Yesterday morning, I ran for the first time on my Velocy shoes. If you recall, Velocy running shoes are supposed to be designed such that they help you run on the balls of your feet. How interesting a feel these shoes presented!
It was early morning and I decided to run on the treadmill with a form run, which is a jogging warmup, some drills, and then some quick, short speedwork.
I put on my Velocy shoes and I remembered the first time I put them on at the NYC Marathon expo. They are stiffer than usual and not as much cushion as you would expect from a running shoe. The sole is curved slightly to encourage your foot to roll forward on each stride and thus get you into a forefoot running style. I was not sure I believed that the structure of the shoe could make this happen, but I had to try them to be sure.
Note that I already run with the Pose Method, which is basically a forefoot running style. So I wondered what difference these shoes would make on my running style…? I do admit that when I get tired, my form gets messy. I also acknowledge that my left leg runs slightly different than my right. It’s something I’ve been trying to even out over the last 2 years of running Pose.
Upon hopping on the treadmill, I could immediately sense a difference in running. The arc in the sole definitely put me more forward onto the balls of my feet while running. With each step, I could feel the foot rolling through the arc of the sole. I think for the most part, their claim is true that it does help get into that form. But I also wonder that since I am already running Pose, that the change is not that dramatic. I would love to have someone who runs midfoot or even heel strike to try these shoes and see what happens.
I also wonder if these shoes are acting as a crutch for running a form which I should train my body to naturally do, which is what I’ve been doing up to now. If I ran on these shoes more often, would I feel worse going back to normal running shoes? Or would I be better at forefoot, aka Pose, running because of them?
Hopefully before the season starts, I can run more on these shoes and be able to compare them to running with normal running shoes.