Posts Tagged ‘asics gel foundation 8’

Can Your Shoes Over-Correct?

I’ve been wearing motion control shoes ever since I realized that my 10-year-old cross-trainers weren’t really suitable for distance running. I used to suffer from shin splints and my Asics Gel Foundations took care of them nicely. I’ve also flirted with the Brooks Beast and I have a nice pair of New Balance 1123s waiting to be used.

Though I’m free from shin splints, I’ve suffered from peroneal tendonitis in both ankles intermittently for the past two years. I’m not ready to jump on the Christopher McDougall bandwagon, but I am starting to wonder if my motion control shoes are over-correcting for my overpronation, and perhaps squeezing the tendons and muscles on the outside of my foot.

Yesterday I went out for my second outdoor training run and experienced sharp ankle pain for the first time in weeks. I stopped after about 10 strides, returned home and iced it. Later in the evening, I was wearing my regular “knock-around” sneakers, which are a pair of Brooks Axioms I’ve had for at least a year. They’re relatively lightweight and on the pronation scale they fall between neutral and stability. My ankle felt fine and I decided to run a couple hundred yards as an experiment. No pain.

This morning I decided to experiment further. I wore the Axioms and went for a 5k. My ankle felt fine the whole way. I ran a 27:49 (17:08 over the last two miles). The 81-degree heat was much more of a factor than my legs. I had reasonably quick turnover and no discomfort at all.

The Axioms would never hold up if I were running longer distances, but now I’m wondering if my motion control shoes helped create my new problem when they fixed my old problem. Has anyone else had a similar experience? I’m sure there are plenty of people who move from neutral to stability and from stability to motion control, but has anyone ever had to move in the other direction?

NB = New Balance and Not Bad

I’ll never set the world on fire as a shoe reviewer. When I read things like “stability-to-weight ratio” and “carbon midfoot bridge” I immediately book a ticket to Catatonia. I know there are plenty of running shoe fanboys (and gals) out there who examine each “update” to their favorites as if it were something other than an effort to sell more shoes. I have only one requirement for running shoes: injury prevention.

It’s through painful experience that we learn the consequences of choosing the wrong shoe. Shin splints, knee pain, blisters and runner’s toe follow as surely as night follows day.

I’m tall and thin, but I overpronate like someone twice my weight. This simplifies my shoe purchasing immensely. I look for a motion control shoe that neutralizes my pronation without making me run like Herman Munster. That’s why I quickly ditched my first attempt: The Brooks Beast.

I’ve experimented over the years, but always returned to the Asics Gel Foundation. I can mash down the post (the firm material along the instep) in a couple of hundred miles, so I have to keep an eye on wear, but they get the job done.

The good folks at New Balance Harrisburg let me try out a pair of New Balance 1123s, their new top-of-the-line motion control shoe. After a couple of weeks of use, I was surprised to see that a shoe with a substantially different design gave me just as comfortable a ride as the Asics.

Take a look at the soles of the Asics, particularly the shape.

Now look at the soles of the NB 1123s.

While the Asics shoe is more “hourglass” shaped and runs the arch all the way to the outside of the shoe, the New Balance shoe looks like a slipper (or a flat foot) on the outside, and all the construction is inside. Paradoxically, the New Balance shoe is snugger than the Asics along the whole foot. I can feel the inside post along the entire instep, and there’s no sliding along the outside of the foot.

I was concerned that the snug fit might lead to some problems after feet swelling on long runs, but they worked just as well as the Asics. They took a beating over asphalt and trail without a complaint. They may have been even more comfortable than the Asics.

The downside is that the 1123s didn’t have the flexibility of the Asics, and felt more “land and bounce” than “easy roll” while doing speedwork. Also, one would think that with the extra area impacting the ground, they would offer more traction on wet streets, but after a downpour they required some ginger stepping.

All in all, a worthy alternative to the other motion control shoes out there. Maybe the best of both worlds would be to use the 1123s for long runs and heavy mileage, and the Asics or similar, lighter shoe for speedwork and short races.