This post is brought to you by Dr. Emily not listening to her own advice and waiting too long to replace her running shoes.

After her Tuesday track workout, Dr. Emily's foot was aching along the outside, and it made running not as enjoyable. Running through pain can often alter how you run and lead to additional injuries. Dr. Emily did not want that, so she examined the bottoms of her shoes to see if that was the culprit.

If you look at the bottom of the shoe, you can see how many parts of the shoe are nice and smooth and lack all the tread that used to be there. This is much like you check the tires on your car for wear and tear. When your tires loose their tread, you replace them! Do the same with your running shoes.

To help with her foot pain, Dr. Emily put RockTape along the muscle that she felt was contributing to her foot pain. She also taped around the bone that she felt wasn't moving as well as it could. (It's hard to adjust your own foot.)

Dr. Emily found that the RockTape helped calm down the discomfort in her foot, but she knew running again in her old shoes wasn't an option. When picking out new running shoes, Dr. Emily went with the newer version of her old shoes. If you do this, make sure to try them on first! Sometimes the newer editions of shoes have a slightly different fit.

Rules of Thumb

Track your miles (Shoes are usually good for 400-600 miles)
Check your soles (Replace your shoes when the soles lose texture)
Don't wait too long to replace your running shoes

Happy running!!