Natural Running Center

Ed Ayres, who has been running competitively for 55 consecutive years, was the founding editor and publisher of Running Times magazine.  Ayres has competed in over 600 long-distance races, including finishing third in the inaugural New York City Marathon. He’s also the author of the new book, “The Longest Race: A Lifelong Runner, an Iconic [Read more...]

by Jim Hixson.   Most runners have been taught that “softness” and “cushioning” are positive characteristics when looking to buy a new pair of running shoes. Each year, running companies spend millions of dollars, euros, and yen in an attempt to create shoes that have a comfortable “step-in” feel when customers first put them on [Read more...]

Blaise Dubois is a physiotherapist and founder of the Running Clinic  from Quebec City, Montreal, whose multi-day course on the prevention of running injuries has attracted the interest and attention of health professionals, coaches and running enthusiasts around the world. Blaise also tells it like it is, as readers of his bilingual blog–French and English– [Read more...]

by Nicholas A Campitelli –I recently lectured at the Andrews Institute for Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine on “New Paradigms in Endurance Sport.”  At the Florida conference, it was an honor to be in the presence of one of the greatest contemporary educators on running, like Mark Cucuzzella, M.D., a nationally known lecturer and instructor on [Read more...]

When customers enter Two Rivers Treads, questions always arise about pronation. Many of them in the past have been labeled pronators by well-meaning employees at other running stores. Some claim that they have classified as supinators.  They want shoes that fit. They want to run injury-free.  Yet it’s not something as simple as asking them [Read more...]

In the past three years, I have completely rethought how a shoe should fit. More accurately I now think about how a shoe should fit rather than just pick a size.  Since I started running more true barefoot miles over the last year my foot size has greatly increased in thickness. I can no longer [Read more...]

“Ask the Expert” is regular feature of the Natural Running Center. If you have any running-related questions — shoes, diet, gait, injury, transitioning– let us know, and we will do our best to have an expert from our NRC Advisory Board answer them. Kick-off question: Should heavier runners use thickly cushioned shoes to lessen the [Read more...]

These spikes are the real deal– the actual track shoes used by Britain’s Sir Roger Bannister when he ran the first sub-four-minute mile in 1954. Bannister was a 25-year-old Oxford University medical student when he recorded a time of 3:59:40 seconds for the mile on May 6, 1954. Interestingly enough, he was 17 when he seriously [Read more...]

During walking and running, pronation and supination normally occur in the foot. Pronation is important for optimal movement and shock absorption. During foot strike, many changes take place—the foot begins to roll inward, everting slightly, and the arch flattens. This is called pronation. It is a normal action—one that occurs in every step in every [Read more...]

It’s to be expected that with any new footwear trend, a lack of consensus among manufacturers can often muddy the waters for runners. Minimalist shoes are a prime example of this happening. Nothing is to stop a company from marketing a shoe as minimalist, when in fact, it might appear anything but when compared to [Read more...]