Adrenal glad overstress? Explain further?
Adrenal glad overstress? Explain further?
trainer wrote:
Lydiard is always right and god help you if you disagree with him face to face.
That would be a "no-no"... : )
Sorry I meant gland, not glad.
The problem with that is you find a shoe that works for you, you wear it for a while then the shoe companies "improve" the shoe, and it no longer works for you so you have to scramble around to find as many of the old shoe as you can. Or you need to find another shoe that works for you.
I have been training for the last three yers in lightweight training shoes, talarias, Zelas and Triax TC's, that way i find I do not suffer chronic stiffness or pain when i switch to a shoe for races, guys who wear a heavy training shoe and an ultralight racer are making problems for themselves, its common sense, if you train for a race for 3 months in a pair of Kantaras or Structures or Kayanos and then switch to say a streak vapor or another lightweight flat for a race its like somebody dropping concrete blocks on your legs. Your body looses its ability to absorb shock through the gait cycle, as it does when we run barefoot, which if you can, say once a week is very very good for you. For a lot of people its probably too late to switch back to lightweights, the damage is done, but if you are young and flexible, it makes sense.
I think a lot of shoes these days are "over-engineered." Yes, some people over-pronate severely and need stability features, but most people pronate very little or even "under-pronate." Wearing a shoe with a lot of stability features makes the shoe inflexible so the foot has to work against the shoe.
I am particularly opposed to the plastic mid-foot support devices that are so common now. They appear even on cushioned trainers designed for people who need a flexible shoe that will allow them to pronate (and thereby disperse shock) as much as possible. I would like to see shoe companies make more shoes that have full-length foam midsoles with no plastic support devices.
That's a good point, I wish shoe companies wouldnt do that, but then again they are just trying to make a buck. Unfortunately it has to be at our expense.
All I needed across the Plains of Athens was a pair of leather sandles with a strap between my toes. But that didn't end too well....
Have him try on a beast if he is a neutral runner. Rubbish my ass
When Arthur was touring the US a few years back the tour was sponsored by Brooks. He had his wife demonstrating bounding and springing in a pair of Mizunos. The Beast? He hated it. The only Brooks shoe he had anything good to say anything about was the Mach 1.
The Beast is great for a severe over pronator. The Mach-1 is great for a neutral runner, as I suspect Lydiard is.
I have a lot of respect for Lydiard and I very much enjoyed a few pairs of one design of shoe he made many years ago.
And personally, I believe any Nike shoe beyond the Bowerman series is a waste of money because of the pricey and unnecessary gimmicks.
But besides shoes, Lydiard has a few other ideas that sound good when you hear him speak, but don't measure up in practice. One of these is his idea that running on pavement is the best possible training surface to avoid injury because of the flatness and uniformity of a paved road. I think this has been quite disproven, unless a person is doing some sort of time trial.
But nobody can be perfect.
I don't have much to add aside from my personal experience.
I have had surgery and one leg is also longer than the other. I was reared on heavy motion control shoes. If that wasn't bad enough I took the insoles out of these shoes and added in over the counter arches (all on doctor recommendation).
I have bad form. I am slightly knock-kneed. My knee which was operated on buckles a tiny bit with each stride, but the foot tracks perfectly - pre surgery it did not. The other leg doesn't buckle, but the foot does not track all that well and I tend to swing my leg a bit to the outside. In short, my stride with each leg is somewhat different, my overall form is bad, and I break down shoes badly (right and left differently).
I had severe injury problems, mostly knee and hip related.
I read Lydiard's views (and several others on this) and weaned myslef from these types of shoes. I now wear the Asics Gel Verdict full time. I have been virtually injury free for 2 years, despite averaging about 80 mpw during this time period. The 2 years prior I probably averaged 30 mpw.
But it wasn't like flipping a switch. Based on my experience I wouldn't tell people to just buy lightweight trainers. I went from heavy shoes with arches, to just wearing heavy shoes full time. After that I started wearing lightweight trainers on days when I ran fast. After that I finally went to the lightweight trainers full time. This process took roughly one year.
But if I can do it, with all my problems, I don't see why others cant.
Cheese
I have to agree with Lydiard on this. Most of the shoes that runners wore back in the '70's when high mileage was common looked like what we now call racing shoes. I remember running in flimsy Converse, Tiger, and Adidas shoes. My run of injuries started when I began wearing orthotics and motion control shoes. I just think that all this motion control causes too many weaknesses. Unfortunately, as someone pointed out, once you have all these problems, it's hard to go back.
Don't wear them if you don't need them.
Some people need some stability. Some people need a lot. Some people don't need any stability. You find out where you're at and get the right shoe for you. Fairly neutral runners could go just fine in just about anything that isn't too stiff to throw them off. Moderate and especially severe pronators -- nope.
Can someone please explain to me what all this "technology" that everyone's talking about is?
A shoe is a shoe. I've always used the very scientific "if it feels comfortable in the store, buy it" method and I've never been injured.
What's the big complication?
I've always had the same mentality. I was never hurt from a pair of shoes (save the ones that were run into the gorund). I'm lucky that I'm a neutral footstriker and don't have too much of a pronation problem.
However, there are many many people who do. Everyone needs a shoe that they can run neutrally in. If you are already a neutral runner, you don't need support -- a cushioned shoe w/o much support at all will do just fine. If you do put more weight on the inside of your foot than the rest, you will need a more supportive shoe. And if you put an excessive amount of weight on the inside of your feet, you need a very support shoe, that controls the motion of your very flexible footstrike.
I can't tell you how many people have had knee or shin problems and had them because they were in the wrong shoe for them. Put them in the right shoe, problem goes away, nine times out of ten.
His idea about running on roads is that you can run faster on the firmer, more even, surface at the same effort that a slower run would require on a soft, uneven surface. And he thinks that the faster pace accomodates your muscles more to the effort of racing.
I think his one real howler is in "Running the Lydiard Way" where he discusses running in hot weather and he says that running in heat is not a problem as long as it's humid heat since the humidity keeps moisture on your skin and cools you better. I'm also not a fan of his shoe lacing system, though I think he's bang on about the shoes themselves.
a guest wrote:
Lydiard has a few other ideas that sound good when you hear him speak, but don't measure up in practice.
True.
One of these is his idea that running on pavement is the best possible training surface to avoid injury because of the flatness and uniformity of a paved road. I think this has been quite disproven, unless a person is doing some sort of time trial.
But nobody can be perfect.
It wasn't to avoid injury.
"Most of my runners trained on bitumen roads for better traction. We tested this... on the road he covered a much greater distance without any increase of effort, solely because he had better traction and could move more economically. As a result, the muscles tire less."
This was in reference to keeping sustained pressure on the CV system.
What's wrong with his lacing system?