Gear Review: Correct Toes

First of all, allow me to apologize for my sparse updates lately. Midterms hit, and then Part I of Boards, and next week is finals. Between this trimester's course load and Boards, I can see why they've dubbed fifth tri "hell tri." I also wanted to get some time with this particular product before I got a review up, since it's not one of those products where I'd expect to put them on, and within a week or so have a good opinion of them. Nope, this is something that I wanted to have a little bit more time with, and also get through the majority of this trimester's Postural Assessment course before I went and reviewed. However, I have a short breather before finals, and I've spent a couple months with playing with these now, so here we go...here's the Correct Toes review!

Gear Review: Topo Athletic Train RX

Tony Post is probably best known as the CEO of Vibram during the rise of FiveFingers. However, in his post-Vibram days, Post has founded a new company, Topo Athletic, that does away with the five toe design and instead draws inspiration from the Japanese tabi (aka the ninja shoe) to be the Topo two-toe. They're also coming out with regular non-split toe shoes, but I digress. Topo has different lines for different purposes: the RR for racing, RT for training, and RX for cross-training/lifting (the ST is their regular non-split toe shoe, but I'm not sure of where it fits into the line as of this writing). In a bit of a change of pace from my normal running shoe reviews, because Cait Chock guilted me into lifting more, I'll be reviewing the Topo Athletic Train RX (sometimes called the M-RX for men and W-RX for women).

Gear Review: Brooks PureCadence 2

As some of you may know, I do some of my running in the Brooks Racer ST 5 mild stability flat. It's not an overly stable shoe, and gives me a firmer platform and a touch of support for those days when the training is getting to me and my ankles could use the support. With this in mind, the Brooks PureCadence 2 seemed like a reasonable alternative for those days, so when Brooks contacted me to ask if I was interested in reviewing the second iteration PureCadence, I jumped at the opportunity.

Gear Review: PureConnect 2 Guest Review at RunBlogger

When Pete over at RunBlogger asks you if you'd like to write a guest review, you don't typically say no. Well, maybe you do if you're like...Running Times, but for most of us, that's a pretty exciting opportunity. So click on over to my Brooks PureConnect2 review, and much thanks to Pete for the opportunity!

Gear Review: Brooks PureDrift

A few months ago, I was desperately searching for a new shoe. I had a stack of boxes of Brooks Launch sitting in the back of my closet, along with my emergency hand-crank flashlight and a few bottles of water in case the zombie apocalypse arrives, because, as we all know, the first rule of Zombieland is cardio (that's a YouTube link, so don't click it if you're somewhere where noise is bad). However, they were strictly for emergencies, like sore feet that required familiar shoes...or the zombie apocalypse. A friend of mine had just posted to Twitter that she had just run through her last pair of now-discontinued Nike Skylons, so I knew that, Launch supply or not, I needed something different. There was the Mizuno Wave Precision, but why start to wear that when that's about to be replaced by the Wave Sayonara? There was the Saucony Kinvara, but the upper on that didn't fit me quite as well as that of the Brooks PureConnect. There was...wait. Why not just wear the PureConnect? Which is what I did. Anyway, needless to say, the Launch was saved which made my search moot, but my stint with the PureConnect rekindled my interest in the PureProject (which, Brooks, if that was your intent, well played), so when I heard about the release of the Brooks PureDrift, hey, I wanted them too.

Gear Review: SKORA Form

Over the past couple years, more and more reduced and minimal shoes have hit running store shelves. Big shoe companies have expanded their line to include shoes with reduced profiles. (In my opinion, more variety is usually good, unless a company is axing an awesome shoe in favor of a less awesome shoe, because that's not variety, that's just obnoxious). Additionally, many new companies who solely offer minimalist shoes have entered the market. I may not be a minimalist, but I can appreciate a greater variety of shoes on the market, especially when some of those minimalist shoes are sweet and give me options to wear on days when I just want less shoe. One of the new companies specializing in minimal shoes is SKORA, who offers two models, the Base and the Form. Their premium model is the SKORA Form.

