Footbalance is proud to name the winner of the Ragnar Relay Footbalance Road Report for the Wasatch Back--Team Aaarrrggghhh! (Pirates of the Wasatch Back.)
Dina Hannah apparently knows this. And it hasn't changed her determination one bit.
Founded in 1982 as the Great American Bike Race, it stretches some 3,043 miles across the country, cutting through 12 states and hundreds of cities and towns on the way to its finish this year in Annapolis, MD.
Spring soccer season is heating up all over. We thought it was a good time to think about how to take care of your feet while you're on the pitch.
According to the folks over at the Mayo Clinic, the typical soccer foot injury is Metatarsalgia, a condition marked by pain and inflammation in the ball of your foot.
The Boston Marathon was this week and it was a hot one! At least 22,000 runners had to bear 89 degree temperatures. Those are pretty scorching conditions for such a major race. Runners had to focus on the strategy of just staying hydrated and keeping in the race. More than 900 people were unable to finish and some 2,200 people sought help from the medical tents, a record number for the event.
Please allow us to introduce the folks at Try Sports, retailers with a broad presence in North and South Carolina. Try Sports is a leader in providing Footbalance custom molded footbeds in North Carolina.
In addition to being driven by customer service and professionalism, Try Sports goes beyond the typical sporting goods store to provide extra services to its customers. Here's a summary from their website:
Footbalance is pleased to announce its presence at several Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series events this summer. We'll be molding up runners across the country with custom molded footbeds at each stop.
The Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series is a string of marathons and half marathons hosted across the land. Each race features a number of live musical acts performing along the race course.
This summer, Footbalance will exhibit at the following race expos:
We had an opportunity to mold professional golfer Selanee Henderson last week with custom molded Footbalance footbeds.Selanee has been competitively golfing since the age of nine and is currently on LPGA's Futures Tour which is a developmental tour. Selanee is also appearing on the Golf Channel's show "The Big Break" click here to see the show.
Footbalance has many different footbeds that can help people with specific problems. When womens' feet get tired and achy, Footbalance can be the cure. Footbalance's Diva footbeds support feet properly to make long days in dress shoes more comfotable and enjoyable. Diva is a slim, ultra-thin women's specific design that fits into even the tightest ladies' dress shoes.
Footbalance is headed to its first Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, CA this month! This four day festival where cyclists of all ages and skill levels gather, will take place on April 19-22. There will be four days filled with professional and amature races, clinics, food and fun. Footbalance is excited to be part of the Expo this year, showing the benefits that custom molded footbeds can bring to a cyclist's set up. Stop by and check out Footbalance at Booth #256.
As seen in the May issue of Golf Magazine, Top 100 Teacher Fred Griffin from Grand Cypress Academy of Golf in Orlando, Fla. says that if you speed up your pre-shot routine you will improve your golf swing. Check out the video here for tips on keeping your shot under ten seconds to reduce tension and improve your swing.
Footbalance is happy to spotlight TrySports as a featured retailer. TrySports has chosen to exclusively carry Footbalance as its only brand of footbeds. The sports equipment retailer says it believes in high quailty products and only carries what it believes in. We are impressed by Trysports' commitment to performance and are happy to be one of those high-quality products.
Footbalance announced the winner of The Footbalance Road Report contest last week. Team Drink or Leave was the winner for the Ragnar Relay SoCal contest. Several team members got molded up last week at Footbalance HQ in San Diego, CA. Team member Robin Twiss was one of the inspirational bunch, and said, "I love my new footbeds!
Footbalance is excited to announce the winner of The Footbalance Road Report contest. Team Drink or Leave is the winner of the Ragnar Relay SoCal. Congratulations to their team and good luck at the race on April 20-21. Team Drink or Leave will be fitted with Footbalance custom footbeds to help them train and run injury free durning the race. Take a look at the complete press release below, or by clicking here.
Finnish national steeplechaser Joonas Harjamäki took time out from his warm weather training in Spain to share with us his experience’s one year on after using Footbalance insoles.
With spring racing upon us, and the green grass growing on the fairways, it is time to be thinking about golf. We thought we would bring you a few resources to use to build your golf game from "in the rough" to "on the leaderboard." We've got no guarantee that you'll be PGA-ready, but these top tens should be useful checklists as you prep for the season.
