Three five-mile tests

Left to right: Merrell Barefoot Contour Glove,
Merrell Luxe Mid, Merrell Tetra Strap Waterproof

So I've had time to do some walking, but haven't managed to post about it, and I'm behind on five-mile tests.

First up, in order of the photo if nothing else, was the Merrell Barefoot Contour Glove. I got these for hiking, because I wanted to see how it went with a minimalist shoe, and these, which have a waterproof leather upper, looked like the best fit for that. I walked in Rock Creek Park two days in a row in some pretty serious mud, and they had fantastic grip. Even better, with literally no break in and only a pair of silk liner socks from REI, they went about 12 miles (new personal record!) the first day and 8 the second with only the slightest hot spot on one ankle that went away when I readjusted the laces. They are pretty waterproof for barefoot shoes, but I didn't expect them to be fully waterproof since they don't go up to the ankles. A little moisture did seep in from the top, but not much given how muddy it was. So, basically, these shoes are so fantastic, they laugh at 5 miles.

Second in the photo is the Merrell Luxe Mid. These are apparently approved by the American Podiatric Medical Association, which made me suspicious, but I bought them anyway, because they were cute, and Merrell doesn't make a huge amount of cute shoes. They even have a little bit of a heel, and after a year and a half of not wearing heels at all, it feels pretty strange (but nice) to be just that bit taller. I walked five miles in them in one of my loops around the Jefferson Memorial, and they were okay, but my feet were feeling it by the end. These don't have Q Form, and they would have been much better with it. That's what you get for listening to podiatrists, Merrell, instead of sticking with what you know — I like wearing these to work, but they're not as good for travel as I would have hoped.

Last in the photo and one of my favorite pairs of shoes of all time, are the Merrell Tetra Strap Waterproof boots. I bought these in both tan and black at the end of last winter on clearance, and I am so glad I did. Because I can't wear a lot of shoes that are in style, it feels so nice to put on these equestrian boots and, instead of envying others' footwear, actually get a lot of compliments on my own boots. I would love them just for that, but they also happen to be waterproof, so they are perfect for rainy weather. And they're quite waterproof — once I realized I was walking in a puddle that went up to my shins, only because I was splashing my thighs as I walked and then looked down. I wear these a ton, but hadn't put them through the paces of a true five-mile test, and still haven't taken them through a RunKeeper-tracked one. But I did wear them on a rainy weekend in New York City where we tromped all over the place, and I feel reasonably sure that they did at least five miles in a day, and although I had some foot fatigue, overall they did quite well. So I'm including them. I heart these boots.

5 mile test: Merrell Heather and Sundial dress

Merrell Heathers and a bit of my Sundial dress.

In my last trip to Europe, I took a Patagonia convertible skirt/dress that did pretty well, with one glaring issue — it was cotton, therefore easily wrinkled, and if I'd have washed it, it would have taken ages to dry.

I spend a fair amount of time on Merrell.com, and while I was there, I ran across the Sundial dress, which I liked the looks of, as well as its 90% polyester/10% spandex fabric blend. So I ordered one, tried it on, and loved it. It's got a flattering empire waist, and is super-comfortable. I've worn it to business meetings, and driving (and pushing my car due to an unfortunate battery incident) on the Pennsylvania turnpike. It always comes out of my suitcase without and wrinkles and feels exceptionally comfortable and nicely fitting when I wear it.

So it didn't really need to go on a 5-mile test — it's pretty much already proven its capabilities. But I wanted to go on an after-work walk, and it was something I could wear to work and then go out and sweat in during DC's hot, humid summer, without worrying about it.

I wore it with Merrell's Heather sandals, which are my sandals of choice for something to kick on and wear around my condo, or even to the pool. They have excellent arch support, and a microfiber footbed, but no ability to adjust the fit, so I was curious whether they'd have the same rubbing issues that I ran into with the Merrell Bassoons.

So I set out on my favorite loop around the Jefferson Memorial, down the National Mall to Union Station, just over 5 miles total. Overall the Heathers did pretty well, until about the last mile or so, when they started to rub in a few places on the top of my foot. Things were a little irritated by the time I got to Union Station, but with no permanent blistering.

