pronation over-correction? (Read 980 times)

I was just having a discussion with someone else during a race today. We've both been through changes in shoe needs over the years and would probably have the same suggestions for you. The upshot is that both of us had over 10 years migrated gradually from one end of the shoe spectrum almost to the other.

The best way to determine what level of stability you need from a show is through experience. What someone in a store tells you is a great place to start but even if the guy is an expert I would treat it as a good guess. The best information is what your feet and legs tell you during and after a run or after a week of running in them. A shoe that is better for you will leave you feeling less sore.

So the experience the guy I was talking to shared with me is that we've both been running for a long time and both started out in full strength motion control shoes: pretty much the maximum pronation control you can get. Over the years we have both found our needs for shoe structure had decreased and we both were wearing very light training/racing shoes to run an ultramarathon. We felt that the best thing to do at any given time is have one pair of shoes in the rotation that is one increment less structured than the workhorse "best" shoe at that time. Run in it a couple of times a month. For awhile they will just be slightly less easy on the legs than your normal shoes, but not really so different that they will cause problems if worn occasionally. If like us your stride mechanics improve a little bit over months or years, you'll eventually notice they work better. Your workhorse shoes can now shift one step towards less structured.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about an increment from "motion control" to "stability" shoe so much as a little step within one of those categories. To go all the way from motion control to neutral racing flat might take 6-10 increments or even more and be the work of many years.