This Autumn they stopped in at Maine Running Company where I got an opportunity to see what they were up to.

The bus is pretty neat; after parking, the roof lifts up and reveals an upper deck with a pair of treadmills hooked up to video cameras. They have the runner take off their shoes, and measure the angle from heel to achilles to mid-calf when your foot is at mid-stance.

The lower level had a relatively humorous “museum” that showed the “history” of the running shoe, as though they were ancient relics dug out of the ground and put on display.

I think that they had a few other attractions as well, but even after they were set up I didn’t see anybody promote or make use of them at our local stop.

Here’s a description of the process after I had my own gait analyzed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHVvcU8Uxd4

Download This Video: MP4 – MP3 – Watch on YouTube

Video Transcription

Click Here to Read the Transcript

Now that the final Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon for the year is over (it was in Las Vegas this past weekend) I believe that the bus is done rolling around for the year, but they might start their tour again next year. If not, your local running shop is probably equipped to do a similar gait analysis for you if you’d like to have one done.

More Info: Brooks

Table of contents for 2nd Maine Cross Country Clinic

1. 2^nd Annual Maine Coach & Athlete Cross Country Clinic (Part I: Injury Prevention and Treatment)
2. 2^nd Annual Maine Coach & Athlete Cross Country Clinic (Part II: Nutrition Basics & Fueling for Performance)
3. 2^nd Annual Maine Coach & Athlete Cross Country Clinic (Part III: Biomechanics & Footwear)
4. 2^nd Annual Maine Coach & Athlete Cross Country Clinic (Part IV: Meet the Athletes)
5. 2^nd Annual Maine Coach & Athlete Cross Country Clinic (Part V: The Athlete’s Panel)

The 2^nd annual Maine Coach and Athlete Cross Country Clinic was on August 18th, 2008 at the University of Southern Maine. This is the third part of my reporting on the clinic; the first part was about injury prevention and treatment and the second part was about nutrition basics and fueling. This part covers foot and biomechanical structure and the selection of proper footwear.

Selecting Proper Footwear

The third presentation of the night was from the owner of the Maine Running Company, John Rogers. John’s career in the running business started in product development for Nike and Mizuno, but he retired from doing that to start a specialty running store here in Southern Maine about 4 years ago.

“We try to find the right shoe for people.”

John and his employees use a 6 step fitting process to make sure that they are getting fitted with the proper shoes when they come into the store.

The 6 steps consist of determining information about the runner and his or her running habits, as well as some specific tests to help them determine what each athlete needs.

This 6 step process includes:

1. Determining the approximate height and weight of the athlete.
2. Determining how much the athlete is running on a daily and weekly basis.
3. Determining what shoes the athlete has worn in the past.
4. Determining if the athlete uses orthotics or similar devices.
5. Testing the athlete’s foot with a digital scanner.
6. Doing a visual assessment of the amount of pronation from the athlete when they walk or run.

The correct shoes for each athlete may be different. You should first find the best shoe that you can, and only once you have chosen that shoe can you begin to worry about the extras such as orthotics. If you need to wear orthotics but you put them into the wrong shoes, then the orthotics are not going to help any.

If you need help choosing shoes, speak first with your coaches who might have experience with different types of footwear and are going to know a lot about your running style. Once you have gotten their advice, you can visit the running store and speak with a local specialist who can narrow down exactly what you need.

Be an active participant in the fitting process. Always operate under what John refers to as the Doubt Factor: If you have any single doubt on a shoe, then don’t buy it.

Once you have bought the shoe, then write the date that you bought it in the insole. Your shoes should be replaced every 4 to 6 months, or every 400 to 600 miles, depending upon your running style and the model of the shoe and the environment that you run in.

Shoe Categories

“We’ve come to a point in the industry where everybody is making high quality shoes.”

There is basically a model of shoe for everybody, these days. The big companies got into a habit of over-teching and over-building their shoes in the past few decades, but that trend has turned around and the industry is moving back towards minimalist concepts. Many trends are even going so far as barefoot running, or as close as you can get and still have something to sell to the consumer.

Neutral shoes are the fastest growing category in the footwear industry, which has been helped by the orthotics manufacturers. Neutral shoes are for a high rigid arch and can come with either moderate cushioning or maximum support.

Stability shoes are still the largest category of shoes on the market. They are appropriate for mid or late stage pronators and for duck footed folks.

When choosing racing shoes, you should apply the same sorts of philosophies towards your shoe selection as you would for trainers. Find something that will suit your needs for the different circumstances that you will be racing in and pick the correct racer or lightweight trainer that will suit your needs.

John is also a big fan of rotating your shoes, although he does not have a preference on whether or not you should rotate the same style of shoes or different styles. That will be an individual decision that will be different for each runner.

Table of contents for Technology (July)

1. The Sustainable Gym
2. Technology to Time Your Workouts
3. Wii Fit and Wii Sports
4. The Advantages of Running Shoes (aka The Running Shoe FAQ)
5. Tools for keeping up to date

In a continuing collaboration with Scott over at Straight to the Bar, we will be writing about the technology of fitness equipment throughout the month of July. This week I would like to discuss the most important technology that a runner will deal with: running shoes.