The Sundial dress, meanwhile, provided plenty of ventilation during the walk. In addition to the natural ventilation of a dress or skirt, this particular dress has the ability to ruche a portion of the back to create open ventilation between your shoulder blades (check the link to Merrell's site for a photo of this), and it was hot enough that I actually made use of this feature during my walk. This dress is going to have a hard time staying out of my suitcase on future trips.

5-mile test: Merrell Pace Glove, Pure Glove, and Bassoon

Lovely Rock Creek Park, site of two of my walks.

It has been quite hot here in the Washington DC region, so I've mostly been on hiatus with distance walking. I had done a couple of five-mile tests awhile back, though, that I still haven't blogged about.

Merrell Bassoon

Bassoons (with my toenails blurred because they look terrible)

I wear the Bassoons to work all the time, and they feel fantastic. The footbed has a great, arch-supporting shape, and the thick leather straps were comfy from day one — no break-in required.

I had high hopes for it, then, when I set out on the first five-mile test I've done with a pair of sandals, with one of my usual walks around the Tidal Basin. And they felt great through about four miles. Somewhere around that mark, though, my foot started to chafe as it moved against the leather footbed, so that the bottom of my foot felt a bit sore.

I survived the five miles (actually, 5 1/2), but by the time I got to my end point of Union Station, it felt like the bottoms of my feet were on fire, and they eventually ended up developing a blister under there, then finally peeling, many days later. It was pretty disgusting.

So, the Bassoons are great for a reasonable amount of walking, but if you do get the warning signal of chafing underfoot, don't ignore it.

Merrell Pure Glove

Pure Gloves

I've blogged about the Pure Gloves before, as I took them on my last trip to Europe. I decided they needed an actual, measured test, though, and set out for a walk through Rock Creek Park, which I'm lucky enough to live near.

I'm pretty torn on hiking shoes. So many people hike in hiking boots, and usually I walk in RCP in trail runners. But I can't help but wonder if a good pair of barefoot shoes are better for hiking, in the same way they're better for running, as being more natural and allowing your foot to support itself.

After walking just shy of 6 miles in the Pure Gloves, I'm leaning much more towards barefoot shoes for hiking. With their Vibram soles, traction was never an issue, but they felt much more natural than the bulky trail runners with their huge tread. I wore them sockless, which makes them the first (and only) pair of shoes I've worn sockless and gotten through five miles without any blistering.

The only problem I had with them is that my second toes are actually longer than my big toe, but with its bulk, the big toe had pushed out the fabric in that area, so that it was rubbing on my second toe, and the second toe on my right foot was feeling pretty numb by the time I got home.

I've since washed them and put them on a shoe tree while still wet, in an attempt to stretch out the fabric just a bit more across the whole toe area, and that seems to have done the trick. There'll have to be another distance test for these, I suppose. I also bought them in a newer all-leather version that Merrell put out more recently, which I have high hopes for, especially as a travel shoe.

Merrell Pace Glove

Walking in the Pace Glove.

The Pace Gloves were my first pair of barefoot shoes, and the ones I usually run in, if I'm running. But in the interest of further proving out this hiking in minimalist shoes theory, I decided to also take them on a distance test in RCP. And I was going for serious distance with these — I wanted to try to hit double digit miles for the first time since my foot problem.

They did not start out so well. Like the Pace Glove, I wore them barefoot, but for some reason these rub my achilles far more than the Pace Gloves, and they started rubbing raw just a couple of miles in. I already knew this could be an issue, so I brought some band-aids, and put them on, but in the heat they quickly started slipping on my sweaty ankles. I'd also brought some very thin athletic socks, and had to put them on. This let me finish the walk without much further damage, but I had blisters over my achilles on both feet.

Everything else did quite well, though. I did 10.18 miles, and although my feet definitely felt it by the end, they weren't overly sore. I think the next time I go for double digits, though, it will be in my stretched-out Pure Gloves.

Self Merrell-cation

The worn tread under the big toe of my (formerly) beloved Via
Spiga boots shows evidence of years of over-pronating.

I've mentioned my bad foot quite a bit on this blog, but I've never really explained how it came to be.

That is partially because I don't really know how it came to be. I know the day it started — it was in February, 2010, the week we got two blizzards here in the DC area. I hadn't been doing a lot of high impact exercise, and in fact I'd only left my condo building once the entire week. But one day I looked down, and my right foot was swollen.

