I was able to grab a peek at "The Self-Made Olympian" by Ron Daws. The owner would NOT part with the book, claiming it was "a keeper".
Did anyone here know him (Daws) and can the confirm that he used to trim his shoes down to FOUR OUNCES? REALLY? In the winter in Minnesota?
His book is rare these days and a great read on consitency and determination.
And yes, his footwear chapter is great. I've got some 5oz flats to run in (Streak XC, T3) and they do fine.
Thanks, yes, what I read seemed very intriguing.
However wouldn't frostbite be an issue for runners in that region; running in trimmed, superlight flats in consistently brutal sub zero temps?
I'll admit my guesstimate is that you'd need 2 pairs of sock at least, and how would THAT feel in 5oz flats?
Never tried it. The coldest I have EVER run in was -4 F and I was bundled up like the guys in the movie "Ice Station Zebra" just to tell one of my co-runners that I
actually did it.
Could be. The coldest I've ever run in is about 27ºF and the ground was dry, save for a little frost.
What do you think his uppers were; likely a canvas -- I'd have to get back into his book to see for sure.
Early Onitsuka or VERY early NIKE would be my guess. Prior to that you had PUMA and adidas, otherwise it's be essentially sneakers, unless you could get a tracing of your foot to New Balance.
That would make the upper nylon and/or canvas.
One tale has it that Liquori did his early training in Hush Puppies.
I am a Daws scholar (i.e. I own the book you are referring to.)
Daws did not train in 4-5 ounce flats. He did all of his racing in 4-5 ounce flats that he made himself. He also made a pair for Steve Hoag that carried him to a 2:11 Boston Marathon. He believed that everybody should race in flats this light as they were much more efficient. He was quite an eccentric and also had a homemade treadmill.
His favorite training shoe was an Adidas SL knock-off made and sold by the department store JC Penney. He felt that they were a superior shoe, and were 1/3 the price. This shoe had no forefoot cushion (rubber only) and about 3/8 of and inch of e.v.a. in the rearfoot.
The shoe he modified to 4-5 oz was the Tiger Cub.
I have two copies of Daws' book and did the same to my shoes that he did.
The uppers were nylon.
OK, then. Thanks.
I was wondering about that.
In an aside Shorter supposedly checked out the shoes that
Ron Hill was wearing at Munich in '72 and THEY were next to nothing. Less is more in some minds.
Training daily on 4-5oz. strikes me as begging for PF issues.
Absolutely not. Have you ever met a barefoot runner with PF? Every person I've ever met with PF is wearing big bulky shoes. PF is un heard of in places like Kenya and Ethiopia, until you get them in shoes and you start shortenting tendons and weaklening muscles.
"There is some evidence that the normally unyielding plantar fascia acts as the support for the medial longitudinal arch, and that strain on the proximal fascial attachment during foot strike leads to plantar fasciitis (Robbins and Hanna, 1987). Barefoot running may induce an adaptation that transfers the impact to the yielding musculature, thus sparing the fascia and accounting for the low incidence of plantar fasciitis in barefoot populations (Robbins and Hanna, 1987)."
If you went straight from a really built up shoe to a 4-5 oz. shoe, then yes, that would be begging for PF as well as lots of other things. Transition smartly and your tendons will be a lot stronger and less prone to PF in the future.
I've got to find the page number from the Lore of Running, but there is a picture of Wally Hayward running his 24 hour world record (something like 170 miles) somewhere in the training section.....take a look at his shoes; they're leather slippers. Nobody got PF until training shoe soles got thick. He, like the rest of the competitors of the time, trained and raced in just enough shoe to prevent the sole of their feet from getting chewed up.
I can't find any pictures of Wally Haywardin the 4th ed. of Noakes, however there is information about his shoes on page 273:
"Many (ininjured) runners who are unable to justify the high price of modern running shoes ask how the great runners of the past were able to do so much running in the ordinary-looking walking shoes worn by Clarence de Mar and Emil Zatopek or the 7s.6d. plimsolls (canvas tackies) used by Jim Peters. My answer, right or wrong, is that in those days the top runners had undergone a vigorous process of self-selection. Only those with perfect biomechanical function were able to survive training; those with less than perfect function were soon injured and dropped the sport. Today, many runners who have very bad biomechanics are able to run prodigious distances only because of the very real improvement in the design of running shoes. In the past, they would simply have stopped running because of recurring injuries.
"Recently, I had the opportunity of advising Wally Hayward (chapter 6) about what running shoes he should choose. In his first 50 years of running in canvas shoes, he had few injuries besides recurrent calf muscle tears that probably bore little relationship to shoe choice. Since he had been running in modern shoes, however, he had suffered a series of knee injuries. Following the reasoning outlined above, I advised him to go back to plimsolls, but with an elevated heel. He seemed perfectly happy with that advice. More important, his cheaper shoes allowed to to continue running without developing the same injury."
man look at the "flats" of the guy left on this pic:
Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Geez!
Rocks, road debris, broken glass, objects hurled at you by occupants of vehicles, gravel...etc
It hurts just looking at that guy.
I've never met a barefoot runner in my life.
You've got me on that one.
Are those BROOKS are more or less the current equivalent to what Daws wore in training, or racing? Do you wear those for all your runs?
The SL-72 and SL-76 adidas(tm) are available on ZAPPOS.com
but I would guess they are not really the same shoe.
My running is split largely between the T3, Streak XC, NB 240 and the Tiger Paw, my biggest shoe. Weight is not really a ocncern for me -- height is my biggest concern. The closer I am the better -- for 100% of my running.
Hey trackhead,
do the flats being lower to the ground help control pronation?
my bad, I meant overpronation.