• Why do runners buy shoes specifically for running?

  Running shoes and shoes that are made specifically for different sports such as basketball or cycling tend to have different shapes that cater to the specific activity that they are made for. Different types of motion put different stresses on your foot and ankles, and these are accounted for in the design of specific shoes.

  For example, cycling shoes tend to have a rigid bottom that is not particularly comfortable to walk around in but provide for a much more efficient transfer of energy from the foot to the pedal. Basketball shoes provide support for the ankle to account for making hard cuts and frequent jumping.

  While not always 100% necessary, getting a shoe for a specific sport can provide performance and/or safety benefits. Even amongst just running shoes, there are 8 categories of running shoes depending upon the type of running that you plan on doing.

• Why don’t runners walk around in their running shoes all day?

  Just like tennis is different from basketball, running and walking are very different activities from a physiological standpoint. Shoes that are designed for each activity try to minimize the stress of each activity and provide the most comfort at the same time.

  Wearing your running shoes while you walk or your walking shoes while you run can lead to discomfort and can drastically shorten the lifespan of your shoes.

• What is the difference between walking and running?

  When humans walk, they tend to push off to the side with their feet and sway back and forth. Walking is a way of controlled falling, as you shift your center of gravity over the leg that is going to support your body. The motion of your foot as you walk is a slow roll onto your toes.

  Running tends to keep your center of gravity more or less central to your torso as you swing your legs along beneath you. This is more energy efficient than walking, but increases the impact when your feet hit the ground. Running causes pronation, which results from your foot striking on the outside of your heel and then rolling towards the inside of your foot.

• What is most important when choosing a running shoe?

  Running shoes were originally made of leather. They did not begin to incorporate rubber until after sneakers started to become popular because the rubber was too soft and would wear away too fast for a serious athlete.

  Adi Dassler (the founder of Adidas) created the first lightweight running shoes in the 1930s, but it was not until the 1960′s that New Balance began putting a rubber wedge between the sole of the shoe and the upper portion to raise the heel and minimize the stress on the Achilles tendon. Bill Bowerman began making shoes for his runners by using a nylon upper and a sole created by pouring polyurethane into his wife’s waffle iron.

  The secret to the success of Bowerman’s shoes were the midsole that he put into the shoes to provide extra cushioning. The midsole provides protection from being able to feel sharp or hard objects that the runner steps on, and absorbs the majority of the impact that is the trade-off for a more energy efficient form of movement than walking. The midsole also provides rebound for the foot to make the next step a little easier. By fiddling with the density of the midsole in different areas of the shoe, and by contouring the foot bed, manufacturers design shoes that fit runners of different sizes and gaits.

• What are midsoles made of?

  Most midsoles are made of EVA, polyurethane, or a combination of the two.

  EVA makes a great cushioning material and is very light and very flexible, but it tends to lose some of its rebound and resilience and becomes “compression set.” That is one of the major reasons that you should always rotate your running shoes between runs.

  Polyurethane is very strong and lasts a lot longer, but it is heavy and has less rebound than EVA. Shoes with an all polyurethane midsole are almost guaranteed to last a long time, both because of their resilience and because they will probably not be worn as often as they are likely to be too heavy for most runners.

  Most companies combine the two materials by putting the polyurethane in areas of the midsole that are put under the most stress and using EVA elsewhere. Different mixtures are the biggest separating feature between one brand of shoes and the next. What is comfortable and works for one person is also quite likely to be uncomfortable for their neighbor, so each brand of shoes can potentially have plenty of market share.

• How do I best choose or take care of my running shoes?

  If you don’t know more about running shoes than you thought that you needed to by now, then you can look through my list of shoe care tips that was published on this site about a year ago.

• What is the shelf life for running shoes?

  Shoes don’t last forever, but unless the shoes weren’t stored well (extreme heat/cold) then last year’s models will be fine. You should generally try not to purchase shoes that are more than a year old, because the mid-soles will harden and break down over time even when the shoes are not being used.

  If you do have shoes that are 3 or even 5 years old, you can probably still use them. Just be aware that you probably will not be able to run as many miles in them as you would on a pair of brand new shoes that just arrived at your local shoe store.

  It can be a delicate balance of cost-effectiveness if you want to purchase a model of shoe that you like while it is on sale and before the company tweaks it to the point that you don’t like it anymore. (Thanks to Tom in Maryland for the question.)

What have I missed? These are a few questions that I have seen floating around in various forums or that have been emailed to me or asked in person over the past few months. Is there anything else that you would like to know that was not covered by this article or by the list of tips that were previously published?

Feel free to email me or leave a comment with any thoughts or questions that you may still have.

