Late last year I was contacted by a designer from Scott Running. Scott is better known for their winter sports gear, but they do make a small number of running shoes target mostly at the triathlon market. He offered to send me a few pairs of shoes to try out, indicating that they have a bit of a unique design that seemed to help encourage a midfoot strike.One of the shoes that I received was the Scott T2 Comp. The T2 is actually a pretty
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Adidas NMD Femme Skechers Go Run, in which the sole is very flexible, the sole of the T2 comp is stiff, with the apparent intention being to encourage your foot to roll forward smoothly off the shoe. I believe this rockered design is also why Scott feels this shoe can encourage a more midfoot strike. But, the shoe is 10mm drop from heel to forefoot (27.5mm heel, 17.5mm forefoot with insole removed), and I simply cannot avoid heel striking in them. This is not necessarily a bad thing as I’ve had several good runs in these shoes, but they prevent me from running the way I want to be running these days. If you are a heel striker and are content with that, these shoes are a perfectly reasonable option for you.I open this post
Nike Air Force 1 Femme with an illustration of the Galapagos Finches and their variable beak anatomy (illustration by John Gould) – my reason is to emphasize a point. As an evolutionary biologist, I’ve spent much of my life studying anatomical variation, and I think it’s sometimes easy to forget that we humans are animals just like any other. As such, we also exhibit anatomical and physiological variability just like any other species does. Variability is the raw material upon which natural selection acts, and without it these finch species would not have evolved variable beak anatomy to specialize in different food niches, and we humans would not be the exceptional distance running species that we currently are.One of the points I consistently try to make here on Runblogger is that runners are highly variable. Even among elites, form is variable, as I
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Nike Air Max 90 Mujer that I find too firm might be a favorite of a friend, and a shoe that I find plenty wide might be too tight for someone else. Any shoe review that I write is from my perspective, and should be considered with this in mind. What works for me may not work for you, and vice versa.
Late last year I was contacted by a designer from Scott Running. Scott is better known for their winter sports gear, but they do make a small number of running shoes target mostly at the triathlon market. He offered to send me a few pairs of shoes to try out, indicating that they have a bit of a unique design that seemed to help encourage a midfoot strike.One of the shoes that I received was the Scott T2 Comp. The T2 is actually a pretty [url=http://www.heryarts.fr/Nike-Air-Max-95-Femme-c-10_11.html]Nike Air Max 95 Femme[/url] solid shoe – fairly lightweight (9.3 oz in size 10), minimally structured upper, and capable of sockless use. It’s also [url=http://www.jsaranjuez.es/Adidas-Ultra-Boost-Mujer-c-16_18.html]Adidas Ultra Boost Mujer[/url] a pretty decent shoe to run in – light and responsive, and I enjoyed my first few runs in them.From an aesthetic standpoint, the T2 could use some work. It’s not the nicest looking shoe in my collection, and I’m not quite sure what the function of the little plastic wedge behind the heel is. Scott does have some better looking shoes in their lineup, but the T2 looks pretty bland. One other minor problem is that the perforated sockliner caused a bit of friction on the underside of my foot. As I mentioned above, this shoe works fine as a sockless shoe, but would be much more comfortable with a sockliner with a less abrasive feel to it.My main issue with this shoe is that the sole design doesn’t work well for [url=http://www.garanterra.de/nike-air-max-command-c-31/nike-air-max-command-damen-c-31_32/]Nike Air Max Command Damen[/url] me. Scott put a rocker-bottom sole on the T2 comp, much like some of the shoes being made by Skechers. However, unlike the [url=http://www.ranchmistral.fr/Adidas-NMD-Femme-c-61_62.html]Adidas NMD Femme[/url] Skechers Go Run, in which the sole is very flexible, the sole of the T2 comp is stiff, with the apparent intention being to encourage your foot to roll forward smoothly off the shoe. I believe this rockered design is also why Scott feels this shoe can encourage a more midfoot strike. But, the shoe is 10mm drop from heel to forefoot (27.5mm heel, 17.5mm forefoot with insole removed), and I simply cannot avoid heel striking in them. This is not necessarily a bad thing as I’ve had several good runs in these shoes, but they prevent me from running the way I want to be running these days. If you are a heel striker and are content with that, these shoes are a perfectly reasonable option for you.I open this post [url=http://www.marysiamilewski.fr/Nike-Air-Force-1-Femme-c-1_2.html]Nike Air Force 1 Femme[/url] with an illustration of the Galapagos Finches and their variable beak anatomy (illustration by John Gould) – my reason is to emphasize a point. As an evolutionary biologist, I’ve spent much of my life studying anatomical variation, and I think it’s sometimes easy to forget that we humans are animals just like any other. As such, we also exhibit anatomical and physiological variability just like any other species does. Variability is the raw material upon which natural selection acts, and without it these finch species would not have evolved variable beak anatomy to specialize in different food niches, and we humans would not be the exceptional distance running species that we currently are.One of the points I consistently try to make here on Runblogger is that runners are highly variable. Even among elites, form is variable, as I [url=http://www.garanterra.de/nike-air-max-tavas-c-34/nike-air-max-tavas-damen-c-34_35/]Nike Air Max Tavas Damen[/url] attempted to point out in a post on gait variability in elites at the 2011 Boston Marathon (and also in this post on the 2010 Boston Marathon). As such, I don’t believe there is a one-size fits all “ideal” running form, nor do I think there will ever be one footwear option that will be best for all runners. I do believe that we evolved to run barefoot, and that barefoot is the human default, but some of us are so far removed from ancestral anatomy and physiology that running barefoot or in a barefoot-style shoe might not be a good solution. Genetics, history of past footwear use, dietary habits, and history of past physical activity (most of us didn’t grow up running 10k barefoot to school each day!) all conspire to make us the variable species that we are.I’m constantly reminded of variability when I write shoe reviews. A shoe [url=http://www.montajesavila.es/Nike-Air-Max-90-Mujer-c-22_24.html]Nike Air Max 90 Mujer[/url] that I find too firm might be a favorite of a friend, and a shoe that I find plenty wide might be too tight for someone else. Any shoe review that I write is from my perspective, and should be considered with this in mind. What works for me may not work for you, and vice versa.