Very, very swollen. It wouldn't fit in any shoes of mine aside from my trail runners, which were pretty roomy. After some of the snow had melted, I had to make an emergency trip to DSW, where I looked around for shoes that both fit and felt comfortable. I ended up landing on a pair of black Merrell clogs.

I saw my primary care physician. She thought I'd sprained it, but recommended going to see a podiatrist if it stayed swollen. It did, so I saw the podiatrist. There were x-rays, a soft cast, and then an air cast. The odd thing was, it didn't really hurt very much. But the bones in there went snap, crackle, pop when I walked, and it was disturbingly swollen.

The swelling lasted for weeks, as I wore the air cast but also tried a variety of home remedies. One — a poultice of sea salt, ginger powder, and honey (Trader Joe's Desert Mesquite, if you're curious) — made the swelling go down drastically after the first application. The podiatrist didn't believe me, but I swear, every subsequent application brought the swelling down a bit more. That brought with it a new set of problems, as there was even more snap, crackle, and pop, and the lower the swelling got, the more there was actual pain.

I did another round in the air cast, which made no progress. I got an MRI on my foot, which showed only some degeneration in my big toe joint, which the podiatrist pooh-poohed as not being a possible cause. Gradually, over the course of several months, the swelling went down to the point where you might think it was a normal-looking foot. That is, until you saw my other, lean and bony foot. The podiatrist referred me to a vascular specialist. The vascular specialist spent half an hour telling me I had chronic lymphedema, then looked at my MRI results and decided the problem was this degeneration in my big toe joint. So basically, the two doctors had gone around in a giant circle.

I went to see another podiatrist for a second opinion, this one affiliated with Johns Hopkins. He got my hopes up for awhile by thinking it was a rare problem with my lisfranc ligament that just wasn't showing up on the MRI. So I got a CT, and guess what, it didn't show up there, either. He also concluded it was lymphedema, and referred me to a lymphedema clinic.

But I wasn't buying it. Whatever happened to my foot, it happened quickly, and clearly only to one foot, and that didn't sound like chronic swelling due to failure of the lymph nodes to me. So before I committed to the lympedema clinic, I decided to find a really good lymphedema specialist, and scheduled an appointment with one at the Cleveland Clinic before the Thanksgiving holiday (my family lives in Ohio).

I discovered when I saw her why the Cleveland Clinic's doctors are so good — they take the time. She spent more than half an hour with me, going over my medical history and the history of my foot problem, and examining me. And her conclusion? It was probably likely that the swelling (edema) was secondary to a problem in the foot. She referred me to a foot and ankle orthopedist at the Clinic, who also spent a good half hour with me, and then came up with the most realistic conclusion: nobody might really ever know exactly what's going on in my foot.

By then the snap, crackle, pop symptoms had been overshadowed by serious stiffness and pain in my arch, and he recommended trying the logical thing — orthotic arch supports. But he also said something that really made me think, and that was that, even with the mystery swelling, I have good feet. I don't have funky arches, or plantar fasciitis, or anything like that. I nearly cried. For the first time in a long time, I felt some hope as it related to my feet.

And there was another cause for hope. I'd been wearing those Merrell clogs pretty much every day to work, so before I left for Thanksgiving, I'd ordered some new shoes from Zappos. I chose a couple brands, but ordered heavily Merrell on the success of the clogs. One pair, Merrell's Brios, probably changed my life.

Merrell uses something they call Q-Form in women's shoes. The idea is that women's hips are wider, so our legs don't go down straight, like men's. This makes us walk differently, and badly, as far as our feet are concerned. Q-Form compensates for this with a shock-absorbing air cushion in the heel, build-up on the sides of the feet, and varying densities throughout the rest of the foot. Essentially, it stabilizes your foot throughout the whole stride, keeping you from pronating or supinating. There was Q-Form in my clogs, but because your feet tend to move around a little in clogs, I didn't feel it as much.

I sure felt it in the Brios, though. All of a sudden my arch was well-supported and my foot was completely stabilized. Gradually, all of the pain and stiffness left my arch. I began to realize that I had been over-pronating for many years — essentially pulling myself along with my big toe as I walked. I began to understand how I was supposed to be walking. And when I tried on some of my old shoes — Skechers especially, but even my New Balances weren't innocent — I saw how they had in fact been contributing to all of this over-pronation.