We did not come to a consensus on what we thought would best serve his feet during the marathon. Our best guess was that he should get some trail shoes custom made that were tight in the heel but long in the toe. What suggestions would you have? I have to admit that my down hill racing has been a bit limited, and I have not done any real trail racing for years.

The company wouldn’t disclose everything that’s coming but hinted at changes from Nike Shox and in apparel. Nike did say it plans to make all its running shoes compatible with its Nike+ technology by the end of the year. Nike+ allows runners to track their workouts with Apple Inc.’s iPod. “I think there is a real renewed sort of energy and focus around product,” Parker said.

While this is good news for the folks that have an iPod and haven’t wanted to spend the extra $50 on shoes that could use the Nike+ system (and who did not want to find their own way of attaching the sensor to their shoe), I tend to worry a little about it. I have little to no interest in personally using the product, as I have zero interest in purchasing an iPod. What I do have an interest in is maintaining the quality of the shoes without making allowances and adding weight for features that I don’t need. What I also have an interest in is maintaining the affordability of my shoes and not having extra fees tacked on for those features that I’ll be ignoring.

(Sources: Boston.com – Gizmodo)

The easy answer to how many shoes you need to be a runner is that you do not need any. Training barefoot is certainly a viable option, and experienced barefoot runners tend to have stronger feet and are less injury prone than us shoe users. The problem, however, is that we start wearing shoes when we are very little, and you need to go into the barefoot mode slowly and carefully. Your feet will be weak due to letting your shoes do most of the work of walking around all day, and running barefoot asks a different stride of us that you may not be used to.

Realistically, though, the minimal answer is one pair of shoes. Most of us will want to wear shoes, and if you are competitive there are certainly advantages to wearing shoes in races. For a casual runner, one pair of shoes will get you out on the roads and can serve you when you are racing.

A more competitive runner, though, is going to want at least two pairs of shoes, and more likely three. It is important to rotate your training shoes between each run if you run more than once a day or more than one day in a row. Your feet will sweat, and you really want your shoes to dry completely before wearing them for another run. A competitive runner may also want to have a pair of racing shoes, whether they are lightweight trainers or full on waffles or spikes.

Personally, I tend to have more shoes than that. When I was in college, I trained in Asics 2040s. When the 2050s came out, I found a clearance sale on the 2040s and bought four pairs of them. I swapped between two pairs at a time through school. These days, I have switched up my shoe use a little and have different styles of shoes that I swap between. Amazingly, I currently have seven pairs of active running shoes, and recently threw out two pairs that had been retired.

To keep my shoes straight and to make it easier to track them in my workout logs, I label my running shoes with a letter. Right now, I have three categories for my shoes.

The first category are my training shoes. I have four pairs of shoes (labeled J through L) that I swap between each run. Even if I run twice in a day for a few days in a row, I will still have at least two days between reusing the same pair of shoes. Each shoe is a different style; two of them are Asics brand and two are Nike brand.

The second category are my racing shoes, which I also use for interval work. The first (labeled G) are last years shoes that did not get too many miles in them yet. They got covered in glass when I was broken into, but I got the glass out of them and have been using them again for my track workouts. I also have a new pair of shoes that I have only used twice.

The third category is my indoor training shoes. I use running shoes when I lift weights because I use the treadmill for a short warm up. I only use these shoes inside. Usually they are only used at the gym on the treadmill and when I am lifting, but I will occasionally use them on the indoor track.

I am a little over board, but most of my shoes were bought because I could get a good deal on them and I knew that I would use them before the rubber started to degrade. My indoor training shoes I had not planned on using until this summer as outdoor trainers, but I decided to retire my old pair of indoor trainers and there was a pair already bought and paid for to replace them.

How many pairs of running shoes do you own? Do you have far fewer dress or casual shoes, which is the case for me?

Order the Men’s Asics GT2110 sports shoe or the Women’s Asics GT2110, and apply coupon code NOVFF25 to your order. That will take 25% off of any single item. I believe that this coupon expires after today, December 3^rd, but I am not positive about that. If you then pay using Google Checkout, you will get an additional $10 off of your order. Shipping and Handling is free. The total for a new pair of Asics GT2110 shoes is then $30.49.

You can also apply the same code and Google Checkout to the women’s ASICS GEL 1110 Stability Running Shoe to the final tune of around $23, but I have never used that model.

I am a big fan of the Asics 2040+ series of shoes, and have used them for a long time. I recently retired my last pair because I can get Nike shoes so much cheaper now with my team sponsorship, but this was too good of a deal to pass up on a shoe that I would still love to run in. I will say, however, that I have not had a lot of luck in the past when Sports Authority has these types of sales, so I imagine that this bargain will end very soon.

(Source: Slick Deals)

Update: It is about 4 hours later (and on a Sunday!) and I have already received an out of stock email. They state that they are still going to ship the item to me and will charge me when it is in stock, but I will believe that when I have the shoes in hand. My guess is that once again I will be missing out on the deal.

Update 2: I did in fact receive the shoes, which was a pleasant surprise. This deal is no longer available, so I have removed all of the links as they are no longer valid and didn’t point to anything any more.

