[pct-l] Ankles

Sat Feb 26 21:39:39 CST 2011

Good evening,

Concerning boots providing “foot support”, when taking a step on
mostly-level ground, the foot force is directed straight down into the heel
cup of the shoe.  It doesn’t matter how high the side of the shoes may be,
they won’t accept any – or very little – of that load.

The idea that high boots contribute to “support” is mostly marketing
fiction.  Some retailers have handy-dandy charts showing that for a week-end
hike trail shoes are OK.  For 3-5 days on the trail it’s necessary to wear
medium height fabric or leather boots.  For longer than a week on trails “in
the mountains” one must wear the heavy and expensive, imported, Vibram-soled
hiking boots.  That’s totally bass-aackwards from what most long-distance
hikers do: the father they go, the lighter they want to be.

Diane is correct in her assessment that typical hiking boots contribute
little, or nothing, to resist ankle-turning.  The low style boots are about
6” in height.  Medium heights are maybe 8” high.  Neither is much higher
than the distance from the ground to the center of the ankle joint and they
won’t contribute significantly to absorbing torque about the ankle
regardless of how tightly they are laced.  They may feel nice and snug and
firm – a physiological advantage – but they will not significantly resist
even a mild turn, let alone a 2g – 3g turn possible with a misstep on the
trail.

Those heights are little enough help, but boots may also have higher heals
which increase the leverage about the ankle, proportionately increasing the
likelihood of ankle turning from lateral events and shin-splints from
downhill walking.

There are boots that very significantly resist ankle turning, but they are
very poor choices for any but the most dedicated heavy-weight hiker:  Loggers,
timber cruisers, surveyors, and anyone who regularly walks over rough,
off-trail, ground may wear heavy, calf-height, lace-up boots with
high-traction soles, or soles having steel-spike caulks (“corks”).  These
soles bite the ground rather than slide, and only the high, tightly-laced
leather tops prevent ankle breakage.  Similar high boots are worn by linemen
or loggers when they use climbing irons to ascend telephone poles or trees.
Ski boots are also sufficiently high and extremely stiff laterally, but such
are never for hiking.

For trails my best answer to ankle-turning is low-heeled running or trail
shoes; laced loosely.  If there’s a trail irregularity that tries to turn my
ankle my shoe just rotates a bit on the foot while the ankle remains
straight.

I often wear medium-high boots for off-trail activities, but the advantage
then is in having some protection for the side of the ankle when stepping
against rocks and ground debris.

Ankle ache is a very common complaint; mostly among less-experienced hikers
and those in the process of increasing their training, trail miles, or pack
weight.  As one adapts to trail life the daily onset of ankle ache is pushed
to ever-increasing miles till it eventually disappears, except for its being
a mild part of overall weariness at the end of a hard day.

Commonly hikers try to resolve ankle ache by changing something such as
shoes, insoles, pack, trekking poles, food, fluids, stretching, drugs, or
anything else they can think of.  What usually happens is, whatever thing
they are trying on the day they notice the aches have naturally gone away is
the thing they swear is THE cure.

Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09

On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 4:34 PM, <treerings at gmail.com> wrote:

> I read Born to Run recently. Great read. Relates to this topic and to long
> distance hiking and running in general. One of the basic premises is that
> we've overdone it with wrapping our feet up in leather and plastic material
> that inhibits the performance of our feet. Our feet are complex structures
> that are evolved to do what they do. Elevating the heel, stiffening the
> sole, wrapping the ankle--all gets in the way of the foot's natural highly
> complex coordinated movement and all tend to weaken our feet because
> they're
> not working as they are evolved to. Interesting ideas.
>
> On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 2:38 PM, Alphabetsoup <alphabetsoupmmm at gmail.com
> >wrote:
>
> > I started off hiking in high top boots then I decided to do the pct and
> had
> > to think about better footwear. I went with ahnu low tops, they seemed to
> > be
> > more comfortable on my ankles. It took  my feet a few months to adjust to
> > them, but now my ankles are stronger than ever. My ankles don't roll as
> > much
> > as they did before and my tendons have since adjusted to the low top
> boots
> > as well. I did also notice that I tend to pay more attention to the trail
> > and obstacles in front of me to make sure I don't injure my feet. with
> the
> > high top boots, I didn't pay as much attention, having a false sense of
> > ankle protection so-to-speak, resulting in sore tendons and week ankles.
> >
> > I won't be going back to high top boots anytime soon, in fact I'm in the
> > market for trail runners for most of the trail...
> >
> > ~Paul A.
> >
> > On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 10:49 AM, Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes <
> > diane at santabarbarahikes.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I've been steadily working my way down from high-top to low-top to
> > > more and more minimalist footwear. I have noticed with each step down
> > > that my ankles get a real workout. My most recent attempt was to hike
> > > on a trail wearing some homemade sandals with fairly thin soles. I
> > > would have thought that my homemade shoes were minimal enough, but I
> > > guess the sandals were just that much more minimal. They worked out
> > > well and feeling the workout in my ankles makes me pretty happy. Even
> > > if I never go backpacking in them, I think it's good to gain strength
> > > in the feet and ankles. I never could figure out how boots could
> > > protect your ankles from sprains anyway because nobody ever tightens
> > > them enough to make a cast or brace out of them. Their ankles are
> > > always clearly visible moving around as much as anybody's and in
> > > fact, whenever I watch people walk in boots, they tend to step
> > > without care at all, clumsily crashing into rocks and things, taking
> > > no care to avoid things that could injure them and tipping the ankle
> > > more often than people in shoes. But whatever floats your boat.
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > *Alphabetsoup*
> > *~Soon to be PCT Thru-Hiker April 2011~*
> > * www.postholer.com/alphabetsoup*
> > *
> > *
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