We at Footbalance are multi-sports fans. We love skiing, we love running, we love cycling, and more. Today we are thinking about hockey. It appears that the brilliant people who run the amazing Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco have also been thinking about hockey too.
Our last post about those fabulous world biking destinations got us thinking about bike touring in general, and our friends over at GORP provided just the resource. GORP has compiled a great combination of articles about every aspect of biking, from planning and executing tours, to how to brake on the downhill on a mountain bike. Very good stuff.
From Italy to New Zealand to Vietnam, they cover the entire planet with a quick peek at each of their top 10 choices. The San Juan Islands in Washington was the top choice in the USA.
Depressing new statistics are out about the state of health in the United States. We're getting bigger, literally, as the obesity rates continue to rise. Calorie Lab has released their annual United States of Obesity Map, which ranks all of the states based on the overall heaviness of its residents.
Scientists have suspected for a while that exercise and brain function were pretty closely related, and now new studies are showing an even more important link. The New York Times has a story about recent papers published in the Journal of Physiology. It's pretty science-heavy stuff, but it confirms what we at Footbalance have always believed - exercising is good for your brain.
For a lot of us, that alarm clock can be the enemy. Getting out of bed in the morning is a challenge for many folks. Trying to add in a morning run can seem downright impossible.
The fine folks at Competitor have offered up some gentle and simple advice to squeeze in a run to your morning routine, such as.
Footbalance is excited to be a partner in the Ragnar Relay events for 2012. Ragnar is a famous series of overnight relay races that combine team running skills, sleep deprivation, and a sense of humor. This year, there are fifteen race events all around the United States, each two days and one night, where teams run across 200 miles of the country’s most scenic terrain.
Footbalance made it to the SIA Snow Show in Denver to bring our custom foot analysis and comfort/performance solution to skiers and snowboarders. Footbalance Race Custom Footbeds are ideal for snowsports lovers to get the most out of their sport. The footbeds fit great inside ski boots, snowboard boots or even ice skates, and they work to properly align your body and make you more comfortable for better performance.
We've got a lot of great tips on our website, including information about certain health issues. For example, Runner's knee, or IT Band Syndrome, is a sharp pain on the outside of the knee or hip caused by the friction between your iliotibial band and knee or hip. This friction can be due to different factors, including overpronation, excessive supination, leg length discrepancies, tight hamstrings or IT bands, foot structure and/or muscle imbalances.
Footbalance has been hitting the trade shows in force over the last few weeks. Doing custom footbed analysis for dozens of conference attendees and making walking the huge trade show floors a little more comfortable.
The Outdoor Retailer Winter Market was last weekend in Salt Lake City. We set up the Footbalance Recommendation System, our custom molding equipment, and invited everyone at the show to stop in, get fitted for custom footbeds, and donate their old stinky insoles to the Soles4Souls non-profit.
As I wake up each winter morning greeted by the dark and cold my mind wanders to the dry heat of the Sahara and Jukka Viljanen, who at this moment is running another hot and sweaty 50 kilometres across the desert.
The guys who produce Camping Gear TV provide a fun, sometimes wacky look at the world of outdoor recreation. With a lighthearted attitude, they review gear, gadgets, and more and present very authentic insight for a wide range of activities.
That's right--we are starting the new year by gathering up as many soles as possible.
If you are heading to the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market on January 19-22nd, make sure you come by the Footbalance booth (#38188) and participate in our "Sell Your Soles" event.
While ski season is in full swing, it's never too late to get in ski shape. Like any activity, the right way to get ready to ski is to condition your body for skiing. We found this concise set of workout tips on the ABC of Skiing website that help target the important muscles and resources you need to have a good day on the snow.
Running in the winter is a huge issue for competitive athletes and recreational runners both. While it is important, fulfilling and fun, it can also lead to injury if you're not doing it properly. Jeff Gaudette at Competitor Running has written a great piece about the challenges of running in the frozen cold.
