Thanks for the comment! Can’t think of any major negatives to using
compression, but I also use it sporadically.

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Hi Mark,

Getting widely different reactions to the same footware is an interesting challenge – as you say reading a review is no substitute for actually trying shoes on yourself.  I certainly have regretted buying shoes online after reading rav reviews only to  find that they just done work for me.

I do hope as we keeping pushing for an understanding of how shoes affect our gait and our experience of running we will start to tease out why such different reactions occur, and rather than seing personal choices as being quite discrete responses to footware we can see the underlying relationships at play.   I’m drawn to conlusion that while we are all individuals we are all human with the same basic mechanics, albeit rather complex mechanics, especially once you stick shoes on!

I’m optimistic that a deeper understanding will help us work out what footware choices will do for us, and when things breakdown to work out why and how better to fix it.  Fixing things sometimes mean going outside ones normal choices and outside ones comfort zone – going barefoot or into five fingers to fix a running gait is good example how one can push outside of the envelope and if one successfully transistions how ones comfort zone has be redefined.

Robert.

If we land on just the heel or just the forefoot then this area will deform to the loading much more strongly than if we apply the same load over a wider area.  This will have several effects – one the shoe will feel firmer when landing more flat footed than when you land on a specific part of the foot. Second when landing on localised area and then flattening the foot a local area which is deformed might spring back whilst the rest of the midsole deforms under load – which will create a rolling senstation.  For a firmer sole this deform/undeform induced movement/senstation will be less siginifcant and may be absent all together.

If we wind back to the research that suggests that we land firmer on softer more yielding surfaces craving stability then perhaps this rolling of the foot as you move on to stance might be a signal of instability – so you avoid it in soft cushioned shoes by landing more flat footed and avoid the local deformation problem.  In firm soled shoes there isn’t this inherent instability so you can safely land on more localized areas – i.e. on your forefoot, something you’ll want to do anyway to provide the softer loading on your body to account for the firm sole.

For heel strikes the firmer soles and just plain uncomfortable to run in without landing with more bent and complient knees.  Add a softer heel and then we make it possible to land with straighter knees and on your heel, not sure this is a good thing but hey ho this is where this train of thought takes us…  Once the heel striker is on stance and loading the whole foot they probably wouldn’t want to much additional rolling of the foot as the load redistributes so to avoid this I could certainly see having less forefoot cushioning useful to avoiding late stage pronation.   Following this logically on less thickness of cushioning on the forefoot might just be a good thing for a heel striker…. Yuck… how did the following a trail of thought lead me to this conclusion… ;-)  

If we assume the above thinking as sound then it’d suggest that we’d have three classes of shoes for different gaits – forefoot strike minimal sole cushioning, flat footed – even thickness and density of cushioning, heel striker – soft heel, firm forefoot.

I believe the above is reasonably sound, and needn’t be mutually exclusive to your thoughts on resonant fequency and cushioning. In fact there will be interplay – the more flat footed landing will result in greater effective stiffness and less rolling.  Also the rolling of the foot through stance will result in different loading across the different sides of the foot and legs so the waves that ride up though your leg wouldn’t be symetric.  When I say rolling I would typically expect this to be in form of pronation, but given there are lots of ways that a shoe can defom and lots of ways we can apply and remove loading this motion could easily be more complex.

Putting these two sets of ideas together possibly provides an stronger explanation for your shoe + gait preference.

As I’m currently shopping around for new marathon shoes this will be something to keep an eye on, comparing what has worked and not worked in the past with what’s being offered on the shelves.

Cheers

 Another flat footer here that transitioned from Brooks Beast / Asics 2000 series to Brooks GS & Innov 155.  After the initial calf and achilles growing pains I am much better off for it.

I think shoes can make a big difference, and sometimes it might be in
subtle ways that extend beyond just foot strike. I have seen plenty of
people who continue to heel strike in Vibrams, and others who have
adapted to them just fine. However, heel striking in Vibrams is not a
good idea, and my guess is that with time we might see adaptation
occur. I think people probably differ in the speed at which they can
adapt their gait. No data to support this, just a hunch. Old habits
can sometimes be hard to break.

Pete

I agree Mark, each person has to find out what works best on their
own. Reviews can be a guide to what to try, but there’s no necessary
reason that what works for me will work for someone who reads my
reviews.

The compression leg sleeves will have more to do with muscle tuning than leg stiffness. By using the compression sleeve, you are starting to alter the vibration and ‘tuning’ of the muscle, and this is where Nigg is going with his research.

Pete,
Your reviews are some of the best out there as they help folks differentiate some of this stuff….but still no substitute for going to the local store, esp one selling a menu of minimlaist shoes :) 
Maybe one dy there will be a frequency rating.  Elite tennis players have figured out how they tune their strings to their specific feel…this all may trickle down.
Mark

One of the big things I have noticed is how much more muscle soreness I get when I run on tracks.  When running on “hard” surfaces I get almost no soreness in the calves and feet’s but when running on track (the soft type made of some rubbery material) I can be sure to feel soreness the following day. I also feel like the track is draining energy while running on hard surfaces produces a lot shorter ground contact and almost “springy” feeling. I feel a lot less heavy running on hard surfaces.

I had a lot’s of problems with calf soreness before I got me a pair of
compression leg sleeves (CEP All Sports Compression Sleeve) that just covers the calves. After that I have been able to almost double my weekly mileage over a period of time while feeling fresh most of the time. My thoughts now are if there are any downsides to run almost every run with compression gear and also using these a few hours afterwards for increased recovery? My gut feeling is that it is probably better to alternate but then I may have to decrease my training loads. Any thoughts about this?

Thanks for a great blog and I especially enjoy the shoe reviews as you get
to test the shoes quite some time before they are introduces to Europe (Sweden in my case). We are still waiting on the New Balance Minimus Trail for example :)