Some of you might remember that back in November I injured my back whilst stretching (believe it or not) and that I was barely able to walk let alone run. One of the reasons for this, I believe, is that I've been running in broadly the same type of shoes since getting into triathlon - usually motion control - as I was originally identified to be an overpronator. While fine at the time I don't think that these suit me any more. So over the past year I've been tinkering with a bit of barefoot running and this has proved a minor revelation; the only problem being that I kept losing the skin on my toes!
So last week, after proving to myself and my osteopath that I was functionally able to run again, I decided to treat myself to some new running shoes. This time though I was looking for something very unsupportive, something very minimal and close to being barefoot; so the other end of the scale essentially. At first the salesman in Runners Need looked a tad wary while I explained what I was looking for but all credit to him - he emerged with a couple of nice looking shoes and had me try them out on the treadmill. What fun! They both felt very light and the camera showed that I was midfoot-striking very cleanly and demonstrating no over-pronation whatsoever.
As a result I walked out of the shop with a pair of these little beauties:
Now they don't come cheap, it's true, but none of my running shoes have ever been what you might call cheap! So this lunchtime I took them out for a short spin up to Green Park; just a quick 20-30 minutes really to see how they felt when used in anger but not for so long that my osteopath might get angry! I have to say that they feel great on my feet (light and responsive) but there's no doubt that I'm working my calf muscles much harder with these shoes. It just goes to show how much heel-striking I've been doing in the past without ever meaning to. Suffice to say though that my old shoes have been consigned to the bin!
Distance: 3.9 miles
Time: 35m 00s
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