I started buying more Merrells. Not every pair felt as good as the Brios, and there were quite a few pairs that went back to Zappos. But when I found a pair that worked for me, they really worked. By December, the arch pain was gone, and replaced with some pain and cracking in my big toe when I was barefoot. FINALLY, the thing that was actually a problem was showing its symptoms. And as long as I wore my Merrells, the toe didn't hurt.

I procrastinated getting the orthotics, but finally did order them. When they came, they were a disappointment — they didn't feel nearly as good as the standard Merrell insoles, and the big toe joint cracked away when I walked in them. At this point, I decided to bail on medical science as far as the foot was concerned. The doctor had only recommended them as something worth trying, and while trying the orthotics had been a disaster, trying the Merrells was a rousing success. I stopped trying to find a "cure" and started accepting that this was the way my foot was going to be now. I put the orthotics on the shelf and bought even more Merrells.

My foot has gradually gotten better this year. It's still a bit swollen, and probably always will be. But I decided to follow the doctor's statement that my feet were essentially good feet, and stop letting it be a concern. No more only riding the exercise bike because it was low impact. I started walking more, and nothing bad happened. I got to the point where I could walk 5 miles without any problems. I bought a pair of Merrell barefoot shoes, and although they didn't have Q-Form in them, now that I'd learned to walk properly, they felt good too, because there were no messed-up shoe-ey bits getting in the way. I gradually built up the strength of my feet by walking and even running a bit in the barefoot shoes. A few weeks ago, I walked a full 10 miles in the barefoot shoes, and nothing bad happened to my foot.

After I posted a negative review about them on Yelp (this had more to do with billing issues, but also I felt the orthotics did not fit well), the manager of the orthotics place asked me to come back and have a fitting with him, at no extra cost. I did, and he was impressed by my Merrell sandals, going so far as to say he was going to recommend them along with his usual recommendation of Birkenstocks for sandals (which obviously can't hold orthotics). He wanted to try me in a cork rather than a plastic orthotic, so he took a new mold of my feet.

Merrell insoles on the top, orthotics on the bottom. Almost the
same shape, but the Merrell insoles are thinner and don't dip where
the big toe joint goes, which caused the cracking in the orthotics.

After he did, he looked between the red foam shapes of my foot, and my Merrell sandals. Wow, he said, they're the same shape as the sandals. Orthotics, he said, make shoes that don't fit your feet work for your feet. But what I'd done was go out and find shoes that fit my feet. It's possible that Merrells just happened to be exactly the right shape for my feet. But judging by the number of other people I see leaving shoe reviews who say they only wear Merrells now, my feet aren't the only ones they're perfect for.

I don't worry about my feet anymore. After spending much of last year wondering if I'd ever be able to walk more than a mile again, that's something I don't take for granted. And I did take my feet for granted before this happened. My main judge of shoe success was not causing blisters, regardless of what they were doing to my foot innards. I put them in $20 shoes from Target, and Skechers, and all manner of high heels. If the mystery swelling hadn't happened when it did, I'd probably have bought a pair of Skechers shape-ups, and right now I'd be wrecking everything from my hips to my feet.

Merrell insoles on the top, Skechers insoles on the bottom. You can see the
giant dip in the Skechers' big toe joint area, which caused my over-pronation.

I can't get back all of the years I spent over-pronating in bad shoes, but at least now that I've had to pay the consequences, I know that I have to put my feet in good shoes. Merrell dominates my shoe racks these days, and most of what's left are shoes I just can't quite bring myself to get rid of yet.

So if you read this blog and wonder why I'm such a Merrell fanatic, well, that's why. My feet are stronger than ever, and I'm back to walking when I want, as far as I want, and that's because of Merrell.

11th-hour barefoot (a shoe report)

From left to right: Left-behind mesh shower shoes, Merrell Pure Gloves, Merrell Brios, and Merrell Waterpro Sables.

I've had shoes on the brain lately, which is not an unusual thing for me. But it probably means it's time for me to post on the shoes I took on my trip.

