I have been thinking of buying a pair of zero-drop running shoes in lieu of doing the barefoot running thing. Not only have I been worried about running on society’s surface (heat, glass, screws, who knows what else…) but my right leg is about a half-inch shorter than the left and to correct this I have worn a lift most of my life. Can’t hold a lift on under your without something to wear. So this is why the zero-drop shoes that are basically flat (the heal is the same thickness as the ball of the footbed) has been appealing to me. Supposedly with barefoot running the leg and hip corrects for distance imperfections as you land on the balls of your foot. Being that I am more of a mid-striker this isn’t necessarily the case with me.

So yesterday I purchased a pair of Altra Instincts from my local shoe store Pace Setter. This is the first time I have purchased shoes from a running store in forever. Its a really good thing, expert help, shopping local, etc. But I have been corrupted by cheaper online prices and since I have known what I wanted I don’t really need to try new pairs on. But I figured if I was going to go the zero-drop route I should at least get one pair at a store (even though the online price above was $25 less than what I paid, it was still worth it.)

This morning I headed out for my inaugural run. First off they were super comfortable and feature a much wider toe box. The shoes almost look like duck feet, but that is ok with me. I found my normal mid-strike to feel almost flat footed and eventually felt myself leaning more towards a sprinters landing on the balls of my feet (which is what they say I should do anyway). I am glad I got to that point naturally rather than setting out to run on the balls of my feet. My foot strikes were basically mid-strikes, but it felt like I was landing more on the fronts of my feet. Anyway, that portion of the run was a total success IMHO. The problem I found today is that I kept tripping over the tips of my feet. The Altras have a hard rubber front of the shoe that was catching rather than gliding over things in my path. Also I think I have developed an extremely low-profile foot positioning with the thinking being that the less I lift my legs the more energy I’ll have down the road. This approach doesn’t really seem to work with these shoes at least to start as my feet point down a bit which I guess is because I am used to having that larger heel. Anyway, it took less than a half-mile before I was down on the pavement having tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. I landed on the same spot on my elbow as I did a couple days ago. As the blood beaded on my elbow I thought, well at least I have my trip and roll technique down! I am sure I’ll be able to adjust to these shoes eventually. Today, later in the run I was concentrating on lifting my feet a bit more but it felt like I was coming down too hard on them. I am sure I can find a compromise that will work better.

I started the run planning to go a shorter distance, maybe 3-4 miles, hoping to allow myself to break in the shoes a bit. But last night I wore them around the house and felt like I was able to break them in a bit. So today’s run ended up getting extended a couple of times and all in all came out just under 6 miles. In addition to my new shoes, I also sported a new water bottle by Nathan that has no BPA. Worked just fine! It was slightly smaller than my old bottle so it was a little loose in my belt, but I was able to tighten the water bottle part up a little and it worked just fine (well it held it in at least).