Let’s face it, buying the right running shoe can be a bit of a nightmare. Go into any running shop and you’ll be bombarded with jargon. With all the talk of over-pronation, you’ll wonder how you ever managed to walk, never mind run. In the end, you’ll probably walk away with the trainers the assistant wants to sell you.
The trouble is, unless your shop assistant is a qualified physiotherapist, studying your running mechanics rather than just how your foot hits the ground, you might as well just go for the red ones, because we all know red is the fastest!
Seriously though, the key to picking the right shoe is all about finding a trainer that doesn’t give you blisters and won’t get you injured. Once found, keep buying the same model. You’ll always be tempted by the better looking, lighter models. But, let’s be honest, it’s training hard that makes you faster, not a pair of trainers that weigh six grams less than your current pair. I’ve taken my own advice to the extreme as I now wear the same trainer for everything. So no matter if it’s a 3000m track race or a 20-mile training run, you’ll find me in a pair of Adidas Adios Boosts. At the 2014 London Marathon, I was so sure those shoes worked for me that I bought the pair that took me to Commonwealth Games qualification at the Expo the day before.
As an over-pronating heel striker, I shouldn’t be wearing a pair of neutral shoes like the Boosts. But it doesn’t seem to have done me any harm!