Gear Review: New Balance MT10 (WT10) Minimus Trail

For the first eight years of my running career, I had one trainer (and possibly 1-2 pairs of spikes, depending on what year we're talking about). This meant that I wore whatever road shoes or cross-country spikes I had at the time (which was generally the Nike Pegasus or Nike Zoom Kennedy XC, depending on whether we're talking about trainers or spikes) on trail runs and trail races. As far as I was concerned, trail shoes were just the heavier, stiffer, and more bulked-up version of road shoes. I'm not really an ounce counter, especially when it comes to trainers, but stiffer is really not my thing. Then, in 2007, I walked into a store and saw the New Balance 790, a light, flexible, and low-slung trail racer. I had to have it. The 790 served me well...they got me through 38 miles of the Leadville Trail 100 (as a pacer...and yes, those bad boys stood up well to Hope Pass), 45 miles as part of a relay team for 24 Hours of Boulder (to be fair, my body didn't handle that one as well as I might have liked), numerous shorter trail races, two years of working as a counselor at a high school XC camp, and more trail tempo runs than I can count. Unfortunately, no shoe lasts forever, and by the time I finally decided it was time to replace them, New Balance had discontinued the 790. What's a roadie who occasionally pretends to run trails to do? Enter the New Balance WT10 (women's MT10, also called the Minimus Trail or Minimus 10 Trail).

Guest Blog: Gear Review: Merrell Lithe Glove

Today's post is another guest blog from my minimalist friend Julie, who you may remember as the trail runner who wrote the Saucony Grid Type A4 review. This time, she's got a review of the Merrell Lithe Glove, which is the women's companion to the men's Merrell Sonic Glove. Both shoes are part of the Merrell Barefoot Collection. So this one is for you minimalists who might wish my reviews came from the perspective of someone with a barefoot background!

Gear Review: Brooks Pure Flow

As some of you may know, I've been wearing the Brooks Launch as my daily trainer (with the Brooks PureConnect mixed in there sometimes). Unfortunately, some bad timing on my part had me at the National Running Center needing shoes on the spot with no time to actually ask them to order anything. No Launch in stock in my size meant I had to grab something else. Seeing as I had wanted to try the Brooks PureFlow for a while, I decided to take this opportunity to give them a spin.

Before we start, just to get you up to date, information on the Brooks PureProject can be found here.

Gear Review: Brooks PureConnect

A while ago, I posted some information on the Brooks PureProject, Brooks' entry into the reduced shoe market. When they were first announced, I was pretty unfazed, being happy with my other shoes, and mainly just satisfied that if Brooks was making other low-drop shoes, maybe that meant they'd leave the T Racer alone and not mess with that shoe's H delt. But then the more I heard about them, the more I wanted a pair! First came Sage's review of the PureFlow, then there was the PureProject Facebook contest, and then, well, I bought a pair of PureConnects. The PureProject line consists of four different shoes: the PureConnect, the PureFlow, the PureCadence, and the PureGrit. More information can be found in my previous post. Well, I've finally got some miles on the Brooks PureConnect, the most race-bred of the group, and now, it's time for a review!

No One Perfect Way to Run

The latest article to sweep the running world is Christopher McDougall's New York Times article and video on how to run. The article is harmless enough...obviously it's skewed towards McDougall's way of thinking, and like any opinion piece, it only shows one side of the argument, but it doesn't present anything that actually stuck out to me as factually wrong (unlike his book, which has some incorrect details like the assertion that Nike invented the raised heel, when there were actually running shoes with raised heels on the market before Nike was even founded). The video is...odd. McDougall comes off a bit like a car salesman, telling people that there is only one way to run and 85% of people are running "wrong," and then showing people how to do the same barefoot sprint drills that the rest of us have been doing for years, calling it a foolproof method to running the "correct" way. Only lots of people who are running "wrong" are pretty fast...and if someone has gotten themselves to the elite level running "wrong," are they really wrong?

