For Trackhead & Others - Efficiency in Minimal Shoes vs. Pace

you'll still be more efficient for a few reasons:

initially, your footstrike will likely move forward. you end up running as if you're on a skateboard, you land but generate very little impact; by the time your foot is meeting the ground, you're already in the pushoff phase -- there's no crashing.

it's more or less the same as if you're trotting on grass w/o shoes.

trackhead wrote:

you'll still be more efficient for a few reasons:

initially, your footstrike will likely move forward. you end up running as if you're on a skateboard, you land but generate very little impact; by the time your foot is meeting the ground, you're already in the pushoff phase -- there's no crashing.

it's more or less the same as if you're trotting on grass w/o shoes.

Yep. Exactly what I've experienced in my transition to flats full-time.

i agree with trackhead completely! i started running in minimal trainers, not exactly flats (ds trainers), and run so much more efficiently now. it makes running in regular trainers kind of uncomfortable. actually, training in flats may be even more beneficial when you're at a slow pace because that's usually when you get sloppy anyway! my finding is that, whether i'm running fast or slow, if i have a huge crash pad under my heal, i use it! whenever you land hard on your heal the impact shoots straight up through your knees and hips. check out how fast the heel wears on your trainers compaired to the flats and you'll see what i mean. hope this helps!

Thanks for those quick replies. I tend to toe-off pretty hard - in that the forefoot outsole of my training shoes is always the first to go (up near the very front of the shoe). I've noticed that, with similar mileage and terrain, I wear down the outsole of flats considerably less. Must be due to an increase in efficiency.

Now, as for gradual transition to full-time flat wearing: I've used the Nike Streak as a long distance racing shoe - would that be a good transition shoe between the Supernova Comps and the Streak Ekiden? FWIW: a normal day in Ekidens is 11 miles total, so I can safely go semi-long in them. Never tried going further, since I've only used them as a tempo shoe. Raced up to 25K in Streaks with no problem.

Bump it up.