Adventure Nickel

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

It's gotta be the shoes

It starts with these articles

http://fittish.deadspin.com/vibram-fivefingers-still-stupid-now-culpable-1572955736

These people pour their scorn and derision out because they don't like or don't believe in a certain type of footwear. I don't get it. You like your Nike shoes, wear 'em. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

For those who don't know, let me introduce myself. My name is Eric Gaden R.N. Yes, I am going to use that. I have 7 years experience working in the emergency room and as an ER nurse, I believe I have a better than average grasp of human anatomy and physiology. I have seen all types of injuries and wounds caused by running and other things. I have not done any specific research or experimentation on this subject because no one will pay me to and I like living indoors. Even if someone would pay me, I probably wouldn't do it because I wear 5 fingers for running and would be considered biased.

Yep, I wear those funny toe shoes for running.

I have detailed some of my experiences with them on my blog. I have run a road half marathon and a trail full marathon in them. I do the overwhelming majority of my running on roads and hard surfaces. Before I started with them I ran in Mizuno. Good shoes. Another disclaimer. I read Born To Run. But I read it 2 years after I started wearing Five Fingers. I don't think the running feats mentioned in the book are expressly related to footwear so much as lifestyle

Let me address some of the claims made in the above mentioned article and say something about the lawsuit.

So, Vibram made the claim that their shoes could "Reduce foot injuries and strengthen foot muscles.".

Let's take a look at that. What the modern running shoe was doing, prior to the minimalist movement, was protecting the foot. They made claims that protecting from over pronation would reduce injury rates and improve your running. This has been proven not to be as reliable as it was once thought.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130614100821.htm

http://www.runnersworld.com/running-shoes/does-pronation-matter

Certainly there is enough research to disprove many of the advertising claims made by motion control shoe makers and instigate a lawsuit. However, it is harder to sue an entire industry. Vibram stepped out and did something different. This makes them an easier target.

Let's also take a look at the negative effect mentioned in the article.

"This study showed that increases in bone marrow edema [the precursor to a stress fracture] are more common in subjects who were transitioning to the [Vibram FiveFingers],"

That makes total sense. The body only changes in response to stress. You stress your muscles to make them stronger. You stress your cardiorespiratory system to make is better. In this case, you are stressing your bones. The problem is they are quite a bit slower to change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_remodeling_period

Your soft tissue changes much faster. Lungs cells replace around every 6 weeks, intestinal lining cells can change every 4-5 days. Muscles can adapt very quickly too.

http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/musclesgrowLK.html

Bones don't.

Now, take the built up running shoe. It protects your foot from the flex and stress that would cause muscle and bone change. You take a cast off an arm and the arm below is withered and atrophied because you have reduced the stress on the whole to remove the stress on a part. An overbuilt running shoe will reduce stress on the whole foot.

Take away that protection and it increases the stress. Increase the stress and it will get stronger. This isn't new knowledge. Move too fast and you overstress a weakened structure and you get injuries. Keep up the stress and you get a stronger, more durable foot. A stronger, more durable foot leads to stronger muscles and less injuries. The theory is sound.

But... and there is a but.

For a period you would be at a higher risk for injuries, especially bony ones. Had you never put your foot into the overly protective shoe, you would be better off, theoretically. But most of us have. So we increase our short term risk of injury to decrease our long term injury and increase our long term foot strength.

That bone marrow edema is the body's initial response to increased stress. If you hurt too much, slow down your transition, back off your pace or your mileage. Or wear the big shoes, if that is what you like. I suspect the injuries are more related to training too much, too soon, too hard. Anyone know a runner who would do that?

So, in conclusion, if you like built up running shoes, wear them. If you like minimalist, wear them. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. I think the short term slow down in pace is fine, I'm not that fast anyway. I think that, over the long term, I will have stronger, less injury prone feet and legs.

You don't, that's fine. This lawsuit isn't about the science behind the shoe, it is about advertising.

And don't call me a sucker.

