BUYING TRAINING SHOES – Part 3

Apart from orthotics, you should now have excellent knowledge of how to buy the right training shoe for your foot. You should:

a) realise how vulnerable you are to injury through wearing inappropriate training shoes

b) Have done the shoe wear test

c) Have done the wet foot test

d) Know which pronation type you are

e) So you know which type of running shoe to buy

f) You should be saving regularly for your training shoes in order to replace them every 350 to 500 miles (560 - 800 kilometres).

g) You know what to do and look for in the shoes when in the shop to buy a pair of shoes

h) Know that the Achilles tendon protector tab IS NOT RUBBING your Achilles tendon

i) Be rotating two pairs of shoes

j) Maybe buy a lightweight pair of shoes for racing

k) Cleaning your shoes regularly and cleaning the laces regularly too

l) Lacing your shoes correctly

m) Have a spare pair of laces to replace broken laces immediately

n) Have visited a foot doctor and have set aside some money for orthotics (see next month's article)

A LAST THOUGHT

This is my introductory thought! You may be wondering why in a series of articles about 'Training for Running' there is no talk about actual training methods. Well, all the training methods and all those miles of huffing and puffing enjoying the runner's 'high' are not to be a past time if you are injured, and the health benefits and cardiovascular improvements cannot be maintained either. In fact, many other things need to be in place before you start to run - all the ancillary aspects which are part and parcel of good training for running. Moreover, a holistic approach is required.

Note to Sprinters

As I know nothing about sprinting and my personal best for the 400 metres is a magnanimous 57.6 seconds, I am very flattered that some sprinters have been reading my articles. Hopefully you have found them useful, and since I am not going to talk about long distance training for quite some time to come, I would like to encourage you to continue reading these articles as all knowledge is valuable, and so the more background reading you can do, the better. Many of these articles will be relevant to sprinters, such as avoiding injuries, and the questions I pose will, I hope, cause you to assess your own situation correctly too. However, for specific advice visit web sites or buy books about how to train for sprinting - practising starts, bounding, running up flights of steps, weight training .....