Hi, this is Debbie Boyle's coach at Mojo for Running with podcast number 43, the third in the series,

and the last one about running shoes. Today we'll talk about how to clean your shoes,

lacing issues, and a few other odds and ends. First we'll talk about how to clean your shoes.

Now, how extensive you need to be or the links you need to go to

will depend on whether you're cleaning them just because you want them to look better or because

they smell. First let's talk about how to just make them look better. The easiest and most

efficient way to clean them if they're not terribly dirty and stained is to keep them on your feet and grab the hose.

Make sure you have a sprayer on the end of the hose and spray your shoes with your feet still in them.

This keeps them from getting too wet inside and allows you to twist and turn to get the shoes in just the right position.

And the force from the sprayer will certainly get off any dirt or mud. This works much better than if you try to use a hose

with the sprayer and take the shoes off, because then the shoes are going to roll away. And if you try

to hold the shoe with your hand and then spray it with the sprayer

of course you're going to get soaking wet. So if you just do it the way I explained that

actually seems to work very well. But of course that's just for a cursory cleaning. If your shoes

need more serious attention, use a nail brush or old toothbrush and some

mild soap to clean them and then rinse them on the other hand if the issue is

that your shoes smell the above methods may not probably will not be

adequate in fact I'm pretty sure they won't be adequate the odor from

your shoes comes from bacteria.

And if you want to get rid of the smell, you've got to get rid of all the bacteria.

If you have stinky shoes, then you'll have to soak them. You'll have to get them really wet.

Remove the inserts and shoelaces and clean these separately.

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