Response in text

"Monique Y. Herman" wrote in message
...
On 2004-01-14, F. Plant penned:
snip
Your boot is still probably only partially broken in, and your foot
will also be getting manipulated into a slightly different shape so it
takes a bit of time for it to get used to being constrained.

I'm trying to interpret this paragraph. How many days of skiing does it
take to break in a boot liner? Does it matter how far apart the days
are?

Personally with the older non heat fit boots, I would say 15 to 30 days. If
its done over a few years you are always back tracking a bit as materials do
have a memory and they want to go back some what. Your feet also change
over the years. A lot of 2 day a year skiers replace boots before they are
broken in. Even with new boots it takes a while. I was looking at a
performance salomon boot and the rep said to ski it a week before heat
forming it.


Also, my foot? Do you mean that, every season, my foot needs to reshape
itself to the boot?

A little. During the summer our footwear tends to be loose and our feet
spread. Your feet are also bigger at the end of the day than in the
morning, or when we are very hot. In your ski boots your feet tend to be
constrained, and realistically for a responsive fit it does exert some
preasure on the foot, just as your foot exerts preasure on the boot, and
that preasure manipulates the foot. Sort of a ying yang thing. Sometimes
everything readjusts into a happy position, sometimes not. At the end of
the season you will probably be close to 50 days at the rate you are going,
and you will probably notice a sculpted shape to your shin and calf, and a
packing together of the toes where they nestle like hotdogs in a blister
pack.

RE the MTB, a friend had a similar issue which she cured by putting
some old ski orthodics in her cycling shoes. They were the rigid
plastic type w no arch posting.

I'm not sure exactly what posting is. I have custom orthotics in my ski

Posting is solid blocking under the arch. Cork beds are made that way,
plastic beds optionally have it added after the fact.


boots; I have certainly thought about putting them in my biking shoes,
but as I said, my bike foot issues are pretty minor compared to the ski
ones.

Boot dryers that are too warm can soften the liner materials and let
them somewhat bounce back to their original uncompacted form.
Moisture only gives you musties AFAIK.

Mine adds no heat to the air; it only circulates the existing air.

Perfect. You may just want to check that they are also getting rid of
moisture between the liner and shell. On some boots the only recourse is to
pull the liners each day.



I can relate to your toe issue as I get foot cramps on a reg basis -I
can do great involuntary Vulcan greetings with my toes :-) Don't rule
out cold 'cause if the circulation to that toe is bad it could be
freezing before its friends do. Dosn't mean that its not the boots
fault, just that it could be a blood vessel issue and not a pinched
nerve issue. If its white and its neighbours are pink (assuming your
are of pasty european descent -which is a great bootfitting aid) you
have minimally some sort of circulation issues.

Well, at this point, my feet generally feel pretty warm, both to
themselves and to the touch. So I have trouble believing that it's a
cold issue. It also happens even on warm ski days.

If I remember correctly, there's no visible difference between the toes
after the boot torture.

I have cramping issues that are boot volume related. For me I find
chair lifts sometimes hell as that is when I get cramps. For myself
at least, its the lack of weighting on my foot, which causes the
problem. My theory is when weighted its in a stable spread position,
easily overcoming boot forces. When unweighted the now relatively
large boot forces distort it resulting in potential for cramps. I
find this is worsened by cold, lactic acid, and dehydration.

The lack of a foot bar definitely accelerates the pain process for me.
I don't know know if the specifics are similar. I do try to drink
enough water.

I do have a low volume fit, and I am very close to the sides and top
of the shell. All that said I've been looking for replacements for
about 2-3 seasons and nothing comes close to their fit even though
they must be close to 300 days.

It seems so hard to tell whether a boot that you're trying on in the
store will fit you well after a week of skiing. Or which boots will be
modifiable to fit properly. And of course, once they start molding
plastic, it's kind of hard to change your mind. Definitely daunting.

Shell fit without the liner is very important. A shop should do this for
length, but few do it for volume. With the liner out put your foot inside
but instead of touching the end try to put it where it would be if the liner
was there. Check the width by rocking your foot. How close are you to the
shell? If you are extreamly close or touching on both sides without the
liner, chances are it needs to be wider. Also how does it feel at the sides
where the shell makes transition to the sides. Sometimes they roll up to
much, effectively making your foot colapse inward. Now try it again but
with your footbeds and do the same drill. Also how do the edges of the
footbed relate to your foot. If they are trimed to the width of the
original, you can find yourself hanging off the outside edges especially if
they do a big shell blowout. Check the height over the toes and instep
while you are at it.

BTW if you go to a podiatrist, try to get someone who specializes in
skiing.

That was my plan. I'll see what I can dig up. I would think it would
be pretty easy to find such an office in Boulder, of all places.

--
monique


Hope this helps to clarify,

F.Plant