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…
Category: Shoe Basics
Comfort Question: Should We be Running on Pillows Like the Hoka One One?
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…
Defining Minimalism and Running Shoes: Bringing the Hype Back to Earth
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–…
Questioning Our Reliance on Motion-Control Running Shoes
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…
Enhancing Natural Pronation Control: Your Feet Were Designed to Do Just That!
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…
Proper Fit Explained: You Don’t Have a Shoe Size; You Have a Foot Size
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…
Ask the Experts: Should Heavier Runners Use Thickly Cushioned Shoes?
“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…
The Track Shoes That Broke the 4:00-Minute Mile
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…
Pronation and Supination
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…
What is Minimalist?
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…
What is Zero Drop?
Zero Drop refers to the height differential between the shoe heel and toe area. Most conventional running shoes have an average drop of 12 mm, which places too much impact and stress on the heel region– and we know what happens next and it’s not good for runners. The runner’s cushioned heel strikes the ground…
Seven Tips for Finding the Proper Shoe Fit
by Dr. Phil Maffetone — Understanding proper running shoe fit is the first step towards pain-free running and injury prevention. That doesn’t mean you should waste your time trying on or investigating those expensive, super-comfortable, padded, and built-up running shoes that keep being thrown our way each year by profit-hungry running shoe companies. If you…
How Running Shoes Get Tested in Footwear Labs
This photo of a honking-big New Balance sneaker (taken from a 2009 issue of Popular Mechanics) shows how most of the major shoe companies test the exaggerated heel-cushioning of their conventional running shoes. No wonder many millions of runners unnaturally became accustomed to heel-striking. One could safely bet that the mechanical piston never experiences shin…
Conversation: One Runner Enlightens Another Runner
James works at Two Rivers Treads in Sheperdstown, West Virginia, which is also the headquarters and flagship store of the Natural Running Center. He recently published on the store blog a rather lengthy, and highly informative email exchange he had with another runner who was seeking his advice, Their online back-and-forth is reposted here. The…