(September 12, 2013 at 12:44 am)jots Wrote:Quote:How many miles would you guess you have on your current pair of shoes?
About 350 miles, I am thinking of replacing them pretty soon.
I would, especially since your having knee problems and can afford to replace them - running shoes are stupidly expensive. The right pair of shoes (the right size, the right fit, the right "correction" if you have one, new soles, new inserts) can really help.
You might try looking up your local running stores and seeing if any in your area offer gait analysis or anything like that. It seems super unscientific as far as what they do (at the place I went, they filmed me running for like 60 seconds and then look to see if your Achilles tendon aligns correctly (?)) but it can at least confirm whether you have a neutral footfall or if you pronate which has a lot to do with the kinds of shoes you should be wearing and whether you need anything "corrected."
My dad (an overpronator) swears by the running shoes they put him in; I have a neutral gait so it didn't feel like there was anything especially spectacular about the shoes they put me in aside from that they were new and felt better to run in (probably because they were new, but might have had to do with them being designed for neutral runners, who knows?), take it with a grain of salt. If anything, going to a running specialty store to buy your shoes means your buying them from someone who probably knows about running and running shoes as opposed to the 18 year old who works at Sports Authority as his after-school job.
A specialty running store is also a great place to go when you have weird running questions (things to do with blisters, nails falling off, training problems or tips, hydration/refueling, etc.) because they're probably all runners of some sort. Make friends with them.
(September 12, 2013 at 2:14 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: I just got an iphone 3gs, best running app?
I have the Nike+ app, for which you require the shoe sensor, and which I'm still trying to sort out with my podcasts, and Map My Runs which is kind of cool because it makes a little map of where you ran and tracks the super squiggly line you run in. MMR has a lot of features to it including a nutrition tracker and it seems to keep a more detailed log of your past workouts than Nike+but I haven't spent a lot of time comparing them.
Besides those two unimaginative standard apps, I got nothing. (I've only had my iphone since July so I'm pretty new to it, too)
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.