I overprotnate a little bit. Is there any way to change it so that I am a neutral runner? Neutral shoes are so much cooler that support shoes. Like, instead of wearing something cool like the kinvara I am wearing the brooks ravenna and it sucks. How can I become a neutral runner?
Yes. I used to overpronate and slam down on my heels, but after switching over to training exclusively in flats my stride has completely changed. It took about 3 years to make the change, but I wasn't doing it deliberately.
Before you start, if you are running injury free on your heels, you might stop and think about how all that intervention helped Ritz..
A limited amount of barefoot running (strides or warmups only) on grass or sand.
Drills (ABCs)
Short strides and sprints (to get you used to running on your forefoot rather than heels).
If you change landing sbruptly, your calves can get pretty sore for a while, so either be prepared for that, or make very gradual changes.
So if I just slowly transition into minimalist shoes I will be more of a neutral runner?
well your foot/ankle/lower leg muscles will strengthen. So honestly running in neutral shoes shouldn't hurt once you start running in them theoretically. I know a lot of people who overpronate and run in neutral shoes with practically no injury (or at least none due to the shoes).
I changed from a heel-striker to a more mid-foot or even forefoot striker. I just made the conscious effort to change. It took probably a year for it seem natural to run on my midfoot and toes, and even though I eased into it and ran on soft surfaces I got really bad achilles tendonitis midway through, but I've been doing it for several years now and hitting my heels feels unnatural and clunky now. I feel faster.
If you want to change stride just because "neutral shoes are so much cooler than support shoes" you might want to re-evaluate your priorities.
run normally
I ran in Vibram Five fingers since outdoor track freshman year, after always hurting in trainers during cross country, my 5k pr was 23 minutes and my 400m pr was 62 seconds! I kept running in them till half way into outdoor sophomore year, and was running pretty much completely forefoot. My sophomore pr's were 2:00 for 800m, 54 for 400m, 4:40 for mile. But i also did a lot of general strength stuff between freshman and sophomore year over the summer, now im a junior
strengthen your hips. ask a PT about this.
I'm an overpronator who has been running in neutral shoes (Nike Zoom Vomero) and now I have metatarsalgia. I'm going back to something more stable and with more padding in the forefoot (maybe Nike Zoom Equalon). I'm a midfoot striker once I get going. If the stability shoes are working for you, why not just keep going with them. I read on LRC that Haile wears Brooks Beasts and other monster shoes. There's nothing wrong with having some support. The rest of your body's alignment depends on having a solid plant with your foot. If you need stability shoes to make this happen, then that's fine. Also, once you switch from those heavy trainers to racing flats, you'll feel faster for the race.
After a year and a half of using the kinvaras I've noticed a difference in my stride and my nagging ITBS bugs me a bit less (occasionally comes up during long runs). I looked at my training log for when I first switched to the kinvaras from mizuno wave inspires and noticed I took a lot of random days off due to pains here and there. I've done up to 12 miles barefoot before but doing every run in a shoe that is a solid 4 ounces lighter than I'm used to took a bit to get comfortable in.
I can't even run in support shoes now, after about 20 mins my ankles and legs start feeling pretty weird but that's okay because I'm liking the kinvaras still.
Lighter shoes along with some solid core and hip stability routines gets you to where you want to be.