I ended up taking three pairs. If you do one-bag travel, this is generally a no-no. Normally, you can do pretty much any travel with two pairs of shoes, as long as they're the right two pairs of shoes. And indeed, up until a few weeks before my trip, I had been planning to take my Merrell Brios and my Merrell Waterpro Sables.

The Brio is a mary jane that is fantastic for walking. Before my trip, I did a five-mile test in these on the cobblestone sidewalks of Alexandria, Virginia, that I never had time to blog about. They stood up, as they usually do — in fact, it was only one excruciatingly long day in Paris, ending at the Louvre, that felled these shoes, and I'm pretty sure it would have felled any shoes.

The Waterpro Sable was really the linchpin of my shoe plan. I needed shoes that would work for the beach, for hiking, and for city walking. Since many of the beaches on Skiathos were gravel or stone, I decided that a good pair of water shoes would be my best bet, and I loved the Sables because with socks, they look like a pair of sporty sneakers, so they'd be far more versatile than flip-flops. And indeed, in a previously blogged walking test, they went well past the 5 mile test for a strong 7 miles.

So I had my shoe plan pretty much down. For kicking around the house and my hotel rooms, I'd planned on taking a super lightweight pair of mesh shower shoes. I'd actually planned on taking these to Ireland, too, but in the last-minute shoe space crunch caused by my needing to take an air cast, they got left behind.

They got left behind this time, too. I've mentioned that I was suffering from an extended migraine before my trip — my migraines aren't as intense (auras, hiding in a dark room) as those some people get, but they can last much longer if I don't take the medication in time. This one was well up over 20 days.

So take that stabbing pain in my head, and combine with a trip to REI for some final travel items. I happened to walk past the shoe section, and they had the Merrell barefoot shoes out on display. As I stalk Merrell's web site on a regular basis, I knew all about the barefoot shoes, but had always assumed that they were, well, like walking barefoot, and would have zero arch support. I was surprised to look in there and see that there was a curve where your arch goes. The heel isn't raised at all, and there's all sorts of room for your toes to spread out naturally, but good old arch support is still in there. So I tried a pair of the Pace Gloves on, and loved them so much I bought them. My original intent was to use them as a walking shoe that would strengthen my bad foot. But then I decided, what the hell, why not try this barefoot running? My foot had largely stabilized by now, thanks to my other Merrell shoes, and what did I have to lose?

So I watched the instructional videos and did the recommended prep work, and then headed out for a combined walk/run. And remember that migraine? It felt FANTASTIC to get the blood flowing when I ran. And rather than being worse for the wear, my foot actually looked better — I'm assuming because running using a correct and natural form was getting the circulation going, and making it stronger.

I did a few more short (less than three quarters of a mile, as you're supposed to build up your feet slowly) barefoot runs and decided I wanted a pair of barefoot shoes I could take with me in case I wanted to run for migraine relief. The Pace Gloves, while my preferred shoe for running, were not exactly very versatile. But the mary jane style Pure Gloves were, so I ordered a pair of those and found that I could also run in them.

Replacing the thin little mesh shower shoes with a pair of full-size shoes was not ideal, given that I was traveling with one carry-on. But I was packing light enough that there was still plenty of space in my suitcase, and the barefoot shoes are so light that there was only about a 4 ounce difference between them and the shower shoes.

So how did they all do?

Well, the Waterpro Sables came in as the linchpin, and boy did they perform. I wore them on the beach, and was glad to have them when I went in the water and lots of little fishes were suddenly interested in my feet. I wore them hiking up to the Kastro in Skiathos, and walking in the Cotswolds. They were already my favorite walking shoe, and with their thick soles, air cushion, and Merrell Q Form, there was nothing I threw at them that they couldn't handle. In fact, I wore them earlier today for a river tubing expedition, and they were perfect there, too.

Hiking in the Waterpro Sables.

If there's one complaint I have about the Sables, it's that when I wore them as a water shoe, if they got filled with rocks, they stayed filled with rocks until I could stop and remove them. This might have not been as large an issue if the plastic buckle hadn't gotten stuck once immersed in salt water. These are both design issues that I'm hoping Merrell fixed in the Sable's successor, the Waterpro Crystal. The lack of ankle support might have also started to be an issue if I'd done more extensive hiking. That said, given the number of things I threw at this shoe and the number of occasions I wore them for, overall I think they were fantastic.

