North Bay Woman

56 NORTH BAY WOMAN S P R I N G | S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 By Jane Lott A little phrase that offers the North Bay a lot of hope. With parks and trails opening up and the sun now shining more often, it's a good time to put the past few months of bread baking (and eat- ing), work Zooming, and TV binging behind us and get moving. Reward yourself for having done your part to save lives and buy a pair of new pair of exercise shoes. Aside from the mental lift new shoes can give, the latest running/walking footwear can protect your joints from injury and wear with their science-based designs that also help speed, endurance, and comfort. Besides, they look fabulous. But even the best pair of shoes won't get you up and down the Dipsea if they hurt your feet. Enter exercise guru Hol- ly Wick, owner of Athletic Soles, an athletic special- ty shop in Petaluma. A world-class triathlete with a degree in physical edu- cation, 62-year-old Wick has been competing in Ironman competitions for the past two-and-a-half decades, as well as lead- ing fitness classes at local gyms. She draws on her sports education, real world experience, and product training to offer coaching and gear advice to individual customers. "Buying shoes is like buying eyewear," Wick says. "First, you have to find the right prescription." For Wick and her trained staff, that starts not with the shoe, but with the foot. Measuring length and width is a given, but there is also volume — the amount of space the foot occupies in a shoe — and gait, stability or flexibility, and how the level of foot pronation affects the body's alignment. Wick's experienced eye evaluates each customer with a mental checklist of questions. For example, "Do they over-pronate?" she asks. "If so, they need a shoe that cor- rects for over-pronation to avoid foot, knee, and back pain by correctly aligning the feet." But put a neutral foot into a shoe that corrects for prona- tion (the natural side-to-side movement of the foot as you walk or run) and the foot is now in supination (when your weight rolls onto the outer edges of your feet), creating stress on the knees and hip, a potential injury factor, if only in the long-term. While recent studies have called into question the wis- dom of whether or not a corrective shoe prevents running injuries, having the right shoe certainly affects comfort. And who wants to exercise if their feet hurt? In addition to evaluat- ing the level of pronation, Wick looks at the rest of the foot. "We need to look at the shape of the foot," she says. This des- termines the shoe style, "kind of like the frame of the eyeglasses." All the while she ex- amines the foot, Wick is questioning the customer as to activity, surface and use patterns: Is this shoe for running? Trail or road? Gym work? How often for each activity? Do the shoes need to accommo- date orthotics? Athletic shoes are designed and made for specific activities: trail running, long-distance running, hiking, gym workouts, speed and endurance. Even all-terrain running shoes are designed to support feet under different conditions. The one caveat is walking shoes. "There are no criteria for walking shoes," Wick cautions. "And not all running shoes are great for walking because they have a prescription." With all the factors to consider, what should the recre- ational runner, walker or hiker consider most important? "Comfort comes first," Wick says. "And then we'll take it from there. Two Phase T i m e t o h i t r e o p e n e d p a r k s a n d t r a i l s Happy Trails

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