What on earth you ask? Really, are you okay? You may even ask if it hurts? I know you are concerned.
Yes… I am an underpronator. I underpronate and it doesn’t hurt a bit.
I had my second running class tonight at the BCAE, Running for Beginner’s, and one of the things we looked at was whether we pronate, underpronate or overpronate. Apparently… “Understanding your personal pronation type is crucial to choosing the proper running shoes.” It turns out that I should be wearing cushioned running shoes and I am not! A bit of a surprise to me as Marathon Sports did an assessment of me and suggested the stability running shoes I have been wearing all this time. I don’t think this is a totally bad thing, but having the right running shoes could mean being a more efficient runner, maybe?
According to Runner’s World this is how they describe “underpronation”… “the outside of the heel makes initial contact with the ground. But the inward movement of the foot occurs at less than fifteen percent (i.e., there is less rolling in than for those with normal or flat feet). Consequently, forces of impact are concentrated on a smaller area of the foot (the outside part), and are not distributed as efficiently. In the push-off phase, most of the work is done by the smaller toes on the outside of the foot.”I found the class this week a lot more interesting. We went for a run around the Boston Gardens and Melissa (our young teacher) asked me to set the pace for everyone because she has hurt her leg. Me!!!!!! The slowest runner in the world, setting the pace – how cool is that? It was a very slow pace indeed. This is because I (apparently) have more experience than everyone else. I feel like such a brown noser :).
On our little run, a few of us ran right passed Mark Wahlberg who is in Boston filming a movie called “Ted.” The movie is about a man’s childhood teddy bear that comes to life! Seriously! Always fun seeing a celebrity and we get quite a few of them these days in Boston. They are filming right outside my office so I could be in for a lot more sightings.
I am looking forward to my running class next week.