I might have worn the Waterpro Sables every single day but for Paris. I was a bit freaked out in advance of going to Paris because I'd read many articles about what you should and shouldn't wear, and any sort of athletic shoe was firmly in the shouldn't wear category. So I knew I wanted a nicer shoe that was also a tested walking shoe, and my Brios fit that definition. As I expected, they held up mightily, until the day in Paris where I went through the catacombs, the marine museum, and the Louvre all in the same day, with some substantial stretches of walking in between.

With their nice rubber treads, they did quite well on the damp floors of the catacombs, and actually my feet were feeling pretty good for most of the day. But that slow crawl over marble museum floors is a killer, and I just did it for too many hours on top of too many miles. By the time I left the Louvre, my feet were throbbing. Now, in my case, any time BOTH feet are throbbing instead of just my bad foot, I count this as a good thing because it means my feet are behaving normally. But still, I hobbled back to the hotel from the train, and opted for the thick, comfy Sables the next day. I don't really blame the Brios — I think my feet would have been sore in any pair of shoes after that day. But I do wish I'd replaced the insoles before the trip; I wear these shoes to work a lot, too, and I think anything that would have given them a refresh and a little more shock absorption would have been helpful.

So what about the 11th-hour Pure Gloves? Well, they had to fill two major roles in standing in for the mesh shower shoes. First, I needed to be able to kick around whatever my current abode was in them, and second, I needed to be able to wear them in place of slippers at Thermae Bath Spa in Bath (more on that in a future post). They managed both of these, although the velcro may have taken a little longer to deal with than the mesh shoes' elastic strap, and I got it caught on the mosquito net on my bed in Greece an inappropriate number of times.

I actually didn't end up running in the Pure Gloves during the trip. When the migraine started to clear up, I had no interest in running on vacation, although I did start back up again when I returned home. But they did get far more use than the shower shoes would have. They were a better option than either of my other shoes to wear sockless into Skiathos town with a dress, and, more substantially, I wore them to Versailles. I'm not really sure why I decided to test them out in a massive palace and its extensive gardens, but I did. And they held up pretty well. With the thinner soles, I could feel the gravel walks of the gardens more, but I walked a ton, and my feet only started to get sore at the very end of the day. The biggest issue I had with them was that the mary jane strap would start to irritate the top of my foot if I kept it too tight while wearing them barefoot. Not bad for a fairly untested pair of shoes, and ounce for ounce, I got far more use out of them than I would have the shower shoes.

Pure Gloves, dusty from a day at Versailles.

If I had gotten into barefoot shoes earlier, and built up the strength of my feet more, I think I probably could have done this trip with two pairs of shoes, the Sables and the Pure Gloves. The Pure Gloves would have picked up the hiking duties in the Cotswolds, because with a shoe this minimal, lack of ankle support isn't an issue — the shoe can't really turn if you step wrong, and you feel it more instantaneously if you step wrong, so you can make a correction. And the Pure Gloves would have also served whenever a mary jane style shoe was needed. The Sables still would have been my shoe of choice for our boat tour of Skiathos, which had me walking in the water on Lalaria Beach and then hiking up to the Kastro on the same day. Since both shoes have a substantial Vibram tread, I would have had good traction either way.

That would mean leaving home my beloved Brios, which I will always own a pair of as long as Merrell makes them, and will always love, because they were the pair of shoes that made me understand how poorly I'd been walking, in part because of my previous shoe choices. So Brios, even if you get left behind next year, thanks for even getting me to the point where I could walk as much as I did on this trip. Maybe after teaching me to walk properly, and suffering through the Louvre, you deserve a rest.

5 mile test: Encore Breeze & Waterpro Sable

Encore Breeze

I managed to get in two 5+ mile walks this weekend, despite abysmal weather on Saturday. First up was an after-work walk on Friday. Usually by the time Friday rolls around, unless I have plans, I'm so tired I just want to go home after work and veg out. But the weather just was too nice to do that, so I headed down to the mall and took a route around the Tidal Basin, down the national mall, and to Union Station.

