Another lovely PR got in touch and has provided me with a pair of Nike LunarGlides to test out. Now I’m a big fan of Nike’s work. Their website that allows you to custom design your own trainers is awesome (that’s right, you can be just like Michael Jordon). I also own a pair of Nike 90 football boots which I have scored many a (own) goal in. But I’m afraid, this time, Nike get a C+ from me. Could do better.

Like a pair of football boots, the LunarGlides only seem to come in dark colours*. Now you may disagree, but I don’t associate dark trainers with a jog-loving athlete. I associate dark trainers with the kind of person that likes to play music loudly from a mobile phone at the back of a bus.

P.S. Apologies if you thought this review was going to judge comfort, width and durability.

All superficiality aside though, for a shoe that costs £80 I’m surprised at how cheap the LunarGlides feel. The fabric around the toes feels like felt and the underside of the tongue and heel resembles beach towel. The reason for this is weight loss. The trainers are very light for how bulky they look. The designer of this shoe has also focused very hard on the soles, which incorporate something called ‘Dynamic Support’.

The advantage of having a ‘Dynamic Support‘ sole (patent pending) is that these trainers are designed to suit just about anybody. It is designed to respond to each step as the ‘LunarLite foam core that sits within a firmer foam carriage and features a rear-foot wedge, provides stability when needed’.

Fancy! Well what this translates to is that if you’re a neutral runner, these shoes will be perfect. But unfortunately you can’t have the best of both worlds and being an overpronator I was left with quite a few blisters. My advice is if you have an unusual running gait then try a more specialised shoe.

The LunarGlide+, like most good sports trainers, has a removable sole. But in this case it is to allow access to the gap underneath for the Nike+ sensor, allowing you to sync up your run with your ipod and play your ‘power song’ at the right moment (an extra £19).

I feel I’ve been a little harsh about these trainers as on the feet of the right person they are an ideal running shoe (a friend of mine owns a pair and swears by them). I have actually found a use for them though. On a dark 5-a-side football pitch, the bright stripe of the sole is a great target for your team mates to pass to!

* The LunarGlide+ have a specific design for women as they run differently to men. An added bonus is that the women’s version comes in white!

Our friends over at ASICS have kindly offered us the chance to visit their flagship store in London. One of the earliest blog posts at Sir Jog A Lot was a post on choosing the right trainers. For those attempting long distances, picking the right trainers can only really be done when you know what style runner you are.

To accurately judge your running gait, ASICS can provide a full 3D foot scan. Jenny Meadows, bronze medal winner at the World Championships in Berlin, took a trip to the store to do just that.

If Paula Radcliffe has one bit of advice for runners, it’s don’t scrimp on shoes. Getting your gait analysed can mean a pair of trainers could last you a year, instead of a few months. You’re also far less likely to pick up an injury.

However, this isn’t always an option. You might not live anywhere near a sports shop that provides such a specialist service (I know, can you believe that not every trainer store is equipped with a treadmill, a 3D foot scanner and a gait analysis expert these days? It’s scandalous!). If money and specialist athletics shops are a problem, then a possible solution is a pair of SOLE Custom Footbeds.

SOLE contacted me a few months back (we actually gave away a pair of their Platinum Sandals in our recovery competition) and offered me a set of their footbeds to test out for myself. The idea is simple. Most good trainers these days have removable insoles. You simply replace the standard insole with SOLE’s version and viola! The trainers that previously gave you blisters or an awkward running style, are now custom designed for the shape of your foot.

The Custom Footbeds are moulded to the shape of your feet in one of two ways. You can either wear them for a few days and bed them in, or you can use the oven in your kitchen to heat the new insole and mould them to fit in a few minutes. Once heated, you just slide them in your trainers, slip them on and stand up straight for two minutes while they set.

It’s a great idea. For £35 a pop, you could turn your old trainers into the most comfortable shoes you have ever worn. But, if your oven is anything like mine (a UK oven, measured in Celsius, not Fahrenheit) you can accidentally overheat the footbeds and ruin them. Which is exactly what I did.

It’s a real shame because if I’d checked the instructions correctly (I’d only had a few months to read them!) I’d have noticed that the footbeds need to be heated to 200°F (90°C). I’d overheated them by a full 110°C. The softer black rubber underneath contracted, meaning that the top layer curled around at the toe end, becoming too narrow for the shoe.

