running shoes

And the most important piece of equipment is running shoes. Thinking about it, that's just about all I need, and that simplicity is one of the sport's allures for me. I've seen people running in t-shirts and old cut-off blue jeans, but they all have purpose-built shoes.

I was a Nike fan. But I stopped buying them because I felt Nike was too much about fashion statements and not enough about function. When I found a Nike shoe that worked for me, and it came time to get another one, I often could not figure out what the "replacement" model was because they morphed so much. And if I did, there was no guarantee that the shoe was very similar to the shoe it was "replacing" because the shoes would evolve to meet some marketing price/performance point. And Nikes are pricey.

I've tried New Balance, Avia, and Saucony, and I wasn't particularly happy with either.

I tried Brooks and I like them a lot. You can find Brooks at most pre-race sales expositions, and they run about $80 per pair which is very reasonable. After some experimentation I am running in the Brooks Adrenaline/GTS-7. It is an almost-neutral shoe with some light motion control. It is not too light to take some activity, but not too heavy to slow me down. It has a good balance of padding and support. It is a tough shoe that can take daily asphalt and not wear down the tread quickly.

I usually go through 4 pairs of shoes a year, 2 in spring and 2 in fall. I have never had a lightweight body and periodic shoe changes helps to reduce the injury to my knees with fresh midsole padding. When I find a good deal on them, I will buy a couple and put them in the closet. When I transition from the old to the new shoes, I'll wear the new shoes at home for two weeks before introducing them into weekday training runs for two weeks, and then swapping them into the long weekend runs. The shoes them migrate into "around the house/every day shoes", and then into gardening/mud shoes, and then into the trash.

Even at that point there is still some life in them , I just have run out of things to do with them. At one time I had 6 pair of old running shoes sitting around while I searched for a home for them, but no luck. It's not that I want to add them to a landfill, just a lack of creativity.