You could run for 3 or 4 years and never have a problem, but that first time you will still curse your shoes out. A regular bow tie can easily come undone, which leads to an unsafe situation. If your shoes are not tied, then your foot will move around a lot more inside the sneaker. This will only gets worse as the laces loosen more with each step that you take. You also run the risk of stepping on your laces, having somebody else step on your laces, or getting your laces caught in your environment somewhere. This tends to lead to falling down, which is a good thing to avoid.

First, the basic way that you tie your shoes will almost always be the same. You cross the laces to create a base. Loop one lace, and then wrap the other lace around it and under it to create a second loop, as in the video below. Pull the loops tight, and you have a basic bow tie knot, which is good enough for walking around town in.

The first time your shoe comes untied, you are going to be tempted to double knot your shoes. For years, I would double knot my shoes before every race and then tie the loops of the laces down. Double knotting can be done two ways.

The first way is when you cross the laces to create a base, and then cross the laces again to create a second base on top of it. The problem with this, other than that it is very difficult to untie, is that even if you create a bow tie underneath the laces can still be pretty long if the knot above both bases comes undone. You will not lose the structural integrity of your shoe, but you can still step on a lace and trip.

The second way to double knot your shoe is to reknot your loops after tying a normal bow tie knot. After you finish tying the normal bow tie, you can double knot the shoe by flattening the loops and then treating them as straight (but thick) laces to tie another bow on top of it. Your shoes will very rarely come untied after doing this, but you can also have a very difficult time getting the knot out when you are done. If you run through a few puddles, it will be next to impossible to get this knot out. When you finish a race, the last thing your swollen feet are going to want is to wait for 15 minutes while you contemplate getting your shoes off without cutting the laces.

The way that I tie my shoes is to use a runner’s knot. I have no idea if that is what it is really called, but it seems to magically work so that’s what I call it. Watch the video below, and then I will explain the difference between this knot and a basic bow tie.

To tie this knot, you cross your laces to create a base, the same as with the bow tie. You also create your first loop the same way. When you go to wrap the second lace around the loop, however, you want to bring the lace around twice. You will then have two small circles around your first loop to create your second loop through. Watch the video again to see what to do.

I have never had this knot come undone. The only danger with this knot that I have discovered since I started using it 4 years ago comes when you untie the knot. Normally, you can just pull the two loose ends of your laces straight out to untie the shoe. If you pull the loose end of the lace through one of your loops, though, then you will create a small knot that will be mildly difficult to get out. It is easy to avoid doing that, and you will learn your lesson the first or second time that you do pull the lace through a loop. This knot also uses a little bit more length on your laces than a bow tie, so if you have short laces or cut one of the laces then you will want to use the longer end of your shoe to do the second loop with.

There are other ways to tie your shoes, and I will explore at least one or two more ways in the (hopefully near) future. In the meantime, though, do you have a favorite way to tie your shoe? Have you ever tried this method? Let me know what you think of this knot after you have used it a time or two.

(Note: The shoe in the videos is a Vitruvian running shoe.)

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

Over the past week I had a series of posts about the care and maintenance of running shoes. In case you missed any of them, they were:

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes
2. Keep your shoes dry but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them

Now that I am back from my honeymoon, regularly scheduled features will be back starting tomorrow. I hope that this series was helpful to anybody that followed it, and that everyone found at least one tip that they wanted to start using.

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

Has this ever happened to you? You go to the shoe store, get your feet fitted for shoes, and they fit perfectly. Then by the time you finish your first run, they are so tight that you have trouble getting them off. This is a not uncommon problem, and it comes from trying on shoes in unnatural conditions.

When you purchase your running shoes, the easiest thing that you can do to ensure the best fit is to never visit the shoe store first thing in the morning. Wait until mid-afternoon or early evening, when you have been on your feet all day and your feet have had a chance to swell to their normal size. In fact, if you can go to the shoe store shortly after a run, your feet should be right around the size that they will be when you finish a run in the new shoes that you are about to buy!

Also, be sure to bring any socks or insoles that you plan on wearing with the shoes. That way, you can make sure that the whole combination works out to get you shoes that are the best possible fit while you are out running.

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

One thing that never fails to amaze me about running shoes is how such a precision designed tool, with so much research and development thrown into it, can always come with the flimsiest and least effective insoles imaginable. This is not an indictment on any one company; I can not think of any that do not ship their shoes with really bad insoles. Now, for 80% of the people that buy those shoes, the insoles may be perfectly fine. In fact, right now I still always use the same insoles that ship with my shoes. Something that you may want to consider, especially if you have arch problems, is replacing them with something like Superfeet. Insoles like that provide a hard plastic shell under your arch which helps support it and can really reduce pain from injuries such as plantar fascitis. If your arches hurt, visit your doctor to see if he or she thinks that they might be right for you.

