I’ve been reading Kelly Starretts latest book titled “Ready to Run”. Kelly is well known in the crossfit world for his mobility WODS. Kelly is a physio and has a really interesting back story and has worked with numerous elite athletes and sporting teams. He is not as well know in the running world but should be as his mobility stuff is kick arse. I think he has recognized the potential to tap into (something like a 70% injury rate) of runners and this latest book is geared towards preventing this.
The book is made up of a number of standards for which you test yourself against, make changes and re test. If you know Kelly’s stuff this is the basic workflow of everything he does.
One of these standards is shoes, flat shoes. I run in zero to 4mm drop shoes as I know the benefits of this but for the last 17 years during my working career the shoes I spend the most time in at work are heavy, non-breathable shoes with jacked up heels. Is wearing 0 drop for maybe an average of one hour per day going to outweigh wearing jacked up heels for 9+ hours per day…? I don’t think so…
Luckily for me I have just recently changed positions within the company and my new position see’s me still at a desk, but with no need to go into the workshop anywhere near as often. So why bother with the heels I said to myself while reading. That night I went down to the local BigW and found a pair of black Dunlop Volleys for $35. About 1/3 of the price of the safety boots.
Now I feel like some sort of ninja walking around. There is not a lot of padding in the sole but when sitting (this is another std I’m working on) who needs it. The drop is basically zero and the flexibility feels like I’m wearing vibram 5 fingers in comparison to my old work boots. Plus they are Dunlop Volley’s, how old school and cool.
One week in and I’m loving them. I have however noticed the usual calf tightness when transitioning to zero drop shoes but as I’m not running its not that bad that you would notice it without thinking of it. Imagine how much better this will be when I am running in my zero drop shoes….
r6nic 