We are thrilled to announce that Footbalance has been named to Red Herring's 2011 Top 100 Global list. Footbalance, along with the other selected global companies, accepted the award at the Red Herring Global Forum Ceremony held in Los Angeles on December 7, 2011. Red Herring’s Global 100 list has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising companies and entrepreneurs, honoring the year’s most bold and far-reaching private
Today in the Footbalance blog our UK tech rep Sarah Tunstall shares her own Footbalance insole story.
Anybody who's known me in the past couple of years, know's that I seem to have been made of glass...or at best chocolate! I have suffered quite a few injuries, all stemming from my biomechanics that seem to have caused one thing after another.
How tough are you? How tough is your race? We found this nice piece from Finding Dulcinea about the world's hardest races. Do you think you have what it takes to race across the Sahara? Death Valley? 1000 miles on a bike?
Brooks Sports has signed Sarah Tunstall to its athlete team in the U.K. Sarah is an accomplished Mountain and cross country runner. Highly energetic, Sarah has also worked over the past year as a technical representative for Footbalance, fitting us into her rigorous, world class training schedule. She has pulled this off with aplomb, and her enthusiastic advocacy in the field for Footbalance custom insoles is well known.
The December issue of Runner's World Magazine has a nice piece by Yishane Lee with the 10 best running tips for every runner, compiled from Runner's World readers.
It includes a lot of good basic advice, like this:
EXERCISE CAUTION
"Listen to your body telling you that it needs a day of rest," says Laura McElduff, a reader in Northvale, New Jersey. "Otherwise you'll end up burned out, overtrained, or injured."
Now that the weather is turning cooler it's time to start thinking about how to deal with frost and ice on the ground in the mornings. Wearing spikes for running shoes is an increasingly popular option that people are talking about, and more manufacturers are offering winter spikes for running with built in spikes made of carbide and other materials.
You hear it all the time - drink fluids, stay hydrated. But sometimes we all need a reminder about just what that means. The folks over at Marathon Training Schedule have put out a nice thorough overview of the whole fluids question and hydration for runners. Good, straightforward advice on how to stay watered-up during your training regimen.
Footbalance is proud to unveil the Footbalance Race footbed. Developed with input from Jukka Leino of the Finnish Alpine Ski Team, this footbed is super thin and supportive for those seeking high performance. The Race footbed is ideal for tightfitting or low volume footwear such as ski boots, skates and cycling shoes.
We are pleased to announce a partnership with Tad Hughes Custom Bike Fit Studio, a Houston, Texas- based independent bike fit oasis offering dynamic, biomechanical, motion-capture bike fittings performed by nationally-recognized bike fitter, Tad Hughes. The Footbalance Recommendation System (FRS) will enhance customized fit options available to cyclists and triathletes in the Texas area.
The problem with always running at an equal pace is that you can easily lose focus of your larger training goals. Keeping a steady pace is a popular and easy way to run, but every now and then training sessions like this go by without noticing any improvement.
Here at Footbalance, we’re all about feet. Here’sa great golf tips video from The Golf Channel on how to position your feet for a better golf swing. We all know stance is one of the keys to successful drives. In this Golf Fix video PGA Pro Michael Breed gives you the step-by-step - watch it after the jump.
Before I knew I was pregnant I did the Tough Mudder, ran a ½ marathon, plus ran 34 miles for my 34th birthday. Even after I found out, I continued to run. At three months, two miles into a run I would get light cramps around my lower abdomen. That’s when I drew on what I learned back in high school from my track coach Roger O’Sullivan:
After introducing Footbalance to the German market over the last one and a half years, Pia Knapik, Country Manager Germany, is moving on for other professional challenges. Bastian Brüggendieck, Head Sales Rep Tec in Germany, is taking over day-to-day responsibility for the German market.
Great Footbalance review by Colleen Friesen - in which she compares a good friend to excellent insoles:
”If we are still going with that aforementioned metaphor of a friend…I prefer these. The corrective orthotics were pretty hard and unforgiving. I prefer the support [of the Footbalance inserts].
…when the shoes are on my feet…I feel like I’m walking on clouds.”
Running twice a day can improve your cardiovascular fitness and running efficiency. It also helps you to increase your mileage quite easy. If you're running at least five days a week for about 40-50 minutes per day, you're probably ready to try this.
