Shoes were never the problem in the 70’s for cyclists. A pair of Binda Extra toe straps on Campy pedals worked. Pounding the pavement meant going down & that was way more brutal than anything running could dish out. I have had 3 broken collar bones, & now run like a cripple - but that works these days.
???How do broken collar bones cause one to run like a cripple??? (Also, you had 3 collar bones???).
Tiger Jayhawks - Maybe one of the best flats in history.
Nike Terra TC - Want to train and race in the same shoe? That was it. Phylon was my friend. Then again 5:20 pace was easy back then.
Nike Air Edge - 5k? Marathon? Like the Terra TC that shoe was versatile, and a great introduction to "air" in a flat.
Shoes weren't gimmicky. A sole and midsole on a curved last, and an upper that hugged the feet. Sockless was best. A great time to be alive, and a distance runner.
Nike Terra TC was introduced in 1981. The first running shoes with a compression molded EVA midsole. They were an idea that came from a Nike executive kid's bathtub toy.
The Nike “ Mariah” was one of the finest racing flats of all time.
If I could still race….effectively, I’d take a pair of Mariah’s today.
I still have a couple pairs of Mariahs.
They are similar to the super shoes of today in some respect. A stiffer platform with a thicker rather inflexible forefoot (your footplant and toe off needed to match the rocker built into midsole of the shoe). They were road specific and were too unstable with a lack of traction for any other surface. If you were a forefoot striker and of the right weight, they offered lots of pop, bounce and rebound while saving your legs from pounding.
I had some great races in around 1980 (I was 13-14 at the time) in the Nike Eagles on the roads (did get a metatarsal stress fracture after one 10K, though). They had a very similar outsole to the Mariah (maybe identical). I learned my lesson about the traction after slipping and falling three times in a 1.5 mile XC race.
In the 70s I only remember 2 choices. Either Adidas Countries (all leather, causing death blisters to break them in but then OK, lasted forever) or Nike Waffle Trainers (pretty nice but the uppers blew out fast). Then around 1980 Nike started doing the really flared soles, I can’t remember the name. LD1000? Those sucked.
The first Nike Zoom spikes - the white and blue ones - came out around 1980 (?) and were great.
Best spikes were Tiger Spartan B. Mine were orange/blue trim. My fave trainers were original Pegasus. Ran and won my first marathon in Nike Marathon (Mariah's without the layer of air sole). All comfy - never injured.
Ok, this is a question for anyone who trained during the 80s and 90s: how did you survive running in such terrible shoes? I was just thinking about how shoes like the Nike Air Max were considered high-tech and top-end trainers back then but I can't imagine running more than a few steps in them. It's ironic that this era became kind of a dark age for trainers because everything before was basically some kind of basic flat that, while offering no protection, at least doesn't get in the way.
It’s easy. we were different. we didn’t complain about stupid stuff and worry about what someone else was doing on the other side of Instagram. we ran and trained hard.
Not really a question of surviving, just adapting to what was out there. Coincidentally, I worked running retail during that time, and tech was always emerging. I went from Tiger Montreals and waffle trainers to asicsTiger Gel-Lytes and the Epirus, and was amazed at the CMEVA midsoles. (My old Nike internationalists w/ plain old sheet EVA lasted close to 1k mi.) To this day, I prefer CMEVA, it lasts longer than any pebax I’ve had - that initial bounce in peba isn’t very long-lasting.
My Nike air Vectors and Air contrails were amazing. But, most importantly, I was never injured w/70-80 mi weeks! Never. As of today, the Peg 40 and Mach 5 have worked well - reasonable stack and doable drop for my old bones.