Whatever you do, though, do not put something like Spencos or Dr. Scholl’s in your shoes. You do not want to provide less support for your arches while you are running; that is just inviting your foot to hurt itself. The gel might sound like a good idea, and maybe when you are sitting at your desk at work they are, but it does not let your foot get a feel for the ground and you stretch your arch out in unnatural ways while you are running. If you have any questions about arch support and insoles, you should consult somebody with experience such as your local running expert and your doctor.

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

A lot of people will buy a pair of shoes, and will absolutely fall in love with them. They think they are the greatest thing going. The next time they go to the store, they get distracted by a glitzier pair of shoes, or they find some shoes that are cheaper, or the model that they like is out of stock. Instead, they purchase something else, which works out all right for them but are not nearly as good as the ones they went to buy in the first place.

When you find shoes that you like, you should always try to keep a pair on hand. Something that works for you will normally keep working for you. Barring an injury such as plantar fascitis which changes the shape of your foot, or a change in training habits as you become more fit and more competitive, you should try to keep at least one pair of shoes in your rotation as the ones that you really love wearing. Having a second type of shoe is good as well, but if you have something that you like you should spend most of your money on those shoes. An extra $20 can keep you on the roads sometimes. That being said, shoes that cost $20 less might also be the perfect shoe for you; do not judge the shoes based on price alone.

All through high school, I used Saucony Grid Shadow running shoes. When I got to college, those shoes were just too heavy for the kind of mileage that I was doing and I discovered the Asics 2040 trainers. My sophomore year, they had a really good sale on them so I bought four pairs, which lasted me for quite a while as I used all of them in rotation at the same time. When I find shoes that I like, I stick with them. These days, my mainstay shoes have been the Asics DS Trainers and the 2100s. I am picking up some Nike shoes tomorrow that I got through my team sponsorship to try out, but they are going into rotation with shoes that I know work well for me.

Be aware that sometimes styles can change from one model to the next. My wife needs to use the Asics Gel-Kayanos due to a foot problem that she has, but from one model to the next they had changed the way that the shoe is put together and it made her problem worse rather than helping her. The newest model seems to have fixed that problem, but it can be hard to find the model that you really like with all of the constant “improvements” that shoe companies feel like they have to make. Make sure that you do not jump straight into a new model and buy as many pairs as they have. First, shoes only have a shelf life of a few years before the rubber begins to break down, so you don’t want them sitting around for a long time. And second, you need to make sure that the new model still works for you.

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

My second tip about choosing your shoes is to not settle for one style of shoe. You should always try to keep at least two styles of shoes in rotation at any given time. There are two sides to this coin.

First, you want two different styles to give your feet a little variety. Even if you are going out for just a random training run, it does not hurt to use different kinds of shoes. The shoes may belong to the same category of shoes, or they may belong to different categories. But, you should try to have at least two different makes or models.

Second, you will want to use different shoes for different occasions. A Sunday run might call for trainers, but a 1 mile race on the track probably calls for some sort of racing shoe such as spikes or flats. Having a few different styles lets you choose a shoe appropriate for the race or workout that is on order for the day.

Some of the generic styles of shoes that you might come across are:

• Trainers: Heavier shoes with plenty of cushioning. These are all-around every day use running shoes.
• Lightweight Trainers: These are trainers that might not offer as much padding, but they weigh a few ounces less than regular trainers and for some people make a good alternative for every day running.
• Trail Shoes: These tend to support your ankles a little better than the average trainer and will have a larger tread on them. These shoes are ideal for running through puddles and piles of leaves and dirt.
• Cross Trainers: These shoes tend to be heavier than trainers, and usually provide much more support for your ankles. These shoes are ideal if you want one pair of shoes for running in and playing basketball or tennis in.
• Walking Shoes: These shoes can be of any variety. They might be sneakers, they might be boots, they might dress shoes, they might sandals; these can be any shoe that is not meant for running, and should not be used as such.
• Racing Flats: Lightweight shoes that weigh sometimes half as much as the average trainer, these shoes are ideal for road races and can be used on the track.
• Spikes: Shoes with metal teeth in the soles that can grip a track surface or grass and earth. These shoes are lightweight like racing flats, but usually have threaded holes in the bottom that you can screw in a variety of different spikes and plugs. These shoes are perfect for a fast track race, and for maintaining your footing during a cross country race. They are especially useful in cross country races when it is raining. They can be uncomfortable to wear if you have to run on roads or other hard surfaces, and doing so will dull your spikes very quickly. The spikes should be removed and cleaned after every race.
• Waffles: Similar to racing flats, these lightweight shoes have a little bit more tread on them and might have rubber spikes in the same patterns as spikes. These shoes are best suited for cross country racing, especially if you will need to cross or run along any roads.

Racing flats, spikes, and waffles should not be used for every day training in. They should be reserved for races and speed workouts. They tend not to offer enough support to keep you from injuring yourself if you use them as your every day running shoe.