"As soon as I put them into my shoe and started to walk around I knew we were going to get along famously and we have. I could feel the support and comfort immediately. I have very high arches and it feels good to have something in there, rather than a gap.
Had a lovely visit this week from Anna and Kaisa, our Customer Service team on maternity leave, with their new babies. This is Anna's second, and the first for Kaisa - so we had to take a picture of her son next to our traditional Max insole baby growth chart.
This morning, when I was doing my speed work session (2K warm up + 10K@ 3:57 min/km + 5K cool down), I felt tired and lightheaded. This is not normal for me and got me wondering, "what do other people feel about training in the mornings?" After a little search I realized that there are many different opinions about running in the morning. For me, my light headedness and fatigue were the result of a hectic weekend and insufficient sleep.
Here are some other things you could consider if something's feeling off during a morning run:
Sometimes it’s hard to stay motivated to keep training throughout a season. There are inevitably days when you’re just not ‘feeling it’. How many of us have missed a morning run to sleep a little longer? Or swapped our after-work training session for happy hour with friends? Mixing up your routine with some variety and adding new sources of inspiration to train can help boost your motivation.
How to juggle training with the rest of life's demands is a common question these days. Though it can often seem hard in today's hectic world: there are ways to keep everything in balance. Here are five tips to keep up your training alongside work / school commitments and still have a rewarding personal life:
Runners from around the world kept Footbalance and our partner Karstadt Sports very busy giving out free foot analyses at Berlin Vital, the Berlin Marathon pre-race expo.
Runners from Brasil, India, Denmark, Germany, U.S.A. and more all stopped by to try the Footbalance custom footbed difference for themselves - with positive results. Our German Country Manager Pia Knapik recounts:
"We had a guy from the U.S. who bought two pairs on Friday, and then a third pair on Saturday because they felt so good.
So what’s the best way to run hills? This week I'll talk about adapting your form for hill running, as a follow up to last week’s post on adding hill training to your weekly workouts.
When running hills your stride should be a little shorter, and your posture should stay as straight as possible. Shortening your stride prevents you from leaning forward on the uphills and backwards on the downhills.
Running hills regularly is something that every runner should include in their training - whether or not you like to compete. The benefits from hill training are so big, you should include at least one hilly run or hill training session into your weekly running routine. Hill workouts help improve your overall fitness and stride. And for those of you who enjoy competing, there's usually at least one bigger or harder hill in every race for which you should be ready.
This question popped into my mind this morning as I was running alone along the windy and rainy Helsinki coastline. There are probably as many answers to this question as there are runners: losing weight, getting in shape, improving performance, breaking boundaries and so on. I don’t think that it’s necessary to have a reason for running - but most likely everybody has at least one, and this is mine.
Plenty of visitors for Footbalance during Tjejmilen - Sweden's biggest all ladies run with more than 30,000 runners! A free foot analyses and a pair of individually molded Footbalance insoles are hard to resist!
I’ve tried to do totally barefoot running in the past, but because of my cancer the doctors had to remove basically everything from my left foot. After that it has been nearly impossible to run barefoot again. This situation has led me to try various minimalist shoes that allow your foot muscles to work harder and more dynamically, like they’re supposed to work.
During the last few years the trend in running shoes has turned towards lighter, more neutral and less stiff running shoes. I think that this is definitely a good thing but with some reservation. Lighter and looser trainers often feel better in the store when you compare them to more traditional running shoes. That's why many novice or inexperienced runners can be too quick to buy them. This can lead to problems because their bodies might not be able to handle the extra load from training with just light running shoes.
Today you can find a wide variety of supportive running shoes (support, overpronation support and motion control). Some of these come with a small support section placed in the arch area. Others, for example motion control shoes, have stronger support that extends from the heel to the ball of foot. These shoes are often quite stiff.
"Probably the biggest difference for me was with knee pain. I have been experiencing pain in my left knee for quite awhile now, so much so that I went for a bike fitting, thinking that cycling was the problem, but with no relief. I can not say for certain the two are linked, but when wearing my Footbalance insoles, my knee pain is now gone.
How's this for a fine looking Footbalance Display? We're certainly pleased! This gorgeous display is courtesy of our Estonian distributor Rademar - the place to get custom footbeds in Estonia!
