Choosing your running shoes

Running Shoes

When I first decided to start taking my running sessions more seriously 3 years ago a natural question come to my mind: what kind of ecquipment shoud I use? It did not seem a daunting task for a beginner: T-shirt , shorts and a pair of running shoes. Stop. The decision regarding the type of shoes can be a truly headache believe-me..

After some basic research over the web, sporting stores and my brother, who use to be a professional athlete in the 10.000m and 5.000m distances, I concluded that if I were to save money in anything here I needed to make sure it was not the running-shoes! Saving some Euros could cost a lot later ( injuries, doctor bills , or even worse: making me giving up of a healthy habit that I was trying to establish back then).

After a couple of weeks I found just what I needed and bought the Asics Nimbus 10 which fitted perfectly my high arch feet..but how do I come up with that? Lets take a quick dummy tour at the process of choosing the right running shoes.

Do your Wet Test !

To make it short, there are three basic foot types, each based on the height of our arches,each type affecting the reduction of impact on the foot while running .There are various ways for you to conclude which foot type you have, however lets not make it rocket science and stick to the easy but still very effective wet test :

1st: Pour a thin layer of water into a shallow pan

2nd: step in and gently wet the sole of your foot

3rd: step onto a shopping bag or a blank piece of heavy paper

4th: Step off and see the result

Interpreting results

1) Flat Arch

If your entire footprint is visible it means you have a flat foot - you probably are an overpronator. For this type of foot there are some good running shoes that could adapt well to your foot structure, here are some examples ( only for men`s shoes):

-Asics GT 2140

-New Balance MR 729

-Salomon XT Wings

-Mizuno Wave Nirvana 5

-Nike Air Equalon 2

2) Normal Arch

This is probably the most common foot type ( normal pronator) and happens when you see about half of your arch on the wet test footprint. This short list can be a good start for you to choose from ( only for men`s shoes ):

-New Balance MR 749

-Puma Complete Magnetist III

-Nike Zoom Equalon 3

-Mizuno Wave Renegade 4

-Asics Gel-Evolution 5

3) High Arch :

Your footprint describes a high arch and you can only see the ball of your foot, tour heel and a thin line that travels outside your foot (this is actually my type of foot :) In this case you might want to take a look at these models ( only for men`s shoes)

-Asics Gel Nimbus 10

-Adidas Running Adizero Boston

-Mizuno Wave Precision 10

-Nike Air Pegasus 25

-Saucony ProGrid Ride

My Conclusion

Choosing a shoe can be a daunting task, but believe me it pays for the effort of being injury free due to foot problems and therefore able to evolve your running gradually.

This is a great yet simple sport and in my opinion the basic training for any athlete on every sport from Soccer to Rugby, Motor sports, Tennis, Swimming, etc, includes a good running scheme of some kind. I started hardly finishing 2 km without taking a break, nowadays my weekly routine includes 30km, it is just a matter of being persistent, the outcome, believe me, is great.

Hope you enjoy it,

Cheers

David