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

Today, I am going to advocate having well maintained shoes by choosing the correct shoes in the first place. When you are new to running, or have been running for a while but never paid much attention to your shoes, you should seek out the help of somebody that knows what they are talking about. These sort of people are not usually difficult to find; if you have a running shoe specialty store near you, you have some local experts (in most situations). Everywhere that I have lived there has always been at least one or two running shoe stores within easy driving distance. Most of the time, the people who run those stores are accomplished runners who know how to fit people for the proper shoes.

You will hear words like pronation and supination, (the rolling of your foot towards the inside or outside as it strikes the ground), but you will not need to worry about it. They will watch you run around their store, or on a treadmill, or on the sidewalk outside. Then they will have you try some shoes on and make sure that you get a proper fit.

Be sure to ask questions if you are confused about anything. They are there to help you. By choosing the proper shoes, you will be less likely to hurt yourself and you will be much more comfortable while you are out training.

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

If you properly rotate your shoes, then you may (and should) come upon a day when you have more than one pair of the same style of shoe. When I was in college, I had 4 pairs of Asics 2050s that I was running in, plus two pairs that I had “retired” and used for walking around in. The problem with having two shoes that look alike are that you can easily mix and match a left and right shoe from two seperate pairs. This is a bad thing. Mixing and matching can lead to injury, since your shoes will be at different cycles of their life and can create an imbalance in your stride. A pair of shoes with 50 miles will treat your feet much differently than a pair of shoes with 500 miles in them. If you always put your shoes on a rack in pairs this may not be a big deal, but if you ever need to throw two pairs into the same travel or gym bag for some reason it can be very easy to confuse them.

The answer to this problem is to always label your shoes. How you label them is not important, as long as you have a system that works for you. In my opinion, a way to quickly identify your shoes without spending a lot of time at it is beneficial. You will just want to grab a pair and go when you are ready to start a run, and you will not want to spend the time looking inside at the labels under the tongues.

The way that I label my shoes is to write a letter on the back side of the shoes above the heel in permanent marker. I give each of my shoes a letter. When I used to keep a paper training log, I would start with “A” for each style and work my way up. So, I would have 2050-A, 2050-B, 2050-C, 2090-A, 2090-B, 2100-A, et cetera. Only the letter would go on the shoe itself; the log kept track of what the style was. Now that I am using a spreadsheet on my computer as a training log, though, I have started going up through the alphabet and preceding the style name. So now I have F-2100, E-DSX, I-DSX, G-Zoom, and so forth. This lets me just type the first letter and it automatically fills in the appropriate shoe for me.

I also label the underside of the insole with the letter that applies to the shoe. I normally leave the insole sticking out of the shoe while they dry, but sometimes they get seperated and it makes it easy for me to match the correct insole with the correct shoe.

My system is not necessarily the best system. The important thing is to have a system, and to use it.

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

You should always try to keep at least two active pairs of running shoes available, if not three or four pairs. Whenever possible, you should avoid running in the same pair of shoes more than once a day, and would preferably not wear the same shoes two days in a row.

When you run in a pair of shoes, even on a warm or cool day with no precipitation and a dry surface, your shoes still get a little wet. Your feet sweat, and the fabric can absorb some of the humidity from the air. By not wearing your shoes two days in a row, you will allow your shoes to completely dry out.

Not wearing the same shoes two days in a row also means that the rubber in the sole of the shoe will have an opportunity to decompress before you wear them again. You are applying a lot of force with each foot strike, and the rubber will get a tiny bit denser and take a little bit of time to go back to it’s normal state. If you never allow it to completely get back to it’s normal uncompressed state, then it’s normal state will begin to default to being a little compressed.

Rotating will extend the life of your shoes. First, the shoes will last twice as long on the calendar because you are only wearing them half as often (or less), plus they will last a little more than that because you are taking better care of them.

Using a different pair of shoes each day is better for your feet as well. You have a better chance of avoiding the start of a run with wet feet, and your feet will not have the exact same cushioning and padding for each run. Doing the exact same thing day in and day out can be detrimental to your body in any type of exercise, so changing things up on a regular basis will help develop your muscles and support a little better.

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

Sometimes you finish a run out in the rain, or through a particularly muddy or puddle strewn course, or out in the snow. And sometimes, your shoes are completely drenched when you finish that run. What are the best ways for you to dry your shoes quickly and efficiently? You already know that you should never put your shoes in front of a window or a heater. There are two effective ways to dry your shoes quickly that will not hurt them.

The first thing that you can do, and the most effective, is to put your shoes in front of a fan. This will make sure that you have dry air constantly moving past your shoes, which will help the moisture trapped in your shoes evaporate and be carried away from the shoes by the air your fan is moving. This is the safest way to dry your shoes, and is actually better for them than just placing them on a rack and allowing them to dry on their own. Under most circumstances, however, this just is not necessary or worth the bother.

