What I talk about when I talk running #4

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Today I’m going to talk about the runner’s most (and only) important part of kit: shoes! Murakami, in ‘What I talk about when I talk about running’ (WITAWITAR), expresses a preference for Mizuno shoes:

I like the fact that this brand of shoes (Mizuno) doesn’t have any kinds of bells and whistles. This is just my personal preference, nothing more. Each person has his own likes.

When I moved back to Australia in 2009 I decided to go to a running specialist shop to help me choose a good pair of running shoes. There they took a few measurements and got me to run on a treadmill before coming up with a shortlist of recommended shoes. I ended up going with a pair of Mizunos. I ran my first (and I think second?) marathon in these shoes. In 2010-2011, I became interested in the barefoot/minimalist shoes fad. I was recommended a pair of Asics shoes as a nice way to transition into a minimalist shoe. They were very light-weight in comparison to the Mizunos but still had a bit of support and shock absorption. These shoes served me for about two years and then I decided to go all in on minimal and bought a pair of New Balance Minimus. These shoes took a while to ‘break in’. There was a lot of rubbing and discomfort for my first six or so training runs. Once that was out of the way I grew to love them. These are the running shoes that I still use to this day.

My current running kicks

However, just last week I upgraded to the latest New Balance Minimus Trails. I bought them online and expect them to come this week or next week. I probably won’t run the City2Surf (on in about a month) in them, but if I end up running the Bilpin bush run (two weeks after City2Surf) I may run it in the new shoes. Even though the minimalist running fad died down a few years ago, I think I would find it hard going back to traditional bouncy runners. I’ve found that minimalist shoes have been great for improving my running form. I used to run on my toes a bit, and transitioning to minimalist shoes definitely helped with that.

I’ve also been keeping an eye on my all-time running history in the running tracking app I use. Just today I ticked over 1000Ks. I’ve had my current shoes since before I started using this app, so they have been with me for every step. Realistically they’ve probably run 1100-1200Ks. This was part of the reason why I decided it was time for a new pair of runners. I was reading a few articles this week about how often runners should replace their shoes. There is a big discrepancy between what shoe companies recommend and what athletes recommend, as highlighted in this article.

So, runners of Steem ... I’m curious. What shoes do you wear? How often do you replace them?

1000Ks. Woop!

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