Middle school dad/coach. I bought my Son Nike Zoom Rival D 10s for $65. Are they making a difference. I would say definitely yes. But also some of it is in his head, he thinks they will be faster so he is faster. The rival D is a good all around spike that should do the trick.
Make sure that they're stiff enough on the souls so that your feet will stay in place instead if flailing around. You should not be able to bend the bottoms of them.
Middle School Runner here. Miler and a distance runner with PRS of 4:40/10:10 for 16/32 in flats
A few questions because I've been thinking about getting spikes.
First of all would you reccomend spikes for a competitive middle schooler with decent times fo his age?
How much faster fast can I expect to run in spikes?
What spikes would you best reccomend for distance and under 100$.
Thanks:)
Most of my kids end up with omnipresent Nike distance spike ("zoom rival D10"). Probably the best selling spike by far.
BTW, I am on a semi pointless crusade to get people to stop calling the 1500 and 3000 "distance". Every track team calls them the distance kids. Its middle distance.. and has a rich history in our country and honestly, true distance runners should be running very different workouts than a 1500 guy. 15/16 guy should fear no speed or strength. Think of yourself as fast (you are already), start getting used to it. We have MD guys and gals that are faster than any of our sprinters. Its semantics I know, but maybe not. I like MD runners to think of themselves as athletes and fast and strong...not the kids that got booted from sprints. Be proud to yell "track" to get the 400 crew to move out of lane 1 as you pass them during practice.
Make sure that they're stiff enough on the souls so that your feet will stay in place instead if flailing around. You should not be able to bend the bottoms of them.
Middle School Runner here. Miler and a distance runner with PRS of 4:40/10:10 for 16/32 in flats
A few questions because I've been thinking about getting spikes.
First of all would you reccomend spikes for a competitive middle schooler with decent times fo his age?
How much faster fast can I expect to run in spikes?
What spikes would you best reccomend for distance and under 100$.
Thanks:)
You can probably expect to run a couple of seconds faster in spikes over 1600 m. It depends a little bit on the quality of the track surface and whether or not it's dry. Racing flats can be pretty close to spikes if they are getting good grip at those race speeds.
Would I recommend spikes? Not sure. With those times you're probably winning every race going away. So maybe spikes aren't really necessary. If you keep running in flats for now you'll have some untapped potential that you can easily benefit from in the future when you do switch to spikes. That said, it's fun to have spikes and eventually (high school) they are pretty much standard.
I think spikes are definitely appropriate for competitive middle schoolers. Best spikes (and shoes) are the ones that fit you best and feel good to wear. Distance and cross country spikes are going to be less harsh than an MD spike. If you can try on several and pick the one you like the best, that is the ideal scenario.
Gear up for XC season at Running Warehouse! Whether you're looking for spikes or flats, we have the cross country shoes you need for that competitive edge.
It was almost impossible to find spikes for my daughters when we went to look earlier this spring. The only ones we were able to find were the Saucony Kilkenny XC spikes. They are decent on the track (although some off the spikes we bought to put in were slightly off spec and tend to fall out, which is more of an issue with the spikes than the shoes themselves) and only cost about $65.
Make sure that they're stiff enough on the souls so that your feet will stay in place instead if flailing around. You should not be able to bend the bottoms of them.
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I was thinking the same thing. Please don’t take this advice unless you are a sprinter