short breaks on land.

Finally, we slept out under the stars, grilling dinner on
the deck of the Sovereign before laying back to be lulled under a deep vaulted
velour of unadulterated silence, of absolute North Dakota nothingness.

In endurance sports like adventure racing and ultra
running, keeping my feet happy and healthy for hours or days on the go has
always been difficult. Lord knows I've learned the hard way: During Primal
Quest, a 10-day adventure race in Utah last year, the freak combination of
shoe-invading desert silt, 110-degree heat, and 40+ miles of trekking set off a
reaction that dug deep 50-cent-piece-size blisters into the back of my heels.
This took place on the first day of the race. I was then forced to trek,
paddle, climb and bike for 9 days with raw, electrifyingly-painful feet,
utilizing medical tents for aid when available, pain relieving drugs, duct
tape, super glue, and sheer will to keep on.

(See my story on the race here: http://thegearjunkie.com/adventure-primal-quest-adventure-race)

Since that race, I take foot care -- and foot/shoe/sock
preparation -- quite seriously for any event. A case in point was this past
weekend, when I competed on a two-person team in an 8-hour adventure race in
central Minnesota, the annual MNOC Adventure Race. The race course would be
venturing through deep woods and swamps. We'd wade and swim through rivers.
We'd trail run and paddle a kayak. Bushwhacking was to be a large part of the
ordeal as well.

As such, my footwear situation needed to be unique.
Regular trail runners and synthetic socks would not cut it.

To prepare my feet, I started at home, trimming my
toenails back. This is important to lessen the chance of contact with a nail pounding
on the front of your shoe. Toenails may also rub neighboring toes, which can
cause blisters.

Next, at the race, I applied Hydropel, a gooey salve made
by Genesis Pharmaceutical Inc. that does a good job eliminating friction both
between your foot and the sock as well as the skin-on-skin rub between toes. It
repels water, an important trait for events like this. The product comes in
small, 2-ounce squeeze bottles, which cost about $13 each. It's not cheap, but
used somewhat conservatively the bottle should last you for five to 10
lube-ups.

(See my full Hydropel review from The Gear Junkie here:
http://thegearjunkie.com/hydropel-sports-ointment)

Step No. 2 was socks, and for this I employed Inov-8's
(http://www.inov-8.com) new Debrisoc, which are essentially merino wool sport
socks with a built-in flap that folds over the shoe's opening to create a
gaiter. These all-in-one innovations, which cost about $22, seal off your foot
from sticks, rocks and mud. A small hook in front stretches the flap over the
laces. Elastic bands loop underneath to keep it on tight.

The Debrisoc is a cool invention. It fits nice and solid,
and the all-purpose miracle material of merino wool is hard to beat in any
season, as it breathes, insulates, cool, wicks, and then dries somewhat
quickly.

As promised, the Debrisoc kept all debris at bay during
the race. I never once had to dump out my shoes, despite wading in mud,
swimming, running through swamps, and bushwhacking a couple miles through thick
woods, jumping logs, tangling in raspberry vines, and sometimes practically
swimming through bush as thick as it comes.

(See my full Debrisoc review from The Gear Junkie here:
http://thegearjunkie.com/gear-review-inov-8-debrisoc)

For shoes, I also went with Inov-8, employing the
company's RocLite 285s. These aren't trail runners. They aren't shoes you'd
wear for a jog on the street, either. U.K.-based Inov-8 Ltd. makes shoes for
the oddball sport of mountain running. I love their minimalist design for
orienteering and shorter races like this 8-hour event in central Minnesota.

The RocLite 285s have a low-profile midsole, which
essentially means there is very little cushioning underfoot, and its upper is a
thin synthetic mesh. They drain water well once submerged, they fit my feet
perfectly, and they are fast and light little buggers.

Final note: For ultra events I recommend sizing up at
least a 1/2-size increment from your normal shoe. During long events, when
you're on the go for hours and hours, your feet will swell. The extra area
inside the shoe is mandatory for keeping things happy and healthy down there in
the land of blisters and chafe.

I write a syndicated newspaper column on gear -- "The Gear Junkie" -- as well as run an ancillary web site, http://www.thegearjunkie.com, and now I'm a blogger on Active.com, too.

A little about me. . .

I have been active in outdoors journalism (and all the corresponding sports and adventures that go with the gig) for several years. I was the founding editor of Vertical Jones magazine, a climbing publication (1997 - 2001). In addition to the weekly Gear Junkie newspaper column, I write on the outdoors and adventure-travel for New York Times, Forbes Traveler, and other national media.

The Gear Junkie column runs in 10 newspapers weekly, from Seattle to St. Paul, to Greensboro, N.C. The web site -- which launched Sept. 18, 2006 -- includes the Daily Dose blog; video gear reviews; interactive slideshow features; The Gear Junkie column archive; and feature stories ("Gear Junkie Adventures").

What makes The Gear Junkie different? I test gear to death, training daily for outdoors adventures, competing in national events, and running marathons, climbing mountains, rafting rivers, racing on a mountain bike, killing myself (nearly) on multi-day adventure races. . . you get the picture. I'm always on the go. This is my passion. This is my life.

This blog, I hope, will provide a bit of a peek into what I do.

Stephen Regenold -- http://www.thegearjunkie.com

THE GEAR JUNKIE Syndicate newspapers: Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
Albuquerque Journal, Casper Star-Tribune, Spokane Spokesman-Review,
Minneapolis Star Tribune, Greensboro News-Record, Cape Cod Times,
Jackson Hole Star Tribune, Redding Record Searchlight, and Billings Gazette
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
stephen@thegearjunkie.com
http://www.thegearjunkie.com
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member, OWAA (Outdoor Writers Association of America)
member, ASJA (American Society of Journalists and Authors)