Question to marathon or half marathon sub 3 runners (not totally hobbyjoggers)
Does any of you do all his road training miles with racing flats, or do you wear more cushioned shoes for your road training and wear flats only during the race?
Also what do you think goes among the elites in this aspect?
There was a thread here, and basically some Japanese runners do.
This was one of the OG topics on Letsrun:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=102856&thread=102856
Minimalism was a thing here long before it went mainstream. Check out some of Trackhead's old threads. He talked about putting a Vibram sole (before the five fingers existed) on a pair of Kennedy spikes.
For what it's worth, I used to train exclusively in flats. I eventually worked one pair of cushioned trainers into my rotation, which I'd wear mostly on recovery days, especially if I'd done a workout in spikes the day before. Over time, I've found myself wearing trainers for a greater and greater percentage of my weekly mileage. Partly I think I'm getting old, but I also think that minimalism had led to much more natural trainers with lower drops. The Saucony Freedom is one of my current favorites, and although it has great cushioning, I feel like it runs almost like the Hyperspeeds that used to be my favorite.
I train exclusively in flats. Really don't understand why someone would want to run in clunky, unresponsive heavy shoes. Try running in a flat and then try running in a 10 oz trainer and see which you enjoy more. I never have foot and ankle injuries, but I did when I followed the wogger world advice and ran in trainers back when I started.
Lots of (most?) Japanese runners supposedly do. Keep in mind that Japanese runners tend to be smaller and lighter than Americans. In my opinion, some of the lighter weight, low heel trainers available today can give you most of the advantages of flats with the added durability of trainers so you’re not constantly replacing them.