HARRY ON GOOD GEAR

Chris makes a strong point in the books about the importance of getting good equipment to see you through on this journey of perpetual fitness and youth. I have been more of a skeptic on this, because of my New England roots – (the joy I take in spending the least possible amount of money). I actually still think that is a wonderful way to approach the subject, but there certainly are areas where it makes sense to get the gear that’s right for you, and I think the areas where this truly matters is where there is a serious biomechanical issue to consider.

Two examples from my own situation are bikes and ski boots. After years and years of biking through a fair amount of discomfort, I finally went ahead and got a bike that was custom fitted to me, last year, and subsequently, I have gone to two bike stores with a couple of people, to help them get stock off the shelf bikes fitted somewhat retroactively to their frames. The difference with a well fitted bike (either custom, or carefully retro-fitted off the rack) is enormous, and while there is a mild performance gain, the real issue is that the bike that takes into account the proportional lengths between your back and legs, the degree of flexibility in your hamstrings, etc., ends up being a far more comfortable bike. This makes all the difference between calling it a day at the end of an hour, versus going for the entire morning or afternoon, or on special occasions the whole day.

If you are truly going to get fit, you need the gear to support you in all the exercise, rather than it being the limiting factor.

The other interesting area is ski boots. Mine are fifteen years old, and I am not sure they were the best boots even back then, because I did buy them on a pretty limited budget, but still I have enjoyed skiing immensely, until the last few years, when the liners became so compressed by all the years of banging and skiing, that I am essentially skiing inside a wooden shell.

I went to get fitted at a great shop at Stratton Mountain in Vermont. The boot fitter spent five minutes or so carefully looking over my foot and measuring it, seeing how much flexibility I had at the ankle, checking out the relative dimensions of my calf and lower leg, and then we went through a few boots based on that.

I haven’t settled in to the one I am going to buy yet, though I hope to do that in a couple of weekends, but it is clear that the two leading contenders are simply dramatically better suited to my frame and my feet than anything I would have picked out on my own. I will report back once I have gotten them, on the difference in terms of skiing, but my strong impression is that I will ski somewhat better as a result, which will be a very nice mid-life bonus – but more importantly, my feet will be comfortable and well supported throughout the day, so my enthusiasm for staying out there all day long will go up measurably.