Today you can find a wide range of neutral running shoes on the market from stiff to flexible styles, and from basic training shoes all the way to racing flats. Neutral running shoes are best suited for runners who have a neutral foot or mild overpronation. In terms of cushioning neutral running shoes are usually a bit softer with a rounder forefoot compared to support running shoes.
Outside Magazine Online got a sneak peak at the new Footbalance Performance footbed and declared it "thin and firm enough for use in road cleats but still supportive and cushy enough to compensate for foot problems."
Running shoes are a runner's most important piece of gear. That’s why you need to spend enough time choosing the right pair for you. There are many factors to consider before buying. Your gender, weight, running technique, platform, foot structure, experience, possible illnesses and possible customized footbeds can all influence your final choice. Even though price always matters, it shouldn't be prioritized over a good fit.
During the past month I’ve looked at some of the key areas affecting running technique. Working on each of the areas together makes a complete package that can help your stride become more economic, efficient and above all, more comfortable.
Here are some general tips for good running technique:
Meet the lucky winner of our contest for a Suunto Core watch - Walter Herger, owner of Herger Sport in Altdort Canton, Uri, Switzerland. Herr Herger was very surprised and pleased at his luck! Congrats Walter!
The contest was held to celebrate our first time attending OutDoor2011, the annual European trade fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Missed it? If you attend OutDoor, be sure to stop by next year!
For my fourth installment on running technique I focus on the lower legs. Along with the hips and knees, the calves and ankles cause the most form issues for runners.
After much hard work, the Footbalance team is excited to announce the launch of our new webpage format also in Finnish and German. Are you a German or Finnish speaker? If so, take a look and let us know what you think!
Today, in the third installment in my series on running technique, I talk about knees. Along with the hips and lower legs, this is a critical area for running form.
It’s time for the second installment in my series on running technique. Today I concentrate on the hips. Next week I’ll cover the knees, and after that the lower legs. Together, these are the three areas that usually cause people the most issues for their running form and technique.
In this first in a series of posts on running technique Joonas talks about common ways we hold our head and arms when running, and how this affects our form.
Mental recovery is in many cases harder than physical recovery. Bad memories from the last race, or frustration about not having achieved the results you wanted, can stay with you, clouding your focus. Even when you’ve done well and achieved what you’ve wanted, the drain of having trained and pushed hard in a race may leave you with a lingering mental burnout. Many runners don’t realize the negatively affect that both of these scenarios can have on motivation and enjoyment when they resume running after a race.
Running is a lifetime learning process. You can’t rush things without having problems. It might feel difficult to give yourself a few extra days of recovery, but they payoff when you start your new training program. For me it’s important that my muscles and body are fully recovered - lactic acids removed from the muscles, digestion back in order, and muscles plus ligaments stretched back to normal.
The winner for the best Footbalance Story in our recent Win a More Comfortable Round contest in Finland is (drum role please)... Markku! Thank you to Markku and all the contest participants. It was great to read your stories and hear how Footbalance has helped you!
How do you celebrate your birthday? This year, our very own Mary Grace decided to celebrate her 34th birthday by running one mile for each year: 34 miles from Oceanside, California to Pacific Beach, California. With her trusty Max+ custom insoles underfoot she ran/walked the distance in 7:39.58. Afterwards she wrote on our facebook wall, "I could not have done it without being powered by Footbalance! Today I have no injuries, feel awesome but just a bit sore.
In the first installment of our new Training Tuesday series, Joonas discusses post-race fatigue and shares his reaction to qualifying for Boston 2012.
Now, a week after Stockholm Marathon 2011, I still have a feeling that I’m quite tired and out of gas. My body feels overloaded, even though my muscles have recovered quite well. My mind says that I should start training again, but my energy levels are still just too low. This is a common situation to many who have run a marathon. You have trained hard and probably reached your goal, and it feels like you have nothing more to give.
We recently spotted Coach Mack Brown, University of Texas head football coach, getting his own Footbalance custom insoles in Austin. Coach Brown's insoles were expertly molded for him by Ben Simon at Golfsmith Arboretum. Here's a picture of the happy duo showing off the Coach's new Footbalance Max insoles.
