Friday, July 15, 2011

Weekly Training Tip - Rotate Running Shoes

Once you've been competing, or at least completing, endurance sports long enough, you'll start to come up with your own little idiosyncrasies.  Some of them you will pick up from other athletes, and some of them you will come up with all on your own, thinking that they are the greatest thing since Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch.  And maybe it is!  The only thing that really matters is that it improves your performance.  If not, then knock it off!

One thing I like to do is order two pairs of running shoes every time I buy new shoes.  I do this for two main reasons.  First is that it makes my shoes last longer.  Not last longer like I can magically put more miles on them before they go bad, but last longer as in an entire season as opposed to half of a season.  The second reason is that by using two pairs of shoes and rotating them, your running shoes get more of a chance to "recover" and you get to run on fresher shoes each time you run.

I'm no scientist, and I have done any specific tests to measure how long it takes a shoe to return to it's normal state after being run in.  I can only speak based off of what I have experienced.  And that is fresh shoes, each and every time I run.

Most recently, I purchased two pairs of the Saucony Progrid Kinvara's.  I purchased two different colors so it's very easy for me to tell which pair I'm using, and which pair is to be used next.  When I was running in my Adidas Adizero Tempo's, I simply wrote a "1" and "2" on the back of the shoe so I could tell them apart.  Pretty simple.

This tip won't apply to everyone, as some people won't see the need to purchase more than one pair of shoes, and I won't argue with them.  I feel that I've been putting a fair amount of miles on my shoes, and having them last for an entire season (and not having to break in a new pair mid-season) is pretty nice.  So try it out the next time you go to order your new running shoes!

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