Running

Oh my god, you didnt actually buy those did you?

Its as much of a silly useless snake-oil gimmick as the "shake weight".

But with the added likelihood of injury.

It was a brilliant idea on the account of the manufacturers/designers/marketers and advert creators though. They have done their job well and will make fuck loads of money with this.

If you want to hit your glutes intensely, just walk up some steep stairs with a rucksack on. Ideally two at a time.

Also an excellent general leg exercise with hits the muscle around the knee and the glutes pretty hard is walking lunges. If you need tips on how to execute correctly I can advise.

I bought them more because the gel thingy seemed like it would be good for lessening impact, I don't really care about the more muscle bollox.
When I landed on the gel bit it did feel pretty...ewrrr..gel-ly.

I bought them more because the gel thingy seemed like it would be good for lessening impact, I don't really care about the more muscle bollox.
When I landed on the gel bit it did feel pretty...ewrrr..gel-ly.

You want your shoes to be stable, not be squishy and roll around all over the place.

Good luck with your running escapades, but be diligent as those shoes are probably not the best thing for actually running.

One other thing I found when building up my distance was not to get too hung up on timing yourself, relax into it... if the body aches/hurts slow-down or stop.... if you feel good keep going... too much addiction to times will only result in you pushing your body when it doesn't fancy being pushed. Contrary to what my perverted PE teacher used to shout... pain isn't 'good'....! But as I said, he was a bit of a perv....

Run, Fatboy, Run is on tv now..

Tell him to get off the TV b4 he breaks it then!

Contrary to what my perverted PE teacher used to shout... pain isn't 'good'....! But as I said, he was a bit of a perv....

Arent they all..

One of mine used to wear ultra short running shorts with nothing underneath so his nob would occasionally dangle out.

He'd also watch everyone in the showers and make comments about penises.

He was excellent at running though he mustve been 68 years+ old but could outrun everyone in the school, he actually ran 8 miles to work and back.

Well, they are some of reebok's new technology...here:

I think a good stretch out before I run next time is called for, plus maybe a gentle twice a week run should be ok to start with.

Fuck me, I hate shoe companies, they're a right bunch of cunts. =(

I'm really sorry but have to agree with DFP, please take those back if you can, say you can't run in them or something they will only impede your running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtES84n0aNk

The sad truth is the more technical the shoe the more likely you are to become injured. The constant push for profit causes running shoe manufacturers to produce gimmick after gimmick year on year. I hate the cunts, they honestly are not interested in reducing injury, only in making profit by misleading customers onto believing they need new feature X because it will somehow improve their running.

A quick 101, the absolute ideal for running is the human foot... and that's it. Nature really has produced for you a perfectly designed, custom fitted piece of running equipment and handed it to you for nowt right there on the end of your leg! It's been designed to work perfectly in concert with your ankle, knee, leg, back and so on. Take a look at it, a quarter of the bones in your body are in there, It's taken literally millions of years to perfect that. Leonardo de Vinci called it a masterpiece of engineering!

Now, I'm not saying you should go out and run barefoot (which wouldn't necessarily be such a bad thing) but that the more you add to the foot, the more you change how the foot works, the more likely you are to cause injury.

Here's what's happening with your shin pain : Because you're wearing a shoe with an artificially built up and cushioned heel you're now landing on your heel. If you imagine your leg out-stretched forward in the heel-strike position the impact forces coming through the heel will be causing a rotational force around the ankle as the full weight of your body comes down. The only muscle capable of opposing this rotational force is the anterior tibialis (shin muscle) so essentially, due to an artificially built up heel you're now putting all your weight through your shin, hence shin pain.

The irony being that if you tried running barefoot you wouldn't be able to run like that, landing on the heel is landing directly on solid bone. Try this, go into the kitchen (or somewhere with a hard floor) take your shoes off, tense your shins so that you lift your foot up and are standing on your heels only, now try walking around. Just feel the huge impact going through your heel, ankle and knee. Now imagine running like that, now imagine running like that with a gel pad - it's not gonna resolve the problem. Now try walking properly, feel how much softer it is.

