Now that I am back at some semblance of running I have been thinking about the entire spectrum of shoes available to us these days and how to best use them in rotation.
One thing about minimalist/firm shoes is that they don't allow for much cheating. If your form breaks down, there is no padding left to cheat through the run. When I got back to running, all I could run in was New Balance Minimus trail or Vibrams, because I had the best feel of the ground as I have a loss of feeling in my left leg due to a disc/nerve injury.
Like catching a football bare handed or in thin wide receiver gloves, I am much better at catching a football with minimalist gloves than with big padded mittens on. My initial running was at really slow paces last year (like 7-8kph jogging on the treadmill). But in the hard shoes I had a good feel of the ground and what my feet were doing. If I got back into Hokas for "padding' I would lose coordination and would have difficulty running as I lost that hard contact with the ground....its l was like fumbling a football with mittens on.
In any case, I am running faster and faster now and doing OK amount of mileage a year down the road.
What I am finding is that when I run really fast for me it does not matter what shoes I am in because the forces are high enough that I am making a more firm contact with the ground. When I run slow or easy, I am running better in hard shoes because I can feel the ground better.
But I started thinking about it....in general, when I see people running fast, their form gets better (to a point), because you can't really run fast with really bad form....but you can run slow and long with horrible form, and that's when all the injuries happen (when things are off kilter and not aligned).
Running fast is hard to do with bad form, and running slow in hard shoes is also hard to do with really bad form. The common thing is the form stays reasonably good in both cases.
Doing my easier runs in hard shoes, also forces me to cut down easy runs shorter or take them slower if I am not sufficiently recovered from hard and fast runs. For my fast runs, I am more recovered and I can hammer with OK form in any shoes, but the padded shoes are a bit more forgiving on pavement than hard shoes.
One thing about minimalist/firm shoes is that they don't allow for much cheating. If your form breaks down, there is no padding left to cheat through the run. When I got back to running, all I could run in was New Balance Minimus trail or Vibrams, because I had the best feel of the ground as I have a loss of feeling in my left leg due to a disc/nerve injury.
Like catching a football bare handed or in thin wide receiver gloves, I am much better at catching a football with minimalist gloves than with big padded mittens on. My initial running was at really slow paces last year (like 7-8kph jogging on the treadmill). But in the hard shoes I had a good feel of the ground and what my feet were doing. If I got back into Hokas for "padding' I would lose coordination and would have difficulty running as I lost that hard contact with the ground....its l was like fumbling a football with mittens on.
In any case, I am running faster and faster now and doing OK amount of mileage a year down the road.
What I am finding is that when I run really fast for me it does not matter what shoes I am in because the forces are high enough that I am making a more firm contact with the ground. When I run slow or easy, I am running better in hard shoes because I can feel the ground better.
But I started thinking about it....in general, when I see people running fast, their form gets better (to a point), because you can't really run fast with really bad form....but you can run slow and long with horrible form, and that's when all the injuries happen (when things are off kilter and not aligned).
Running fast is hard to do with bad form, and running slow in hard shoes is also hard to do with really bad form. The common thing is the form stays reasonably good in both cases.
Doing my easier runs in hard shoes, also forces me to cut down easy runs shorter or take them slower if I am not sufficiently recovered from hard and fast runs. For my fast runs, I am more recovered and I can hammer with OK form in any shoes, but the padded shoes are a bit more forgiving on pavement than hard shoes.