The second thing that you can do is to wad up some newspaper and stuff the toes of your shoes with them. In general, this will not hurt your shoes at all, but I will rarely do this anyway. The ink can seep off of the newspaper page and stain the inside of your shoes if you leave it in there for too long. I do not know if this is harmful to the shoes or not, but I always go on the assumption that it could be. Sometimes, however, I know that I will need to use a pair of shoes the next day and will want to make sure that they are dry. Stuffing the shoes with newspaper can speed the process up by absorbing the moisture from the shoe and into the paper. Just be sure that you remove or replace the newspaper quickly and regularly.

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

If you are anything like me, then your running shoes rarely remain white for very long after you purchase them. On some runs, you may even get home to discover that your shoes are just plain dirty!

The first thing that you should do after you take off your shoes is clean them. Caked on mud, stones caught in the tread, a pile you stepped in that was left behind by a dog; these should all be removed before you store your shoes. First, in the vein of some recent tips, your shoes will dry faster if there is not a layer of moisture and insulation between the fabric of your shoes and the air outside them.

Second, and more importantly, you will not have to worry about any chemicals in the mud (or other “dirt”) that could break down the fabric or the rubber in your shoes. You will prolong the life of your shoes if you minimize all the bacteria that would love to feed off of them.

Third, by removing the mud and any stones on your shoes, you will have an easier time of it. You will not have to waste your time before your next run cleaning them off, or else suffer the beginning of a run with very heavy and off balance shoes or with a stone clicking on the road and throwing off your stride.

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

A good way to allow your shoes to dry faster is to pull the insoles out of the shoe when you are not wearing them. See the picture to the left for an example of how I store my insoles. I tend to pull the insoles out so that just the ball of the foot is sticking inside of the shoe; that keeps the appropriate insoles with the correct shoes to make it faster for me to put the shoe back together before wearing it. This will allow air to circulate within the shoe, which will speed up drying time. This only takes me a few moments at the end of a run and a few moments before going out for a run to accomplish, and can really speed up the safe drying of your shoes by quite a bit.

Another way to speed up the drying of your shoes is to get them off of the floor. If you put your shoes on a rack, more air can get under the shoes and you can allow your wet shoes to drip onto the floor rather than having any water that might drip staying in contact with the fabric of your shoes. I recommend putting the wetter shoes closer to the floor than your dry shoes, so that you do not drip into your dry shoes. As you wear the dry shoes out in the rain and puddles, you can move your previously wet shoes higher up the rack to replace with your newly wet shoes.

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

The first shoe tip in this series that I have will actually be the basis for the next few tips, and that is to keep your shoes dry. Obviously, you should feel free to get them as wet as necessary while you are out running and having a good time! When your feet are not in your shoes, though, you should keep them as dry as possible. That will prolong the life of the shoes, as well as prevent you from hurting yourself or getting blisters when you put them back on.

You have to be careful about how you keep your shoes dry, though. Never put your shoes next to a heater or in direct sunlight. You can damage the shoes even easier than leaving them wet by degrading the rubber. Instead, always make sure that your shoes are at least a few feet away from the heat source preferably not outside in the sun or right underneath a window where a lot of sunlight comes in.

Table of contents for Shoe Maintenance

1. The Care and Maintenance of Running Shoes (or, how to enjoy your honeymoon by ignoring your websites)
2. Keep your shoes dry, but not near heat
3. Keep your shoes dry by pulling the insoles out
4. Remove rocks and mud from your shoes after your run
5. What should you do if your shoes are sopping wet?
6. Rotating your shoes can prevent injuries and prolong shoe life
7. Label your shoes to avoid mixing and matching
8. When choosing shoes, seek the help of an expert.
9. The Eight Categories of Shoes
10. When you find shoes that work for you, stick with them!
11. Replacing your insoles can really help you…or really hurt you!
12. How to make sure your shoes fit correctly when you buy them
13. A list of shoe care tips

Having spent a little time in my life running, and having gone through more than my fair share of my favorite tool, I know a little bit about running shoes. I do not know everything there is to know, or even anything remotely close to everything that there is to know. For specific questions about specific shoes, I turn to the experts. Thankfully, having spent that little time running, I know quite a few people that are quite knowledgable about shoes and am good friends with most of them. That being said, I know how to take good care of my shoes and I am going to share some of my tips and strategies with all of you. Shoes are a runner’s most important tool, unless that runner prefers running barefoot in which case shoes are an occasional annoyance. Most of us in the United States do not have strong enough feet to run barefoot all the time, though, so we rely upon our shoes.

Over the next week or so, I encourage you to contact me by email or by posting a comment, but I will not be able to get back to you until late next week or early on the week after. I have written this series ahead of time to keep you all occupied while I am busy getting married and enjoying my first few days of matrimony in a different country.

Each article should have a link to the previous and next articles (once they are available) above the related articles. In many cases, you will probably see other related articles listed as well; the two systems are completely seperate ways of hopefully helping you to find content that is useful to you.

So, enjoy your week, find a new appreciation for your shoes, and I hope that you find at least one tip I share with you useful!

All in all, I really liked the make and quality of the shoes. They were comfortable, they seemed to be high quality, and the customer service was fantastic.

