Tuesday 16 October 2012

The Shoe Fits...if it's comfortable

Peter Larson, author of www.runblogger.com, has written a good synopsis on how we ended up with the running shoe categories we have today. He highlights how confused the shoe market is in reality, that going to neutral/minimal shoes is not necessarily the goal (v hard to accurately define the category in a lot of shoes anyway) and ultimately it's really up to the runner to choose the best shoes based on comfort. Link below....

http://www.runblogger.com/2012/10/neutral-running-shoes-need-not-be-goal.html?m=0w

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Shoe Status Oct 2012

Right now I have the following shoes and what my use status/opinion is;

- Adidas Adizero Adios in Green - original marathon shoe (Abingdon 2011) now retired from racing as tread is going and upper starting to fail at widest point of foot. Still in use for general training runs. Not really big enough in toe box (slight toe end blistering issues) also caused a nasty blister on back of right heel pre VLM.

- Adidas Adizero Adios in Orange - reserved road race only shoes, brought for London Marathon. Personal fav & no longer on sale, so I need to preserve as much as poss until an alternative can be found!

- Adidas Adizero Adios in Red/Blue - 1st pair of racing 'flats' really a 1/2 size too small, useable for speed work & short races. Not out much these days, might sell them on.

- Adidas Adizero Adios 2 - given to me as a freebie. Very different feel to first version, much stiffer and direct feeling, also has very stiff heel counter. Not a great fan of these, but do use for racing & longer speed/tempo sessions sometimes. Mainly used to preserve the v1 orange shoes for racing only!

Adidas Hagio - brought for short racing and speed work, very light but surprisingly harsh for amount of sole underfoot. Took time to adapt to them and stop slapping the floor! Pretty hard work currently to run well in these. Also upper seems to be failing (especially at big toe joint) after only 150miles :-(

Saucony Kinvara 2 : only used of training (did run a single 10k in them back in Jan), feel very nice but low heel (4mm drop) takes a few miles to adjust to. Have run up to 15 miles on them without issue, prolonged use over consecutive runs tend to put a lot strain on calves/ankles (currently off running for a few days with a dodgy ankle after doing lots of Kinvara miles last week!). Overall very comfortable

Merrell Sonic Glove - A bit of an experiment, I generally use these for slow/low intensity runs (recoveries) and for fun. Feel very nice, once off heels, but can be very straining on lower legs, care must be exercised when in use!

Saucony Peregrines - XC shoe for Forest runs, same heel drop as Kinvara. Good for long slow winter runs in the forest, but a bit too cushy around the heel and tongue for racing use. I never feel like I can lace them up tight/snugly enough for fast running off road. Also need to pay attention to strain levels in lower legs with extended mileage

Reflexes & Running

This post on the role of reflexes in gait and the benefit of running on different surfaces on Jay Dicharry's An Athlete's Body blog is worth a read...

http://anathletesbody.com/2012/10/01/reflex-hammers-running-surfaces-and-running-what-do-they-have-in-common/