Gear Review: ASICS Piranha SP 3

One of the coolest pairs of flats I've worn was the Adidas Adizero PR. At 3.9oz, they were super lightweight, incredibly low slung and close to the ground, and fit my foot like a glove. Unfortunately, Adidas is constantly revamping its Adizero line, and they were discontinued a few years ago. However, ASICS and Mizuno have since introduced ultralight flats, namely the Piranha and Wave Universe (There may be a few reduced shoes marketed as minimal that would also fall into this category, but I unfortunately have no idea what they are and therefore can't throw any names out for you. Maybe the Somnio Nada? I don't know). The Piranha is currently on its third iteration, the SP 3. When my PRs finally gave up the ghost, I decided it was time to look for another ultra-lightweight to replace them. When I was buying these (which was admittedly quite a while ago), only the Piranha was available in small sizes, so that made the decision as to which flat to buy very easy for me. I mentioned this shoe in the past, but never really gave it a full review. Well, seeing as that "review" was really more of an overview, here's the dirt on the Piranha.

Are we messing with form and shoes as a substitute for hard training?

Everywhere I look today, I see information on "the perfect running form." Articles on how to move from an ungainly heelstrike to a beautiful stride where your midfoot gently kisses the ground. How you should ditch your heavy foamboat foot coffin trainers with their high wedge heels and go to a minimalist zero-drop shoe that promotes good form. How this will all help you run faster, more efficiently, and injury-free. I can hardly go to a running website or forum anymore without being bombarded with information overload on form and shoes! And people are eating this information up too, to the point that I see more questions about running form and shoes than about training!

I know a lot of runners. There's a lot of variation as far as form goes, and as far as what shoes they wear. There are a lot of heel strikers, some midfoot strikers, and even a few forefoot strikers. And their shoe choices run the gamut from traditional trainers with a high level of cushioning and stability to completely barefoot. And it's not like the slow ones are the heel strikers who wear heavy trainers...my fastest friend is a heel striker who primarily wears the Brooks Defyance, a neutral trainer with a 12mm heel-toe differential and a high level of inherent stability for a shoe of its class (yes, neutral shoes have support built in). However, there is one thing that all of the fast ones have in common...they all work their effin' asses off.

Gear Review: Born to Run

Many runners have a certain running book that they've found stands out for them. It's the book they open when they're looking for inspiration or motivation. For me, that book was Running with the Buffaloes. Once a Runner was a close second, but the story of the University of Colorado's cross-country team just hit a little closer to home and was just a little more powerful for me. Today, many runners have found that "their book" is Christopher McDougall's Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. I initially had no interest in reading that book, having already read a lot of barefoot and minimalist literature a few years prior, and having talked to a few too many people who were convinced that running barefoot would cure everything from overpronation to ovarian cancer. Then a few months ago, I attended the wedding of one of my college teammates. My old assistant coach was there, and one of the things he asked me was whether I had read Born to Run. I told him no and explained why it didn't really interest me. He told me to give it a chance, that it's not 300 pages of "Shoes are evil" rants, and that he had enjoyed it. So, with an open mind and only a couple years late, the review that you've all been waiting for: Born to Run.

Guest Blog: Gear Review: Saucony Grid Type A4

I asked my friend and college teammate Julie to write up a guest review on the Saucony Grid Type A4 racing flat, which has become her trainer of choice. After college, Julie took her running in a completely different direction than I did, returning to the trail running she had done outside of NCAA running, getting involved with ultradistance races, and experimenting with minimalist shoes, including various flats, the Vibram Five Fingers, and running completely barefoot. While I did a review of the Nike Free a little while ago, my review still came from the perspective of a shod road runner. As far as minimalism goes, Julie is the real deal. So, for all you trail runners, ultrarunners, and minimalist fans, this review is for you.

Gear Review: Nike Free

I've recently rediscovered a pair of shoes that had made their way to the back of my closet to be ignored and forgotten (and there are quite a few shoes for them to be buried beneath). That would be the Nike Free, more specifically, the Nike Free 5.0 V3. The 5.0 has since been replaced by the Nike Free Run+, and more recently, the Nike Free Run+ 2. A couple changes have been made to the flex grooves to make the Run marginally more flexible, and the upper is actually pretty attractive now, but for all intents and purposes, the 5.0 and the Run are the same shoe.

