On having peculiar feet

Not that I'd ever known that they were peculiar, mind you. They have the right number of toes, and are located one at the end of each leg as is customary; they even both face forwards—more or less.

And that "more or less" is the problem. My toes point outwards, away from the centreline of true forwards, and my ankles bend inwards. I also stand with my feet relatively wide apart, which encourages the inward-leaningness of my ankles.

It was absolutely fascinating to see this demonstrated on-screen as I walked on the treadmill. A little lightbulb went on in my head as the orthopedist said that this posture puts an extra stress on the knees: my knees hurt like Hell after the stair-climbing this morning.

So. I have a set of exercises to perform (psychological: keep your feet straight in the direction of travel by imagining that you are wearing four-metre-long skis, and practical to strengthen and stretch the barely-used outside tendons of my knees (Lioness or Zhoen will tell us the name :-)) and a pair of shoe inlays to force encourage my ankles nearer to upright.

And I have a pair of walking boots. It's early days yet, of course, I haven't yet worn them outside or for more than a few minutes, but they were by far the most comfortable shoes in the shop: only mildly ugly, light, firm but not inflexible, good rolling motion, roomy around the toes without being loose, well padded around the ankle and Achilles tendon.

I would strongly encourage any German readers (of whom there are none, but you never know who might be arriving via Google) to patronise SportScheck: great service, the right goods at the right price, excellent advice.

Watch this space for updates, perhaps I'll put up a "kilometres walked" ticker.