The Footbalance blog will now feature training tips for runners and other athletes of any level. Check in every other Tuesday to get useful tips from our head Product Tester and training fanatic Joonas. Joonas will be giving tips on how to train and run right, what type of gear to use, and how to select the right shoes and Footbalance insoles for your training.
When you use the products you make, the boundary between work and leisure can gets easily blurred. For Joonas Laurila, being in charge of product testing at Footbalance doesn't just mean organizing research and lab tests and coordinating athlete testers, but also using the latest Footbalance gear in his own sports training. Last week all his hard work - field testing and training on his own time - paid off for Joonas with an excellent result at the Helsinki City Run half marathon: 1:21:57. Exhilarated, Joonas said post race, "What a feeling!" Congratulations, Joonas!
Footbalance's very own Sarah Tunstall wins bronze, and shares in team gold, in a results revision to the 2009 World Mountain Running Championships. This vindication of a race well run comes after the IAAF's suspension of Elisa Desco for doping. Sarah joins her team mates Mary Wilkinson, Katie Ingram and Kate Goodhead in representing Great Britain for the women's team gold.
Footbalance is proud to congratulate all the members of the newly formed 2011 Palmetto Running Company-Footbalance Racing Team. Team members were hand selected for their dedication to being the best runner that they can be. The 10 men and 10 women of the team span all abilities and speeds but share a common enthusiasm for running.
Al Geiberger stopped in for his very own pair of Footbalance Custom Insoles! 11 victories on the PGA tour and the first golfer in history to shoot a 59! Great day at Golfsmith in Palm Desert!
Our own Footbalance Marketing Director Hilkka at the finish of Finland's Jussin Luistelu half marathon ski race happy that her cross country ski boots have Foobalance insoles Inside.
The boots attach to the bindings on the distance ice blades, making it more convenient to indulge in an additional winter sport.
We've got a video of Timmy O'Neill's great visit to our booth with the Live from OR crew at this year's Outdoor Retailer Winter Market in Salt Lake City, Utah! In this YouTube segment he talks to our very own Mary Grace about Footbalance insoles and our unique analysis-to-molding process. Watch the video after the jump.
”I wished we had started our tour on Friday at Footbalance instead of Sunday morning. I probably could've walked more and seen more companies." Great review of Footbalance from Ken Kamada and AtlasOmega in their Outdoor Retailer 2011 Winter Market Highlights at www.atlasomega.com. Yay!
Introducing Footbalance Sweden: Fredrik, Joakim, Rasmus and Robert with their fearless leader Tassos. What a handsome bunch of guys - and they make a pretty good pair of insoles too!
We know it's holiday time when the team starts gearing up some cosy days at home. This team member firmly believes, "Footbalance + Reino slippers = a cosy Christmas."
Whatever your holiday - we wish you a very joyous season and Happy New Year!
Seeking an insole to both support and strengthen foot muscles, one Run Britain writer recently stopped by Shuropody to check out our dynamic insoles. Go along for a virtual ride with her during the Footbalance analysis and read her thoughts about her new custom made insoles at www.runbritain.com.
They did it! Coru and Andrés of 6Mpasos.com have arrived in Santiago de Compostela after walking 6373.9 kms! The pair started off by foot from De Nordkapp, Norway and walked the length of Europe to arrive in Santiago de Compostela, Spain an incredible journey of 1854 hours and 43 minutes.
While we can't say their Footbalance insoles were happy to take this beating, we're happy that our insoles were there to support the pair on this incredible adventure.
Footbalance's own Mary Grace carrying Gold Medal Olympian Lasse Viren at The Running Event. Thank you Lasse for helping us make this year's show a Footbalance success!
The first sightings of Footbalance in U.K. were reported last week. Customers were spotted getting Footbalance analyses in Truro, Exeter, Plymouth and Cardiff. Here in Helsinki we've already received happy comments from proud new owners of Footbalance custom insoles in the region. A good start!
Helsinki City Marathon is a great marathon right in our hometown of Helsinki. To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of this running event, Footbalance decided it would be fun to invite some American runners over for the occasion. We hosted a great group of young American runners and their friends and had a blast cheering them on through the race.
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very busy giving out free foot analyses at Berlin Vital, the 