Monday, May 18, 2015

Artist Point

Still flying solo here at the old Nickel. And without adult supervision I can just go crazy and start doing things like calling it the old Nickel. Yeah, Sarah and the boys can come back any time. I'm crackin' up here.

To fend off the impending madness, I occasionally go out for an adventure. Off to the east there is this big old snowy mountain called Mt. Baker. Let's drive that way again and see if it looks different than last time.

Looks like the opening of The Shining.

I like how the trees mimic the arc of the mountains.

Mt. Shuksan in all its glory.

I keep looking for little tiny climbers

Check out that huge glacier. Very dangerous place to be, right at the bottom center of that picture.

That is a pretty mountain. I tried to take a good picture or two on the way up to the parking lot.

I like this one, it's all contrast-y

Reflections of...

I need some education on how to keep the white snowy mountains from blowing out.

I got to the parking lot, just like last time. The road to Artist Point was still closed, but it looked dry and clear. So I decided to just go ahead and hike on up for a picture or two.

Of course, without Sarah there I forgot to bring water, sunscreen, a hat, food or anything like that. I remembered the zoom lens though. I really shouldn't be allowed out without adult supervision.

A long, and winding road.

Still plenty of snow up here.

The road looking back.

See, you could just walk right up there...easy.

Mt.Baker peeking up from the other side of the parking lot.

Yeah, still plenty of snow up here.

Seriously...looks like you could just walk right up to the top.


Table mountain, had to get artsy.

Trying to stay busy.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Pictures of mountains

All by myself. What to do, what to do? Well, I could do something productive, like, well anything else.

Instead, I chose to drive around one day and look at pretty mountains. That wasn't all though. It is morel season and I wanted to at least find a few. So I thought about where I might have some luck. I hear tell that you can find them frequently in recently burned areas. So, here was my plan. I was going to drive south near Everett and turn east on Highway 2. This would take me over near Wenatchee, where I remember a lot of the fire activity happening last year. It didn't hurt that this would take me past some beautiful mountains. Up and out early...off I went.

Of course, it was super cloudy and you couldn't see most of the mountain.

It was cloudy and rainy and just not a real good day for epic scenery. Oh well.

Then I passed a sign.

Well, yeah I'm gonna stop. Waterfalls look cool even in the rain. Besides, it was a short trail.

Three feet out of the parking lot, it looked like this.

Good enough. Let's investigate.

The trail ran back under the road to another section of falls.

But, this isn't just about waterfalls. I was on a quest. I needed to find some morels. I saw some burned area a mile or so off the road. Whenever I saw a chance to turn that direction, I did.

This looks like a good spot.

It was about five minutes of stomping around before I found one.

A chorus of angels sound

There were other little delights.

Cool looking orange fungus.


The real star of the show

Oh yeah, Julia, your warnings didn't fall on deaf ears. I didn't walk too close to this.

I spent about an hour farting around in the woods. But, it had been a three hour drive to get here and I still wasn't sure which way I wanted to go home. I got in the car made it to the main road.

Now...which way to go? You know, there isn't anything keeping me from going out as long as I want. Might as well do the loop. The loop, in this case, would take me all the way to the east side of the Cascade range. Then back north until I crossed back through the mountains through the North Cascades National Park. Sounds fun right?

It took a lot longer than I thought. I think I ended up with 9 hours or so of driving. Sheesh.

Was it worth it?

The east side of the Cascades

In the mountains again.

Still pretty cold and snowy.

There were almost no cars out there either. I could have danced the Watusi in the middle of the highway and no one would have known.

I realized I could spend several days out here taking pictures, but I was still pretty far from home. I managed to pass up a lot of photo opportunities. There were one or two that I just couldn't resist.

I pulled into home well after dark.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Best Pictures of 2013 Part 2

Things are momentarily slow here at the old Adventure Nickel. To keep my regular readers from getting too bored, I have culled some of my favorite pictures from 2013.

This is part 2, if you want part 1 go HERE