I’ve never used Nike shoes, I’ve nothing against them just never actually liked a pair enough to buy some. Over the years, I’ve never even been that interested in Nike shoes. Then a while ago along came the Nike Free trainers. Could Nike be jumping on to the barefoot supporters bandwagon? Hedging their bets in case the movement really took off? Or were they really worth looking
They’re Here!
I had ordered some Aqua Shoes from E-Bay a couple of weeks ago but they ended up being the wrong size in the bag – so finally the new ones are here.
They cost me £6.99 including p&p, so I was expecting them to live up to my very high expectations in protecting me from the cold while maintaining the barefoot experience as much as possible.
And they did! And I was very surprised.
When
Who needs new shoes?
It occurred to me the other day that the last pair of ‘ordinary’ trainers I bought was back in April 2008.
Although, since then, I have had 3 new pairs of not so ordinary running shoes:
- Inov-8 Roclite 315. These have been used for much of my running: 5k road races, half marathons, long (20 mile+) road runs, off-road marathons & mountain races. They are getting pretty worn now but still have plenty of miles left in them, I’ll replace them soon, probably with some 285s
- Zoot Ultra Race 2. I tried these on in a local Triathlon shop out of curiosity. They looked very interesting: extremely lightweight, minimal cushioning & support, very low heel lift and amazingly comfortable. They’ve not had much use yet because I really want to be rid of my Achilles problem before I go blasting a 5k in them — they are even flatter than the Roclites.
- Aqua shoes. At the other end of the price spectrum to the Zoots are these cheap and cheerful aqua shoes bought in Tescos for about £3. I’ve only run a few times in them including a 5 miler, but they’ve been very comfy. I will use them more in the winter when the roads carry too much debris for safe barefoot running.
The point is though, the marketing guys and the running magazines will have us replacing our shoes every 500 miles or risk certain injury — I’m not entirely sure this is the best strategy to
4th September — Barefoot run 12
A short road run home from work of 5.5 miles.
I selected the aqua shoes for this run and the plan was to take them off for a spell and run barefoot. So at about the halfway point that’s just what I did. I’ve not run on this road barefoot before. It’s another quiet lane, but it is surfaced with a rather more coarse aggregate than the lane I’m used to; more like the lane I encountered
Transition from shod to barefoot runner
Most of us who run have a lot of time, energy and miles invested in our current state of fitness and we don’t really want to sacrifice any of that as we start to run barefoot. We know that we should start gradually, yet we don’t want to cut our mileage drastically and lose our investment.
Our feet have got used to the protection that running shoes offer and our running gait has evolved
17th August — Barefoot run 7
This was not a totally barefoot run, I merely added a barefoot section to the end of my 7-mile road run this evening. With a mile to go, I ditched the shoes (Filas) and socks, and ran up the hill home. I have to say, the feet were a little sore, probably a hang-over from the longer run in aqua shoes just 2 days before — also ending in a short barefoot section.
Of more concern is a noticeable
