A Running Shoes Guide for Common Questions

There isn't enough well-established knowledge out there to help explain most problems that people face in their athletic endeavors. That's why myths and stories crop up all the time - and they take the place of a real explanation. Let's take up several questions to do with athletic footwear in this running shoes guide, that runners think of from time to time; and let's try to answer them.

And here's one that every runner thinks of, but never finds a satisfactory answer to - how long is it safe to keep your running shoes? On average, they should last between 350 and 450 miles of running. It could be only 350 miles if you have a running style that makes you put all your weight on your heels pounding down on each stride. Not only is this going to wear your shoes out, it could wear your bones and your ligaments out too. If you have a more energy-efficient style, you could actually get those shoes to last 100 miles more. Most of the time, it should be easy to find out when your shoes need replacing - if they feel less than responsive, if they seem to not be holding your feet together as well, and if the material sandwiched under the sole is beginning to show through a worn spot or two, you'll know it's time. Harder surfaces are bound to wear rubber out faster. If you like to run on asphalt, the tougher surface will shred the rubber on the soles of your feet faster. Not as fast however as the wrong running gait can. The uppers can be a pretty good indication too - if they seem quite loose and unable to give your feet a good wrap, it's time to retire them.

Lots of people have flat feet or fallen arches. People tend usually to believe that any time you have flat feet, that it is inevitable that your feet should begin to angle outwards as you run - to pronate. This doesn't necessarily have to be; what happens with flat feet usually is that your midsole joints are unnaturally flexible and your ankles tend to lean too far in with each footfall. Some people though, have a peculiar gait where a part of their bodies, perhaps their hips or their thigh muscles, try to compensate for the bad posture that flat feet will bring. And that is a good thing. When you have flat feet, most often, any running shoes guide will tell you to get shoes with arch support or motion control design built in. While that is a good idea, there is such a thing as too much support. This can get your feet to toe in a little bit (to supinate) and sometimes, it can give you painful knees. What you need is to stop buying ready-made shoe designs, and to look for a specialty store for shoes with just the right amount of support.

There isn't a running shoes guide out there that tries to talk about defective shoes. Lots of people have problems with shoe inserts. Often, these tend to be awkward to insert, and difficult to have stay put. Often after a mile or so running, your shoe inserts will tend to crawl down to the middle of the shoes. Manufacturers of inserts don't all use the same foot maps that the shoe manufacturers use. Any given insert may not therefore fit correctly in any kind of shoe. To make sure that you have the right fit, you'll need to find a way to always buy your shoes and your inserts at the same specialty running retailer - a place that will know what model fits best.