Anyway as far as your shin splints are concerned as I mentioned a solution might be to shorten your stride a bit which would lessen the forces going through your shin. Personally I think the real solution is dump the overly technical trainers and go for something minimal.

Regarding stretching. Forcibly stretching a muscle to its limit isn't a good thing (how could it be?), it's certainly not a good way to warm up. I dunno, again it seems to be one of those things that everyone seems to do (see women in youtube video above) but if you stop and think about it, it makes no sense. For any warm up you want to warm up the muscles you're going to be using, so actually you might as well just run but starting off gently. A nice light short paced jog and then build up the speed from there. Saying that even a slow run does produce decent impact forces through the foot so I start off with a few foot exercises, nothing forcible like grabbing your foot and forcing it to move to extremes, just things like ankle rotations, clenching your toes, moving things around just to get everything working.

Arent they all..

One of mine used to wear ultra short running shorts with nothing underneath so his nob would occasionally dangle out.

He'd also watch everyone in the showers and make comments about penises.

He was excellent at running though he mustve been 68 years+ old but could outrun everyone in the school, he actually ran 8 miles to work and back.

I run 9 miles to work and back. Do I have to talk about nobs?

Fuck me, I hate shoe companies, they're a right bunch of cunts. =(

I'm really sorry but have to agree with DFP, please take those back if you can, say you can't run in them or something they will only impede your running.

YouTube- Reebok EasyTone Product Review

The sad truth is the more technical the shoe the more likely you are to become injured. The constant push for profit causes running shoe manufacturers to produce gimmick after gimmick year on year. I hate the cunts, they honestly are not interested in reducing injury, only in making profit by misleading customers onto believing they need new feature X because it will somehow improve their running.

A quick 101, the absolute ideal for running is the human foot... and that's it. Nature really has produced for you a perfectly designed, custom fitted piece of running equipment and handed it to you for nowt right there on the end of your leg! It's been designed to work perfectly in concert with your ankle, knee, leg, back and so on. Take a look at it, a quarter of the bones in your body are in there, It's taken literally millions of years to perfect that. Leonardo de Vinci called it a masterpiece of engineering!

Now, I'm not saying you should go out and run barefoot (which wouldn't necessarily be such a bad thing) but that the more you add to the foot, the more you change how the foot works, the more likely you are to cause injury.

Here's what's happening with your shin pain : Because you're wearing a shoe with an artificially built up and cushioned heel you're now landing on your heel. If you imagine your leg out-stretched forward in the heel-strike position the impact forces coming through the heel will be causing a rotational force around the ankle as the full weight of your body comes down. The only muscle capable of opposing this rotational force is the anterior tibialis (shin muscle) so essentially, due to an artificially built up heel you're now putting all your weight through your shin, hence shin pain.

The irony being that if you tried running barefoot you wouldn't be able to run like that, landing on the heel is landing directly on solid bone. Try this, go into the kitchen (or somewhere with a hard floor) take your shoes off, tense your shins so that you lift your foot up and are standing on your heels only, now try walking around. Just feel the huge impact going through your heel, ankle and knee. Now imagine running like that, now imagine running like that with a gel pad - it's not gonna resolve the problem. Now try walking properly, feel how much softer it is.

Anyway as far as your shin splints are concerned as I mentioned a solution might be to shorten your stride a bit which would lessen the forces going through your shin. Personally I think the real solution is dump the overly technical trainers and go for something minimal.

Regarding stretching. Forcibly stretching a muscle to its limit isn't a good thing (how could it be?), it's certainly not a good way to warm up. I dunno, again it seems to be one of those things that everyone seems to do (see women in youtube video above) but if you stop and think about it, it makes no sense. For any warm up you want to warm up the muscles you're going to be using, so actually you might as well just run but starting off gently. A nice light short paced jog and then build up the speed from there. Saying that even a slow run does produce decent impact forces through the foot so I start off with a few foot exercises, nothing forcible like grabbing your foot and forcing it to move to extremes, just things like ankle rotations, clenching your toes, moving things around just to get everything working.

Thanks for all the good advice. I can see your point about the shoes, I don't know that much about running and probably should have asked for more help before buying them, but the lady at the shop raved about them and agreed with my theory on the padding on the ball of the foot.
It's impossible for me to return them, so I'm going to try and use them fairly gently to see if running is something I want to keep up before I replace them and use them in my old age for un-dignified power walking while wearing nothing but a sports bra and tights.