Brooks Pure Project: New Information

UPDATE 11/16/11: Review of the Brooks PureConnect now posted!
UPDATE 2/9/12: Review of the Brooks PureFlow now posted!

Brooks has just released a whole lot more information about its Pure Project line. I was originally going to add this to my last post on Pure Project, but there quickly got to be too much information. Pictures of the shoes and information about the technology used below the jump.
 

Brooks Pure Project

UPDATE 4/2/11: Brooks has recently released more information on the Pure Project, including pictures of the shoes and details about the technology itself! Check out my new post on the updated data!
UPDATE 11/16/11: Review of the Brooks Pure Connect now posted!
UPDATE 2/9/12: Review of the Brooks PureFlow now posted!

A while ago, when I was in high school (so sometime before 2003), I saw a shoe at Champs Sports that was marketed as mimicking a bare foot. It looked super gimmicky and like it was marketed towards weekend warrior types rather than serious athletes (I can't even remember if it was a running shoe). Obviously it did not do well, because I can't even find information on it today. Then, in 2004, Nike developed the Free, a flexible running shoe that was supposed to simulate barefoot running, after talking to then-Stanford coach Vin Lannana about training barefoot. There were a few Free models available, rated on a number scale with 1.0 representing barefoot running and 10.0 representing a traditional trainer. In 2007, seeing as I was running on a Nike-sponsored store team, I gave in out of curiosity and bought a pair of 5.0 (now known as the Free Run) and a pair of 3.0 (more on that later). Meanwhile, Vibram was producing a "barefoot alternative" of their own, intended for paddling and sailing, known as the FiveFingers. However, it all hit the mainstream with Christopher McDougall's 2009 book Born to Run. Born to Run set off the minimalist and barefoot explosion, where people suddenly decided to try running sans shoes, claiming that it cured all their injures (also more on that later) and allowed them to run more naturally (aaand more on that later too). At first, it was mainly small companies that catered to this market (outside of Nike), with lesser-known companies like Vibram and Terra Plana producing minimal shoes meant to do little other than protect the sole of the foot from rocks. Then the running companies started to get involved. In 2009, New Balance axed their 790 (why, NB why?!) and replaced them with the MT100 (now the MT101), and in 2011, they released their Minimus line. Similarly, in 2010, Saucony introduced the Kinvara, the first of a line of more minimal shoes (along with the Mirage, Peregrine, Cortana, and Hattori), and reworked some of their racing flats to decrease the heel-toe differential (like the A4 and Fastwitch). Additionally, other small companies popped up, like Altra, Somnio, Luna, and Soft Sole, as well as companies better known for non-running shoes, like Merrell. Early last year (2010), Brooks CEO Jim Weber released a letter detailing his thoughts on the matter, as well as a lot of other information from "The Experts," who are all generally considered authorities on the topic. Despite the information, people continued to post on Brooks' website begging for a minimalist shoe. Brooks has now responded with Brooks Pure Project.

Barefoot Running...or Not

Earlier today, I was talking to a friend who was having trouble deciding which shoes to wear for a race (incidentally, the same one who asked me about racing flats), and the conversation turned to minimalist shoes (as it often does with her). My friend is one of the lucky few with nearly perfect biomechanics, who can get away with next to no cushioning or stability features built into her shoes. Well, she recently purchased a pair of Nike Jana Star Waffle spikeless flats, which she claimed were giving her Achilles tendinitis. There are a million different possible causes for Achilles tendinitis, which I won't list here since a simple Google search can uncover them if you're interested, but the interesting part about my friend's case is she claims that wearing "normal" shoes has caused this problem before, and wearing Vibram FiveFingers clears it up. Normally I'd think of going the opposite way, from a shoe with a heel to a low heeled shoe, causing Achilles problems, since high heeled shoes can cause Achilles shortening and calf muscle tightness over time. I'm sure there are other forces at work, but I'm not about to try to guess on my blog.