I was wearing my Merrell Encore Breezes, and very curious about whether I could remotely approach five miles in these. They're my go-to shoes when my feet are sore from walking in other shoes, but they fit, well, like clogs, and I don't know that walking long distances with your foot rattling around in your shoe is a good idea.

It was an interesting walk. I started out at about a 17:30 per mile pace, which is usually way too fast for me to continue comfortably with my foot, but that was the pace I felt comfortable walking at. They felt great for about the first mile and a half, and then my left foot, which is my good foot, started getting oddly sore in places. At about two miles, both feet were sore, but then they didn't get any worse the rest of the walk, and I didn't have any trouble hitting just over five miles. And strangely, I finished at about a 18:30 per mile pace, which considering stops for traffic lights and taking pictures of my foot in front of the Washington Monument, was pretty good.

Waterpro Sable

I did another post-brunch walk on Sunday in what are probably my favorite walking shoes, the Merrell Waterpro Sables. Because I thought I'd charged my cell phone overnight, but in fact, hadn't, my phone was down to about nil battery power, and I had to keep it turned off. This meant no RunKeeper to track my distance, and no music to listen to.

So I set off for a quite boring walk, sticking to a route I knew, from yummy brunch spot Nage, which is north of Farragut North, down to the mall, back around the Tidal Basin, down the mall, and to Union Station. I knew the core of the walk was about five miles, but what I didn't realize was that with the extra walking down to the mall, I actually ended up walking about SEVEN miles (which I calculated with Google Maps Pedometer when I got home).

I had a little stiffness in my bad foot arch left over from the Friday walk, and an odd little pain in my heel that seemed to be sock-related, although I couldn't find anything when I stopped and did a sock investigation. But aside from that, the Waterpro Sables felt great the entire walk — it was more my post-bottomless bloody mary and mimosas self that was dragging, and even with that, it looks like I did about a 17:30 pace. They have a Vibram athletic tread, and the extra shock absorption makes a difference. I've also noticed that I don't feel so shin splinty when I wear shoes that have more freedom around the ankles like these do.

I'm not sure that the Waterpro Sables are meant for this much walking, but this is the farthest I've walked since I had the foot problem, so I'm quite excited. What they're really meant for, as the name suggests, is as a water shoe. I'm hoping to use them for that purpose on my upcoming trip to Greece — they seem like just the thing for pebble beaches AND lots of walking. Although Merrell doesn't make them anymore (added bonus — I got mine on clearance), the Waterpro Crystals look nearly identical.

5 mile test: Merrell Apure + Cambia

So many kites flying at the Washington Monument

I thought I'd try something new with this blog and do more reviews. See, since my previously blogged about revelation that Merrell's Q-form technology REALLY helps my feet, I've been starting to walk longer and longer distances in various pairs of Merrells I've bought — up to 5 miles fairly comfortably, now. I did get those orthotics, but found that they were super thick, and not actually as effective as straight-up Merrells.

So I'm going to try and see if I can get up to 5 miles in various pairs of shoes, and how it goes. Today's were the Apures, plus a Merrell Cambia shirt that I'd bought for travel. I took a post-brunch walk from Union Station, over by the Capitol, down the mall, turning around before the Washington Monument, and back to Union Station. I tracked my mileage using the RunKeeper app for Droid, which I love.

Merrell Apure

These shoes I hadn't worn very much before today's walk. The first day I wore them, the elastic band across the top of the foot was a bit stiff, and as a result, it was making my bad toe a bit uncomfortable. I tried them again, with thinner socks, and the combination of different socks and a bit of break-in seemed to do the trick. So I've probably worn them 3-4 times before today's walk.

They felt pretty good for about the first 3 miles. They have the same sole and a similar foot bed to sister shoes Parma and Brio, and all three shoes have always felt really good on the bad parts of my bad foot. You can really feel the air cushion and Q-form in all of them. By the fourth mile, they were starting to rub on my left pinkie toe and my right heel, but the foot support was still good. Approaching mile five, things started to fall apart — the back of the right heel (which now has a nickel-sized blister) hurt increasingly, and I was even starting to get a sharp pain underneath the heel when I stepped down.

