Train Light / Race Light

ntlbell

I currently train in Nimbus 10 which I'm very happy with and was looking at buying a shoe for racing maybe a DS Trainer/Racer

I was wondering if there's any rule of thumb about training and racing in different weight shoe's

e.g. should i just buy another pair of 10 and keep them for racing or does it matter if you're switching weights?

cheers

Racing Flat

The lighter the shoe the faster you'll go, but the less support you'll have from the shoe. In general. Initially just wearing your normal trainers for racing should be fine and every time you race you'll probably knock chunks of time off purely from getting fitter. Once it gets to the stage that you are only knocking seconds off, or it is getting harder to get PB's, by which stage your body will be more accustomed to running anyhow, racing flats may be appropriate. Because they generally have less of a heel, they can feel a bit different initially, but you'll get used to them fairly quickly. But being lighter you should definitely gain an edge from them.

But as you are supposed to change your trainers every 500miles or so, you can go through them quite quickly, and so it can get quite expensive, so if you are fairly new to it, getting your usual trainers rather than flats may be better at the moment.

I've read somewhere that unless you are under 15 stone you should not use flats, don't know if that's true or not.


BTW if you are running regularly, having 2 pair of shoes that you wear for every 2nd run should last as long as 3 pairs if you have just one pair at a time, so I'd say go for another pair of 10s

ntlbell

I'll have to start paying you RF

I didn't realise you had to change every 500 miles I must start keeping track.

HardyEustace

You'll kind of know when you have to change. I normally keep two or three pairs on the go and you'll be able to feel the difference when the old ones don't have the same support.