It’s been a long time since I have contributed some of my thoughts to this blog.  I appreciate all of the contributors who have written articles over the past several years and continue to do so.  It’s great to see the continued interest in this blog.  I plan post each day this month with a few thoughts on running, shoes, injuries, and most importantly, how to avoid injuries.

Ok, wear patterns. We were all taught what to look for in new under-armour running shoes in school and how they can correlate to injury.  I do look at wear patterns on shoes in the office, but I’ll be completely honest- it’s not as important as we once thought.  Many of the new shoes being manufactured today have rubber soles that are so highly engineered that they don’t wear as quickly, so sometimes it’s even difficult to see any patterns in the tread.  If someone is heel striking we can make that out.  As for overpronating? Well, that’s not really a factor if you are midfoot striking. Anyone that follows my blog and has read the current literature knows that overpronating is a myth if you are midfoot striking.  If you are heel striking, then maybe it can contribute to an injury, but avoid heel striking and the conversation will end abruptly.  Overpronating is simply old thinking and if someone tells you otherwise they need to be updated on current literature.  You can get some good info on looking at wear patterns, but I focus more on training patterns.

Here’s a picture I posted on Instagram today showing a pair of Luna Sandals that I have been running in.

You can see the wear pattern is lateral based, starts at the 5th MPJ region (5th toe joint – red colored oval) and then moves back toward the heel as shown by the white arrows.  The midfiot strikes first, toes grip the geound to stabilize and decelerate, and then heel strikes last.