Part of this might have been the thin Nine West dress socks I was wearing — perhaps with different sock material they would have rubbed less and all would have been well. I think they probably could have stood a little more opportunity to break in, as well. The leather on my more worn Parmas and Brios is nice and supple now and it really helps. But they did feel really good for about three miles, and at that point I was below a 20 minute mile, walking. Not bad for a pair of shoes you can wear to work, although I think I still prefer the Parma for overall comfort and the Brio for versatility.

Merrell Cambia

The Cambia I was impressed with. I liked the look of it online because it's a cute dress shirt that doesn't look like travel clothing — it looks like something you could, again, wear to work. The material feels thin and you can definitely tell it's quick-dry polyester when you're wearing it (but not looking at it), but for travel that's great. It's a shirt you can wear out to dinner and then sweat all over wearing it walking around a few days later.

The cult of Merrell

Those of you who know my tendency to find a brand I love and stick with it will probably not be surprised that I have a new one: Merrell.

I'm coming up on the one-year anniversary of when my right foot mysteriously swelled up, something which was never fully diagnosed, even after an MRI, CT, and visits to numerous podiatrists. Finally, after I saw a lymphedema and then a foot and ankle specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, I came out with a prescription for the "so simple why didn't anyone else think of this?" solution of orthotics.

The orthotics are still being made, but I worked at making sure all the shoes I bought were heavy on what the orthotics will provide — arch support. I ordered a bunch of shoes from Zappos.com, but the ones I ended up keeping were entirely the same brand as the pair of clogs that were my #1 shoes for much of the year of the swollen foot. Yep, Merrell.

I love Merrells, and I'm not the only one — read some reviews on Zappos and you'll see that there is indeed a cult of Merrell. There's a reason for it, though — the shoes are lightweight, exceedingly comfortable, and with Merrell's Q-Form technology, extremely stable and good to walk in. I've seen tremendous improvement in my foot since I switched to pretty much full-time Merrells (except for my New Balance gym shoes).

Now, the downside is they generally aren't the most fashionable shoes out there. But I've pretty much accepted that it will be a miracle if I can ever wear heels again, and they definitely beat wearing gym shoes to work (I also went through a phase of that). If you're looking for good walking shoes, here are some of my favorites:

Encore Breeze 2

I think what I have is actually the first Encore Breeze, which I bought at DSW after my desperate realization that my trail running shoes were the only shoes I owned that my exceedingly swollen right foot would fit into. It was a good desperation choice, though. I generally HATE clogs, but I love these. There's just enough back to them that my feet don't feel like they're going to slide out (my issue with clogs). I believe my first version was before they put the stinkproof antibacterial treatment in there, and after a whole lot of wear, they did start to get a little funky. But a run in the washing machine (handwash cycle, with the inserts separate) solved that.

Marina

The exception to the fashionable rule — I love the look of these boat shoes with their ridiculously aggressive tread. They took a little longer than most other Merrells to break in (there were band-aids involved), but once I did get them broken in, they were quite comfortable. And they have, hands down, the best arch support of any shoes I've ever worn. Ever. I've kept wearing them in to winter because the tread on these is as much a match for a little snow or ice as my snow boats. The Zappos reviews about ordering a half size down are right — I didn't at first and had to return them and order a half size down from my usual Merrell size.

Parma

No one would write home about the style of these shoes, but they really show off what the Q-Form technology can do for a shoe. I really feel myself walking correctly in them, and they're extremely light-weight, which is something I hadn't really thought about before in a shoe. I haven't fully tested this yet, but I'm pretty sure I could walk longer in these than my gym shoes. Yes, I'm probably going to try some Merrells for my next gym shoes.

Brio

If the anti-shoe fairy came along and told me I had to give up all of my shoes except for one pair, these are probably the ones I'd keep, simply because they're versatile and also very comfortable to walk in. They're maybe just a smidge behind the Parma in walking comfort, but I like the versatility of the Mary Jane. And both this shoe and the Parma have a very nice touch that seriously cuts down the break-in time — a little piece of elastic on the heel.

This doesn't cover the Merrell boots I snagged on clearance at DSW and have subsequently forgotten the name of, or the Waterpro Sable shoes I picked up on clearance last fall with plans to wear them a ton come spring and summer. But I think my membership in the cult of Merrell is pretty firmly established. And one other nice thing — all the Merrell insoles are removable, so when my orthotics are finally ready, I can remove the insoles and pop them right in.