Spikes or flats?

Running Bing

Im hoping to do a bit of racing on the track during the summer and Im thinking about buying a pair of spikes.


Just wondering do people think I would be better off going for a pair of flats or are the spikes the way to go? I'll probably be doing a bit of cross country as well during the winter so the spikes would come in handy there as well.

Do the spikes really give that much of an advantage over flats over distances of 1500/3000m? Also as a relative newbie is there anything I should take into consideration injury wise?

Thanks.

DangerMouse27

You can pick up a cheap pair of nike spikes in elverys for about 30 or 40 euro.Nice heel on the back of em and ur set for distance or cross country.If there is barely a heel on them then id stay away in terms of distance running, and what ur looking at is probably a sprint spike.The brand is Nike Zoom Rival D and they should be really cheap.
Buy em,hop on the track for some underspeed work (takes a while to get used to the surface) and ur away.
Do lots of calf stretching and those foot stretches and shin ones and ul fly..

Running Bing

DangerMouse27 wrote: »

You can pick up a cheap pair of nike spikes in elverys for about 30 or 40 euro.Nice heel on the back of em and ur set for distance or cross country.If there is barely a heel on them then id stay away in terms of distance running, and what ur looking at is probably a sprint spike.The brand is Nike Zoom Rival D and they should be really cheap.
Buy em,hop on the track for some underspeed work (takes a while to get used to the surface) and ur away.
Do lots of calf stretching and those foot stretches and shin ones and ul fly..

I take it you dont have to worry about things like overpronation etc when choosing spikes?


I was looking at these ones here:

http://www.johnbuckleysports.com/products/params/2/1120/459

Seems a good price but I would be a bit iffy on buying them without trying them on (I do run in a nike equalon so maybe the fitting is the same?).


Anybody know any bricks and mortar shops that do them?

PS. I should've said the shortest I would be racing on track is 800m and the longest 3000m/5000m

shels4ever

I'd say spikes all the way, I ran a few races on track last summer but jsut had runners on , this year i'll go with the spiks but its good to do a few sessions in them first and not jsut stick them on race day.
What races are you planning on?

Racing Flat

Personally I wear spikes up to 1500/1mile, over that flats if dry, but if wet I'd probably wear the spikes for 3k and maybe 5k. Wet weather flats for 10k and maybe 5k if not too slippy.

If it's not slippy flats would be fine. If it was a choice of getting just one pair, I'd say you'd get more use out of flats.

Be careful with flats though - some of them are useless if it's wet. I found this out mid road-race once, so had to get a wet weather pair and now always pack both and only wear the original ones if I'm fairly sure it won't rain.

Those spikes you are going for are a fairly popular middle/long distance spike I think.

Running Bing

shels4ever wrote: »

I'd say spikes all the way, I ran a few races on track last summer but jsut had runners on , this year i'll go with the spiks but its good to do a few sessions in them first and not jsut stick them on race day.
What races are you planning on?

BHAA do a few track races during summer so I'll be doing all of them.


Unfortunately I dont think Id be up to the standard for the Dublin graded meets yet but all going well Ill definitely be doing them next year.


Unfortunately for somebody of my ability there's not a lot of choice track wise so Ill take anything I can get:D


Cheers for the advice lads

shels4ever

Babybing wrote: »

BHAA do a few track races during summer so I'll be doing all of them.


Unfortunately I dont think Id be up to the standard for the Dublin graded meets yet but all going well Ill definitely be doing them next year.


Unfortunately for somebody of my ability there's not a lot of choice track wise so Ill take anything I can get:D


Cheers for the advice lads

See you on the track this summer then

Running Bing

shels4ever wrote: »

See you on the track this summer then

See you then shels....we seem to be quite close time wise so there should be some good racing.;)

We'll be like Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe.........only slower:P

shels4ever

Babybing wrote: »

See you then shels....we seem to be quite close time wise so there should be some good racing.;)

We'll be like Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe.........only slower:P

Once I'm Coe your on

Racing Flat

shels4ever wrote: »

Once I'm Coe your on

Back in the 80s I liked Coe. Now I'd be more of an Ovett fan. Does that say more about the power of the media (at the time) or me changing?

shels4ever

Racing Flat wrote: »

Back in the 80s I liked Coe. Now I'd be more of an Ovett fan. Does that say more about the power of the media (at the time) or me changing?

I'd say its a bit of both.. I would have been more of a Steve Cram fan...

Stupid_Private

Racing Flat wrote: »

Be careful with flats though - some of them are useless if it's wet. I found this out mid road-race once, so had to get a wet weather pair and now always pack both and only wear the original ones if I'm fairly sure it won't rain.