What's this shit about Guinness world records for fastest marathon dressed as a baby or running as a doctor? What the arse? How about Guinness World Record for fastest computer geek to walk to the fridge and skull a bottle of Duvel whilst singing the Australian national anthem?

Seriously, get some proper world records or fuck off.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.it/eng/default.aspx
Alternative to running barefoot.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.it/eng/default.aspx
Alternative to running barefoot.

These feel great to walk in, and protect your feet from bits of glass etc. But the elastic went on mine just walking from around in them for a week.

Is there a UK stockist for those? I saew a guy weariong them a while ago and want to try them out but I have a mental middle toe so need to try them first.

EDIT:

Primal Lifestyle
15 Copperfields KT22 9PA Fetcham - Surrey
+44 (1372) 200 640
info@primallifestyle.com

^^ mental middle toe
Are you from Norfolk ?

shrugs

Nah, just way longer than my big toe. Double jointed too.

Whats the significance of Norfolk?

Thanks for all the good advice. I can see your point about the shoes, I don't know that much about running and probably should have asked for more help before buying them, but the lady at the shop raved about them and agreed with my theory on the padding on the ball of the foot.
It's impossible for me to return them, so I'm going to try and use them fairly gently to see if running is something I want to keep up before I replace them and use them in my old age for un-dignified power walking while wearing nothing but a sports bra and tights.

You need to look at lots of aspects before buying road shoes.

How you run (does your foot turn inward through the stride). This tells you how much support the shoe should provide.

How your foot lands. Along with your weight, this tells you how much cushioning you need.

Then theres fit.

Sheesh its almost as bad as getting a comfortable bike ;)

Theres loads of places in London, but I've had good experiance with these guys (no idea if they're still at Holborn).
http://www.runnersneed.co.uk/home.aspx

shrugs

Nah, just way longer than my big toe. Double jointed too.

Whats the significance of Norfolk?

standard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton's_toe

me too.

i've got a pair which I bought online, never really felt confident enough to run in them.

Def right to try for size, I'm like three or four sizes different in my normal shoe size in them

standard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton's_toe

me too.

WTF??? Its a SYNDROME??? Thats fucking turned my world upside down. I have a syndrome.

Wiki also goes on to say:

"A longer second toe has often been associated with royalty"

...which I guess has also been associated with a few syndromes.

I want to run to work more but I work outside London so have a 1Okm run to the station followed by a 4O minute train journey during which I get freezing cold. Does anyone have any advice on what layer I can take that's light but will keep me warm on the train? I have lots of lightweight breathable things meant for use while you're actually doing the running/cycling/whatever but I'm not sure if that kind of thing is going to be any use.

What about something like this in your pocket, Bendix?

http://www.camping-online.co.uk/backpacking-equipment/backpacking-accessories/polar-shield-emergency-blanket.html

Might look a bit goofy on the train tho.

I want to run to work more but I work outside London so have a 1Okm run to the station followed by a 4O minute train journey during which I get freezing cold. Does anyone have any advice on what layer I can take that's light but will keep me warm on the train? I have lots of lightweight breathable things meant for use while you're actually doing the running/cycling/whatever but I'm not sure if that kind of thing is going to be any use.

Something in merino wool will keep you warm longer. I wear a lot of merino when winter trail running (often at -15C). No more effective at temperature regulation than the high tech synthetics, when you're running. But if you have to stop, nothing insulates when wet like merino.

Not sure how much of the thin, high activity stuff, is available in the UK though.

The Gound effect stuff looks nice.
http://www.groundeffect.co.nz/products-MER.htm

Merino! I should have thought of that, I even have some and just never use it for running for some reason. Cheers, will give it a go tomorrow.

http://www.vibramfivefingers.it/eng/default.aspx
Alternative to running barefoot.

where did you get yours from? i know there is a store in london somewhere as i visited it, but maybe you got yours elsewhere? im waiting on some ebay fuckhead to deliver mine and i want a back up plan for when i demand a refund for non delivered goods..