Sunday Long Run: Shoe Rotation
I thought I’d expand upon my post from this morning:
I want to be clear that I am *not* against the use of zero drop shoes, I just want people to be aware 1) when they’re being marketed to, 2) what running should feel like, and 3) building a shoe rotation around need, not want.
As I state in the tweet, finding out if zero drop can work for you is case-by-case, and should not be forced if you find that there is discomfort while running (when there previously wasn’t with >0mm shoes).
Here is a very simple diagram showing my thought process:
If you have no discomfort, run free!
If you have discomfort upon switching to zero drop, see flowchart.
No pain when running = normal.
Continue upping the drop in your shoe until you have no pain. A “normal” drop is ~6mm, note: you may start seeing negative effects/return of discomfort in the double digits of drop.
If you truly believe the marketing/science around the zero drop shoes, I urge you to progressively lower the drop of your shoes throughout the course of a year. Rule of thumb should be ~2mm every new shoe you buy.
Building a Shoe Rotation
You really only need 2 shoes, but for this example I am going to use 4 different shoes, just to show you how deep it can get. The point I am trying to emphasize is that it is detrimental to be deterministic, and much butter for your overall leg-health to build well-rounded shoe rotation.
Recovery day shoe - Short distanced, slow miles. A max cushion trainer with a fairly high drop is wanted here, think New Balance 1080s as an example.
I would also lump my recovery shoe in with my everyday walking shoe, as both have the same needs and function. (Walking can be active recovery.)
Daily trainer - Middle-longer distances, usually in zone 2 range of pace. This is all “feel” dependent upon the user. I prefer something a bit on the “firmer” side, but it’s user preference.
Shoes can range from Nike Pegasus, Saucony Triumphs, or Asics Novablast, to name a few.
Here is where you can utilize two different “daily trainers”, where one is a higher drop, and one is a lower drop.
Speed/Tempo trainer - Short-medium distanced, fast miles. Here is where you will want/need a firmer shoe at the least, to promote faster paces. Think Adidas Boston, Saucony Endorphin Speed, NB Rebel, to name a few.
Again, if you are "zero-drop” curious, this could be a good place to build in a zero or lower drop shoe, to help promote a forefoot strike, which in-turn promotes a faster pace.
Long Run Shoe - Long distanced, varied paces—usually z2 though. Picking a long run shoe is tough, because it is very training/race-pace dependent.
On one hand, a lot of long runs will be purely aerobic work, focusing on growing your engine. With the other, particularly “faster” runners, utilizing tempo/threshold and race-pace miles inside of their long runs.
Another factor is “racing how you run”, and if you run your long runs in a certain shoe, there is an argument to race in that shoe as well. On this point, I am really loving how brands (see Saucony and New Balance) are making shoe lines, from daily trainers to race day models in the same design styles.
Looking at the Endorphin or FuelCell lines, we can get a different version/use for all of our different training needs in one shoe line. So if we run all of our long runs in the shoe model that is the step below the “race day” shoe, we can show up to the start line with confidence that there will be no surprises when wearing the advanced model race-day shoes on.
For this reason, I am an advocate for amateurs running their long runs in shoes that are as close to their race days shoes as they can get. (Obviously I don’t expect you to waste >$200 shoes on a few long runs, so find shoes that resemble what you will be wearing.)
Circling back to my original point of zero drop shoes, I am a believer that “lower drops” <=5mm should be worked into a rotation. This adds a layer of “cross training” to your legs, and allows different parts of your body to adapt/recover while still training.
You just have to know what’s best for you, if zero drop does *not* hurt, then it is okay. But then you have to ask yourself: Is it hurting performance?
Zero-drop shoes don’t necessarily make the best race-day, or even mid-week performance shoes. And anecdotally speaking, I haven’t seen many “fast” runners wearing them, but that’s neither here nor there.
If you are not currently in pain wearing something above a 0mm drop, don’t be deterministic about a full switchover, but possibly try incorporating them into your shoe rotation.
-BTR