Hi all -- it's been a while! Long story short(ish): I bought new boots and blades (SP Teri Super Teri and Coronation Ace) in 2016, never mind that I skated something like once a month and not the 4 times a week I used to skate pre-child. Wishful thinking that if I dropped hundreds of dollars, I'd get to skate more often, I suppose. Anyway, this time I got them with inserts since I had terrible issues with tendinitis in my previous boots (the same kind). I'm flat-footed, and I'd hoped those would help the same way the inserts I wear in my sneakers do. Except I never got used to them. My feet would cramp up so badly (waaaaay worse than just breaking-in the boots cramps) and I always felt off-balance, almost pitched forward. So today -- finally (yeah, I know - TWO years later!! Shows how often I get to skate.) -- I pulled those suckers out. And BLISS. My feet still cramped a little, probably because I never fully broke the skates in, but not nearly as bad as with the inserts, and I felt completely balanced. Enough so that I knocked out a few jumps like I'd been skating the way I used to. I didn't feel as if I was about to trip over my toepicks.
Now that my kiddo is old enough to entertain herself on the ice (most of them time! haha), I'm hoping to get more skating in. Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone else has ever had this problem? I hate that I paid extra for the inserts and don't use them. Also, if you've pulled the inserts (or the sole linings -- I did this on my previous pair) out, did you put anything down in the boot to cover the metal? My old pair of Super Teris didn't have metal showing in the bottom of the boot, but these do. I was okay with it today, but I worry that if I skate more, those screws and the edge of the metal will rub my feet and cause blisters.