question for you who are good at running.

[Inertianinja]

It's actually not a Tri question, but it's something that is affecting my cycling.

I've developed this thing where i'm putting a lot of pressure on the outside of my foot when i walk, kind of rolling from the outside to the inside. On the bike, if i'm not careful, i will put a lot of pressure on the outside of my foot and end up in pain.

I've been trying to focus on pushing down evenly, in case it's an issue with muscle memory and just support muscle strength.

I think i developed this from years of wearing stiff dress shoes, but having to walk very fast in them (old job, had to run back and forth to court all the time, but couldn't actually run, high stress, etc), so i got into some bad habits.

For those that run a lot - do you think wearing a very flexible shoe (like a New Balance Minimus or FiveFingers would help correct the problem?

[CbadRider]

If you're rolling to the outside of your foot it sounds like excessive supination. Check the wear pattern on the bottom of your shoes:



A flexible shoe won't help because it won't offer enough support. You can get shoes that are designed to correct supination. Do you have a running shoe store nearby? Try on some shoes and have one of the salespeople watch you run in them. They should be able to tell if the shoe fixes your gait.

[DLP]

^^^ Excellent advice. And even though you may find that the store staff recommends a shoe heavier than what you might imagine (for me, I could have sworn I bought a pair designed for orthopedic therapy), give it a good shot. Going into my first half marathon training, I discovered that I had some amount of pronation in my stride, and didn't want to chance injury. On a friend's recommendation, I went to a local run shop and had them fit me for shoes. I walked out of the run shop with a pair of Brooks Beasts. Given the size of the shoe, I looked and felt pretty dorky on the bus to the starting line for my first half marathon, but I finished respectably, and after training for a second, I was able to move to a lighter (and cheaper!) pair of shoes for a third event. I ran my fastest time and without injury or aches, and I absolutely credit some of that to my gear on the onset of training.

Now, I'm not sure if the running mechanic will transfer directly to your pedaling, given that you will likely not be in your running shoes while on your bike most of the time. However, if you're doing any amount of running, it's probably worth addressing your gait just the same.

Good luck!