The Footwear Trio

TRAINERS I LIGHTWEIGHT TRAINERS I RACING FLATS

The key area of equipment selection for runners is undoubtedly footwear. One poorly understood area of footwear selection known to both reduce injury risk and improve performance is “footwear matching” whereby footwear appropriate to your biomechanics, current fitness and training session are correlated to optimise performance and minimise risk.

Below you will find information about the different types of shoes and their applications and benefits from usage.

zones

Match your training zone with the right footwear choice for your fitness level to reduce injury risk & maximise performance

  1. VOLUME TRAINERS

Durability High (600-800km); Weight: Moderate/High; Performance Low

Examples: think your trusty Brooks Glycerin/Ghost/Adrenaline or Ravenna, Saucony Guide/Omni, Asics Kayano/Nimbus or Mizuno Paradox/Inspire. In car terms, this is a 4WD durable and versatile.

“Volume Trainers” are the most common footwear choice for runners and are commonly used for all runs by regular runners. These shoes will have different levels of support to meet the needs of your foot type, including neutral, guidance and stability options. Essentially, these shoes are built to last and many runners will get between 600-800km from a pair of standard trainers. The shoes are generally lower performing as the midsole (the material between outersole and upper of shoe) will tend to reduce the runners feedback from the ground (proprioception) and reduce the ability of runners to utilise the super efficient but low fatigue resistant elastic structures of the foot and ankle.

kayano

VOLUME TRAINER: ASICS Kayano

Front Runner Sports Verdict: These shoes should be in every runners wardrobe and used for long or steady runs with confidence run after run. They are highly durable but are relatively underperforming when compared to lightweight trainers or racers.

  1. LIGHTWEIGHT TRAINERS

Durability Moderate (300-600km); Weight Moderate; Performance Moderate

Examples: Think Asics DS Trainer/Featherglide, Mizuno Sayonara or Saucony Kinvara. In car terms this is your sedan/hatch, agile and responsive.

These shoes are an equal mix of durability and performance and a great first step into performance product for those who have traditionally stuck with “Trainers.” Like Trainers, this category has different levels of support to meet the needs of your foot type but is significantly lighter (40-60g) and less durable generally due to a reduced midsole. Anecdotally, these shoes will allow many runners to increase their pace during runs by between 2-6 sec per kilometre and research shows that relative to Trainers, shoes in this category will reduce the amount of oxygen used by a runner at the same pace by allowing greater use of the stretch shortening mechanisms (elastic energy) and giving runners better feedback from the ground with greater forefoot flexibility.

ds-t

LIGHTWEIGHT TRAINER: ASICS DS Trainer

Front Runner Sports Verdict: These shoes are the perfect first step to better performance. Relatively low risk while adding significant performance upside for long intervals, tempo runs, triathlons or longer races (10k-Marathon)

  1. RACING FLATS

Durability Low (50-200km); Weight Light; Performance High

Examples: Think Mizuno Hitogami, Brooks Asteria, Asics DS Racer, Saucony Fastwitch or Type A6. In car terms, these are a sports car – fast and showy.

These shoes are all about performance and can give experienced runners significant gains in performance. This category does have a small range of differing support options but essentially is light on weight through the upper, midsole and outersole to get you up on the toes and running quick. These shoes are very flexible and light, allowing for maximal speed and performance with great ground feedback and resultant loss of height at the heel counter to encourage midfoot strike and reduced ground contact.

ds-r

RACING FLAT: ASICS DS Racer

Front Runner Sports Verdict: These shoes are the final step for road and fun runners looking to take performance to the next level. They have relatively low durability due to reduced structure and weight. They are best used for short distance intervals (<5 min duration); short distance road races and sprint triathlons where performance gains can be significant.

Any further questions please don’t hesitate in contacting Front Runner Sports directly 0478841104 OR admin@frontrunnersports.com.au