What has been your experience in zero drop or minimal drop running shoes?

Sasquatch Tracking Team wrote:

Some people can run in anything. Why do you run trails instead of what's outside your door?

I personally have had mixed-to-mostly positive experiences with minimalist shoes, which are not the same thing as merely zero-drop. I think having a firm, low profile, flexible shoe with a wide toe-box is the way to go.

I found myself limited, when running in true minimalist shoes, because medium mileage weeks would end up feeling like extremely high mileage weeks. My legs ended up getting truly ripped, in ways that I never would have expected. Even to a higher degree than when I was running 90mpw in college, at high intensity. I also found that my speed and efficiency improved dramatically. However, the reality was that it was making my muscles work a lot harder, so I couldn't put in as much miles at the intensity I would like to run.

Now, I try to find running shoes that mimic natural movement, but with a little midsole. Altras have proven to wreck my groundfeel, they are way too cushioned.

I'm looking to try Topo Athletics. Anyone try them?

I agree that the Altra Torins have above average cushioning, but the Instincts feel pretty firm to me, although not as firm or low as the Brooks Pure Connects that I ran in many years ago. I'd be interested in hearing about the Topo shoes as well. The split between toes 1 and 2 looks like it may be annoying, especially if your toes aren't of a conforming shape and alignment.

Just wow... wrote:

I agree that the Altra Torins have above average cushioning, but the Instincts feel pretty firm to me, although not as firm or low as the Brooks Pure Connects that I ran in many years ago. I'd be interested in hearing about the Topo shoes as well. The split between toes 1 and 2 looks like it may be annoying, especially if your toes aren't of a conforming shape and alignment.

Topo doesn't do the split toe thing anymore.

Topo MT-2 were my main shoe this past winter. I liked them a whole lot. They fit very much like Altra.

Just received new Torin 3s, Instinct 4s, and One 3s in the past week. All are significant improvements and firmer than their predecessors.

Altra is definitely moving in the right direction.

In my early 20s I would run in Vibram 5 fingers almost 100% of the time. I also seemed to get shin injuries every 12-15 weeks, usually, once I got much over 100km a week.

Eventually, a very persuasive physiotherapist convinced me I was being a retard and told me to buy a pair of Nike pegasus. It's been 3 years and I haven't been injured since, and it's also been PB city.

Zero drop minimalist did not work for me.

Changing drop, yet still cushioned shoe, won't change a thing- not in your form neither injury wise. If you're a heelstriker, running barefoot on hard surface like pavements might force you to go forefoot.

Thoreau wrote:

Changing drop, yet still cushioned shoe, won't change a thing- not in your form neither injury wise. If you're a heelstriker, running barefoot on hard surface like pavements might force you to go forefoot.

It can at least allow you to change your form in a way, in that zero drop shoes don't actively encourage poor mechanics. I find that large heels encourage you to land too far in front of your center of balance, and this ends up messing with your knees, shins, achilles, etc.

Ivanka Trumpalot wrote:

Thoreau wrote:

Changing drop, yet still cushioned shoe, won't change a thing- not in your form neither injury wise. If you're a heelstriker, running barefoot on hard surface like pavements might force you to go forefoot.

It can at least allow you to change your form in a way, in that zero drop shoes don't actively encourage poor mechanics. I find that large heels encourage you to land too far in front of your center of balance, and this ends up messing with your knees, shins, achilles, etc.

The main difference between a heelstriker and a forefoot runner is that a forefoot runner relaxes his foot during the swing phase until it strikes the ground, and that's why it strikes forefoot. Whereas a heelstriker dorsiflexes his foot before it hits the ground, thus striking on the heel. Minimal drop won't make a heelstriker relax his foot, and high drop won't make a forefoot runner strike on the heel. A relaxed foot even with a high drop still strikes forefoot.

John Utah wrote:

Switched to Altras not too long ago and I'll never run in anything that is not zero drop again.

2 years ago, I went on a run with a really cute girl from my gym. I was wearing the Altra torins , and when she looked at my feet , I new she was disturbed and said it looked like duck shoes. A day later she quit the gym, and I have never seen her again.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one. Heel strikers are different than forefoot strikers, typically, in that they are over-striding, not because of what you are saying. Whether the variations in drop encourage or discourage over-striding is open to debate, although I believe that some study showed that barefoot running caused over-striding shod runners to stop over-striding, at least while running barefoot.

Just wow... wrote:

I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one. Heel strikers are different than forefoot strikers, typically, in that they are over-striding, not because of what you are saying. Whether the variations in drop encourage or discourage over-striding is open to debate, although I believe that some study showed that barefoot running caused over-striding shod runners to stop over-striding, at least while running barefoot.

There are world class runners that heel strike, and they certainly aren´t overstriding.

Just wow... wrote:

Less injuries? More injuries? I saw that Dathan Ritzenhein just switched to Hokas for training, and it's helped his "plantar", but my guess is more because of the stiffness of the sole and the rocker.

My experience ended in Sesamoiditis

long long story short, getting out of motion control shoes was a necessary component of significant work to fix (improve) my running form. A long strange trip it had been to get back to injury free running and qualify again for Boston for my 50th. I've settled in today at 4 mm drop.

Form and shoes are a bit of chicken and egg IMO. Getting the formula right for "your experiment of one" is important to the large percentage of us who are injury prone. (not ignoring sensible training, it's just not the topic of this thread)

I had a special shoe need for my mom's diabetic feet. I was able to remove the innersoles and replace them with the ones from the podiatrist. Orthofeet the only shoes I could find that would provide support and allow for the straps to still wrap around over the thicker innersole. I still had to take them to the shoe repairman to have the Velcro moved, but he was able to customize them for a more secure fit. Great shoe for this particular need.

Ivanka Trumpalot wrote:

I'm looking to try Topo Athletics. Anyone try them?

I've got two pair of Topo's. The MT-2's I use for trails (flat, dirt, leaves and roots mainly, not any rocky terrain where I live). I've enjoyed them. Very, very comfortable, can be used on or off road. No rock plate so keep that in mind depending on how rugged your terrain will be.

More recently, I purchased a pair of Topo ST-2's. They are very lightweight with zero drop. I don't like them as much as I thought I would. Never thought I'd say this about a pair of shoes, but the toe box almost seems too wide. Makes them feel sloppy on my feet. They feel a size too large even though they are the same size as every pair of running shoes I've ever worn. They feel better at faster paces so I mostly use them for up to 10k races and speed workouts. At easy paces, my foot feels like it's flopping around in there.

Crazy, someone bumps this six-year-old thread and I actually remember reading it wayyy back then.

yup