However, my left foot didn’t really like running in them. My right foot did not have any problems, but my left foot was not feeling quite right, and I am very picky about the shoes I will run in. There is no way to know whether a shoe will work or not until you try them, so I suggest that you give them a shot.

The shoes are a bit heavy, especially the Proportion model. The newer model is about the same weight as Asics 2100s, but the older model weighs an extra couple ounces on top of that.

I had no trouble sending the shoes back, and the experience certainly does not turn me off of mail ordering the shoes. I chatted on the phone with the owner for about a half hour when I ordered the shoes. All I needed to do was send him a quick email to let him know that I was not going to keep them and he send me a return shipping label to get the shoes back to him. As soon as he got the shoes, he credited my full purchase price back to my credit card.

Virtruvian Running Shoes are made and sold out of New Hampshire. You can call them at 603-344-8221.

- There are about 4 or 5 pairs of shoes that are currently Nike+ capable. More are on the way, including stability shoes and probably (let’s hope) trail shoes.
- The Nike+ sensor only weights 6.5 grams
- This only works with the iPod Nano because the iPod Nano has no moving parts and makes for a more stable device to run with (regular ipods have a hard drive which can get messed up from running)
- If you cut a hole in your non-Nike shoe and insert the sensor it’s only about 50% accurate. Nike wear tested it this way. however, I know some of you all may try this. If you do I’d be curious to hear your results
- The sensor is 92% accurate out of the box and 98% after it’s calibrated for each person

I still do not plan on purchasing either the shoes or the iPod, although I will be trying to train in some Nike shoes in a few months. Thanks to Jessica for a few more details on the system; I look forward to reading reviews about it. Hopefully her foot will heal quickly so that she can personally test the system out in her own training.

Does anybody have any experience with these shoes? What did you think? How long did they last? Am I just crazy for considering the purchase of some shoes I’ve never tried on before?

The new Nike+ Air Zoom Moire is the first footwear designed to talk to iPod. Nike plans to make many of its leading footwear styles Nike+ ready, connecting millions of consumers to the Nike+iPod experience. With the Nike+ footwear connected to iPod nano through the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, information on time, distance, calories burned and pace is stored on iPod and displayed on the screen; real-time audible feedback also is provided through headphones. The kit includes an in-shoe sensor and a receiver that attaches to iPod. A new Nike Sport Music section on the iTunes� Music Store and a new nikeplus.com personal service site help maximize the Nike+iPod experience.

As I own neither an iPod nor any Nike shoes (although I may get some racing flats in the near future) I do not plan on purchasing either product. I wonder how heavy the shoe is going to be, and how well this is going to work. I am looking forward to the reviews once the product hits the market. I think that finding easy ways of integrating devices and not requiring somebody intent on the numbers in their training to carry 5000 devices with them on every workout is a great idea.

The best selling point on all this is the real-time audible feedback through the headphones. How much easier will it be to have your machines tell you what you are doing rather than having to push a bunch of buttons or look at tiny numbers?

The only thing that I wonder is how accurate the shoes are going to be. I have not been overly impressed with any of the pedometers that I have used, although I have never used ones attached to my shoes and have read some good reviews of a few models.

(Source: Run Mystic)

Mizuno Wave Rider

Shoes are a very individual thing and anybody who is not sure how to choose the proper running shoe should go to a specialty shop for some help.

That being said, Mizuno’s seem very well put together and of my friends that run in them I have not heard anything negative about them.

“Despite Nike’s patent protection, Adidas has built shoes that use Nike’s technology,” Nike spokesman Vada Manager said on Thursday. [...] The Adidas trainers Nike claims infringe its patents all use Adidas’ a3 cushioning system, such as its new Kevin Garnett signature shoe, named after a popular US basketball player.

Adidas recently bought Reebok, and is the second largest sportswear manufacturer. Nike is the largest. This strikes me as being a power struggle between the big boys, where Adidas is going to claim that their shoes do not have nothing more than a passing resemblance to Nike’s patents and that it is an independantly developed and completely seperate technology. It looks similar and does the same thing, but in a different way. Nike will just be trying to consolidate its position as the big dog, and if Adidas did infringe upon their patents then I hope they win.

Of course, the real winner, I hope, is the smaller firms. Hopefully they can gain some momentum while the big boys are distracted and get a little market share, especially if Adidas has to a dozen of their brands off the market. I do not really see this as likely, however.

Ignoring the lack of grip, which no training shoe is going to have, I rather liked the shoes during the speed portion of the workout. They are definately lighter and have a different feel than the 2090 series. During the warmup, however, I felt as though I were pronating a bit. Whether that is because I was tired from this morning’s swim workout, or just getting used to the new shoes and haven’t broken them in yet, I am not sure. I did not notice it so much during the cool down.

I am going to give these shoes another shot, and I at least should be able to use them for some of my shorter races if not for the marathon. I don’t know that I necessarily need to buy new flats and spikes quite yet, and may wait until next year to do that.