Last night I attended the Natural Running Symposium at Luke’s Locker in Dallas with Newton Running. I have to admit that heading into the symposium I had my doubts with the niche running brand. With barefoot running and forefoot striking all the rage in the running community, I was definitely interested to hear Newton’s point of view. I left with a smile and a brand new pair of Newton Neutral Racers.
Newton brought some big guns for their series of national educational seminars targeting running form, injury prevention, biomechanics, and of course, Newton shoes. Co-founder and CTO Danny Abshire, R&D/Training Director for Injury Prevention Ian Adamson, and Physician and Runner’s World Columnist Mark Cucuzzella were all present in Dallas for the first stop.
Arriving a stylish five minutes late, I had to fight to get a decent seat for the packed event. I was greeted with a smile by the always friendly Luke’s Locker staff; a big reason why they are my favorite running store in the DFW area. As I filled out a raffle form for a free pair of Newtons, I was given a fluorescent green Newton bag with a free pair of socks and some information on the night’s featured products/speakers. I was already liking this event!
Danny was speaking on Newton’s philosophy as I entered the room. The first statement that really got me was, “Forefoot striking does not mean running on your toes”. I think this is a big misconception for many people who are new to running. If you have ever watched the Barefoot Professor video on YouTube, you will see that your foot is very close to parallel before impact. Running my first marathon in 2006, I was never worried about my foot strike. My main concern was keeping my feet directly underneath me during impact. Everything else would take care of itself. Needless to say, I never had a problem with heel striking.
Another great point from the Newton team was that shoes may be causing you to heel strike. Have you ever looked at the downward slope from the heel to toe of the soles of your shoe? Even if your foot was fairly parallel during impact, the shoe geometry is going to cause your heel to contact first. This is called ‘heel lift’. Newton passed around several running shoes that were sliced down the middle to illustrate this point. A popular running shoe, Asics Gel Kayano, has a heel lift of 14.7 degrees. The Newton shoe line ranges from 1-3 degrees of heel lift. This greatly increases your chance of forefoot or midfoot strike.
Newton then took a little shot at the Vibram FiveFingers. While they agreed that Vibrams were great for increasing foot strength and running on natural surfaces, they did not suggest them for running on hard surfaces such as pavement or concrete. Newton suggests that we need more protection on the hard surfaces and I agree. I have seen the adoption of Vibrams in several of our latest races and even own a pair myself. While I only use the FiveFingers for short training runs on soft surfaces, many are running long distances on hard surfaces stating that this was the way we ran in the past. My comment, I doubt they were running on concrete paths and paved roads back then. Which brings me to another question. Where is the study that shows the impact on the foot/leg/body for a forefoot striker with and without shoes? All studies so far have compared the heel strike to the forefoot strike. I would think that many would be interested to see this kind of study.
Newton then began discussing the durability of their shoes. This can definitely be a concern when dishing out up to $170 for a pair of running shoes. Newton is able to increase the durability of their shoe by not utilizing EVA foam for cushioning in their midsole. Their actuator lug system enhances the shock absorbency, leverage and energy return throughout the gait cycle without breaking down. This has lead to runners putting over 1000 miles on a pair of Newtons! Not too bad when considering that most running shoes break down between 200 and 300 miles.
Mark Cucuzzella was the last to speak and focused on running form. His big points were focusing on posture and landing with knees bent and feet under your center of mass. He stressed that we all need to lean forward slightly from the ankles and harness the power of gravity and the natural recoil of your muscles. You can find Mark’s running advice on his website, http://www.freedomsrun.org/.
All in all, I was very impressed with the Natural Running Symposium by Newton running. The information provided was very detailed and most importantly, relevant. They must have done something to cause me to walk out with a brand new pair of their shoes. A big thanks to Luke’s Locker for putting on such an event for local runners. The 15% discount for all event attendees helped too!
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