For people who train in flats

No, if your form's good, the surface doesn't really matter.

no

I run ~50/50 roads and soft surfaces, though once my mileage gets up there I need to run more on soft surfaces. My form is good, but I do start to notice little aches and pains if I go a week or two without doing some soft surface running.

I run primarily in a park by my house. I have and will run 20 milers on the road if I need to, though.

Yes, but I don't think the two have anything to do with each other.

No.

I’m not a bandwagon minimalist guy. Twenty years ago I realized I got hurt a couple of times when I wore the highly advertised shoes with cushioning and stability features (mainly ITB). Custom orthotics and PT was not successful in correcting my problems so I went the other way with light shoes (mainly because I was broke and couldn’t afford shoes, already had race flats). Ran on whatever surfaces the guys I trained with were on...solved my woes. I was then 5’6”, 120-ish pounds and fairly efficient.

Now age 50 (up to 128 lbs) I welcome the new no-frills shoes. Currently I alternate between a couple pairs of Lunar Racers (prefer the first) as I can’t seem to get much mileage from the Free’s (especially the Free Run). Race and track WO’s in ZoomXC. Mostly on asphalt with maybe 1/4 of my mileage sidewalks, track I use is Mondo.

Did you need to ease into using only flats? I have zoomxcs that I want to start running in more consistently but I don't want to hurt myself. I'm 5'11" 155 ish if that makes a difference.

I transitioned to pretty much exclusively in flats about 4 years ago. If you are a severe heel-striker, you'll definitely notice the lack of heel cushioning quickly, but focusing on your form makes the runs go by fairly quickly. I would definitely limit your runs to about 20 minutes at a time to start out. If your calves/achilles are super tight walking around the next day (the ultimate test is going up and down stairs), then take the day off. It will go away in 2 weeks at the longest.

After that, just build up your mileage as normal, and if your legs are sore, then take a day off. The number one thing you can do to prevent injury is listen to your body and not just run because you have scheduled it for that day.

Yes, I train in anything from Streaks or NB Minimus to NB 890 or Asics Speedstars. Usually rotating 4 pairs at a time.

I run about 40-60% of my base mileage and 40-50% of my in-season mileage on pretty rooty/rocky/technical style trails and when I spend too much time on the road, and even in some instances on groomed soft surfaces (cinder paths or packed dirt) my legs become very tired. I rarely get any pain associated with this 'fatigue' but I can definitely feel the difference in the energy of my legs and get an increase bounce when I'm on soft, uneven surfaces.

I associate this with the idea that the uneven terrain causes a quicker turnover and less rhythmic stride that utilizes more muscles in different ways, not just the same muscles over and over.

I do about 80% of my mileage on grass(more like local soccer field length, not golf course short). 10% road, 10% dirt packed trails.

I was coming off a 4 month post-tib injury, so breaking into them came a little easier since I could only do baby mileage to start. I spent the first 3 weeks or so on 50/50 dirt packed trails/road. I ran on grass a few times in that period, and my legs were so sore the next day, it was hard to walk.

I don't know how many miles you are plugging recently, but if it's more than 20, I would do the 50/50 flat/trainer deal for a month or so. I took myself 3-4 weeks to break into my pair of Mushas.

Run almost all my mileage (about 50 per week) in ASICS Tarthers on the road. Did the same with Banditos before they were discontinued. Never had a problem since switching to the flats.

I've been switching over to flats recently and have been able to reach 50 mpw with no real problems. No calf or achilles soreness. I'm worried about some kind of stress fracture injury to the metatarsals, however. Any opnions on this? I guess if it's going this well now, I'll be fine if I build up slowly to ~100 mpw.

I've run all of my mileage in flats for the past year (60-70 miles per week), and have had no injury problems at all. I run probably 75% on asphalt, 25% on dirt trails. I'm a pretty efficient runner, female, 5'7 and 120ish. I guess I did unintentionally start wearing them gradually. (I started wearing them b/c I was trying to put off buying new shoes for a little while; I would just rotate flats with various old trainers. Then I started to realize how much I enjoyed running in them, so switched to flats exclusively.)

I found that my stress fractures long ago were caused mostly by wearing soft shoes that gave in under the ball of my foot when I pushed off. It made my metatarsals try to flex way more than usual. That's what would weaken them over time and then usually some jarring incident would cause the actual, tangible fracture. Since switching to lower profile shoes (Brooks T6/T7, which are close to the ground, but still have a heel-to-toe offset), my forefoot isn't sinking and bending extra, so my metarasals have felt great. My Brooks Launch and old adidas trainers, though, were quite soft in the forefoot, let my forefoot sink when it bent under the balls, and did make my metatarsals ache.

I'd be more worried about the going from 50mpw to 100mpw. As hydration and longer runs become an issue, your calves and Achilles get tighter and it tugs more than you might see in a easy run during a 50 mile week. Also, don't go right into intervals. Do strides for a few weeks.

Also, I've never had problems with stress fractures. If you are prone to them, running high mileage in flats seems like a different story.

The past 7 years, I've run 80-90% of my mileage on hard concrete in flats, and prefer it that way. Put in almost 20,000 miles between 2006-2009. I would take hard-packed dirt (Colorado/New Mexico/Arizona) any day over soft dirt or wood chip (Oregon). And, I formerly had 7 stress fractures in heavy trainers.... running on mostly soft surfaces.

Thanks for the responses. I had a relatively inactive winter (running) so I'll be starting with pretty low mileage. I am a bit of a heal striker though. I assume that running in flats demands something more mid foot. Any heal strikers when starting to transition? How did that affect you?

flats flats flats wrote:

Did you need to ease into using only flats? I have zoomxcs that I want to start running in more consistently but I don't want to hurt myself. I'm 5'11" 155 ish if that makes a difference.

No. Back then I was too dumb to think of any sort of transistion and too broke to buy new shoes. Had several pair of low mileage racers and just rotated through those. I did shy away from putting many training miles on the old Nike Duelist.

On a side note...I had jury duty last week. A girl there was wearing five fingers as an everyday shoe. What's that all about?

flats flats flats wrote:

Thanks for the responses. I had a relatively inactive winter (running) so I'll be starting with pretty low mileage. I am a bit of a heal striker though. I assume that running in flats demands something more mid foot. Any heal strikers when starting to transition? How did that affect you?

What helps me is to shorten my stride with a very slight forward lean(similar to the chi running technique) and midfoot striking or "flat of the heel" landing. Ideally midfoot contacts first, then the whole foot including the heel and then roll off (as opposed to push off) the ball of your foot. Obviously for speed work (repeat 200's) I'm pushing off instead of rolling off.

BTW I use New Balance 790 and 840 trail flats but on asphalt and concrete (measured out 200, 400, 800 meters around my block). I tried an Asics Dirt Dog but that was a too minimalistic for me especially on the asphalt.

As for stress fractures, technique has a lot to do with it. If you're really up on the ball of your foot, then you're definitely setting yourself up for one. If most of your stance phase (contact phase) is midfoot/foot flat, you should be ok.