Thanks for reminding me - I must get a pair this weekend for when the road is slick. I'll be like a bloody formula one car turning up to races with an array of shoes depending on the conditions.

shels4ever

Stupid_Private wrote: »

Thanks for reminding me - I must get a pair this weekend for when the road is slick. I'll be like a bloody formula one car turning up to races with an array of shoes depending on the conditions.

I can see you on multi lap races popping in for a pit stop as the sky becomes grey to put on your wet tyres(flats).....

Racing Flat

Stupid_Private wrote: »

Thanks for reminding me - I must get a pair this weekend for when the road is slick. I'll be like a bloody formula one car turning up to races with an array of shoes depending on the conditions.

Track is worse - I've my normal trainers for warming up, spikes in case it's lashing, wet weather flats in case it's damp, lightest flats for if it's dry...

FWIW Asics DS racers (the model I have anyhow) are no good if it's wet, but the Asics Speedstar 3 has a kind of black webbing material on the sole which makes them fine for wet weather. My friend got some Nike martahons recently and said they are poor on the track if the track is wet.

Racing Flat

shels4ever wrote: »

I'd say its a bit of both.. I would have been more of a Steve Cram fan...

Crammy wasn't really in the equation - he was universally loved IIRC. Coe and Ovett were kind of past their best by the time Cram was at his peak, so Cram had the public support all to himself.

I'd highly recommend the book 'The Perfect Distance' by Pat Butcher, all about the rivalry between Coe and Ovett, from both their perspectives. Best non-training running book I've read (meaning it's the best running book I've read as training books are a bit tedious, like homework ).

One of the highlights - Coe and Ovett were far better than their rivals at the standing vertical jump (stand side on to a wall, touch your hand as high as you can on the wall, mark the spot, then jump as high as you can and touch/mark the wall at the highest part of your jump, measure the difference in marks, the bigger the better) and the 25m hop (see how many one legged hops it takes you to cover 25m, the less the better). They give figures in the book, IIRC 10 hops is very good, 9 brilliant, 8 out of this world, Coe did 8.

The author wondered if their superior plyometric strength (apparently they were markedly better at these than everyone else) might have been what made them stand out so much form their rivals who all would have probably had similar enough speed, VO2max etc. .....

Also, one of the reasons put forward for the Kenyans and Ethipians being so good is the increased elastic recoil of thier muscles compared to the rest of us - inherent better plyometric strength.

If I had unlimited time I would firstly run more (100miles a week would be nice), next do plyometric work and finally rest more....

That's my musings for the day. Sorry for going off topic. Back in my hole now :pac:.

Running Bing

Another question on spikes: Do they generally run the same size as normal everyday shoes or is it suggested you go a size up or a size down?

dna_leri

Babybing wrote: »

Another question on spikes: Do they generally run the same size as normal everyday shoes or is it suggested you go a size up or a size down?

My ASICs spikes are half (a US) size smaller than my ASICs running shoes. Definitely try them on first.

Running Bing

Got a pair of spikes today from Mick Dowlings place...just wondering what is the best way to get used to them now? Should I just run my next interval workout in them or should I only use them for small amounts of time at first?


Do people wear socks with them?


And if Im racing should I warm up in my training shoes first and just use the spikes for racing or should I warm up in the spikes?

Thanks.

shels4ever

Babybing wrote: »

Got a pair of spikes today from Mick Dowlings place...just wondering what is the best way to get used to them now? Should I just run my next interval workout in them or should I only use them for small amounts of time at first?


Do people wear socks with them?


And if Im racing should I warm up in my training shoes first and just use the spikes for racing or should I warm up in the spikes?

Thanks.

1. When I got mine first I started by wearing them for the last mile or so of my easy runs, then increased this over time, I think the furthest i ran was 3 miles in them before races, and did one set of 800's in them.

I didnt wear socks myself but some people so,

Warm up was done in my runners then changed prior to the race.

Enjoy the new spikes.. I'm thinking of getting a pair of Flats this weekend...

Running Bing

shels4ever wrote: »

1. When I got mine first I started by wearing them for the last mile or so of my easy runs, then increased this over time, I think the furthest i ran was 3 miles in them before races, and did one set of 800's in them.

I didnt wear socks myself but some people so,

Warm up was done in my runners then changed prior to the race.

Enjoy the new spikes.. I'm thinking of getting a pair of Flats this weekend...

Yeah there's some nice flats about.

I was just looking at the lunaracers and the asics ds racers today....light as a feather.

I remember they had the mayfly's in runways and they were unreal. Felt like a piece of cardboard:P

thirstywork

stay away from the mayflys unless u are 6-8stone in weight and light on ur feet.My words of advice on wearing spikes for the first time is to maybe ease them in during a trackworkout.Maybe do the last 2-3 400m reps in them and increase gradually as you train.try avoid wearing them all the time in trackworkouts as they can be very sore on the calves.
I dont wear socks but if u are prone to blisters id advise to wear them or maybe even a thin racing sock.