Luckily, the kind people at SOLE have provided the SJAL blog with another pair. But instead of me foolishly ruining this set, we’ll be giving them away to one lucky reader to test them out for themselves!

You can enter in one of two ways…

Sir Win A Lot

1. Post a message on Twitter by clicking this link and follow @sirjogalot (so we can message you if you win) or…
2. Answer the following question:

AT WHAT TEMPERATURE SHOULD YOU HEAT THE SOLE CUSTOM FOOTBEDS TO IN A CONVENTIONAL OVEN?
Click here for a hint!

A. 90°C

B. 80°C

C. 70°C

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED

*Winners will be contacted either by email or Twitter and announced on 4th November. Your email address will in no way be distributed to third parties. Entry to UK residents only.

Until the Sir Jog A Lot blog takes off and we can afford to employ writers with different running styles, I’m afraid that we’re only going to be able to review trainers designed for over-pronators (runners who land on the outside of the foot). The PUMA Complete Velosis range are exactly that.

The Complete Velosis (PUMA’s flagship running shoe of 2009) technically fall into the neutral runner category (runners that land flat-footed) but the extra soft rubber padding on the outside of the heel and across the sole to the little toe would suit an over-pronating style well. I’ve never worn a shoe quite like it. The padding around the ankles is half an inch thick, leaving hardly any room for wiggle or the dreaded (and embarrassing) ankle roll. It takes some getting used to, but the sensation is that your foot is locked securely in position.

The trainers are pretty striking when you open the box. I’m fairly picky when choosing trainers. Being superficial (and proud of it), I tend to pick trainers off the shelf based solely on how they look and I’m seldom blown away by most designs. But I have to say I absolutely love the design. The trainers look like a high-tech gadget rather than a running shoe; made up of loads of tiny parts that look as though they’ve been assembled with a soldering iron! The Puma stripe was so reflective that I practically blinded a family member after they caught a glimpse of the sun.

After a few road tests, however, a few flaws began to shine through. I took the trainers on holiday to Spain, where I ran on a mixture of concrete and dirt tracks. The cushioning works well on concrete, giving a good bounce. But when running off road I was made to work a bit harder; the soft cushioning around the heel seemed to be slightly too much. It’s a big shoe and you might feel weighed down in them.

Also, Puma boasts that the trainers have a wide platform to boost stability. But this leaves a lot of room around the toes and if you have thin feet (like me) then your feet can spin on the heel, leaving your toes slipping from right to left. After about 10k or so, I found that my big toe was hanging over the edge of the sole and trying to push out of the material on the side. This left me with blisters.

There’s no doubt thought that these trainers will last you a long time, which might justify the £90 price tag. If you can, try and find an outlet that will allow you to test the PUMA Complete Velosis out on a treadmill before you buy them. Make sure that you’re comfortable with the gripping sensation around the ankle and rock your feet on your heel to check that there’s not too much width around your toes.

Sir Win A Lot

You can be in with a chance of winning a pair of PUMA Complete Velosis.

You can enter in one of two ways. Either…

1. Post a message on Twitter by clicking this link or…
2. Answer the following question:

What type of animal is a PUMA?

A. Bat

B. Rat

C. Cat

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED

*Winners will be contacted either by email or Twitter and announced on 25th September. Your email address will in no way be distributed to third parties.

At around £90 a pair of ASICS Gel DS 14′s are near the top end of the ASICS Gel range. To a layman the technical specs of these trainers won’t mean much; they are fitted with a space trustic, gilled mesh, solyte, durasponge and an impact guidance system. Maybe if ASICS hadn’t spent all that money registering patents the trainers might have come cheaper?

The DS 14′s are built for the mild over-pronator and (if you get the size right) fit like an absolute glove. If you have claustrophobic feet then go for half a size bigger than usual or choose another model. They are incredibly light when on and even to hold and I like the design. The version for women shows a little less black and a little more pink. These shoes boast a gender specific space trustic (changing the shape of the space around the arch of the foot) which accommodates the over-pronation more likely to be found with the female running style. Apparently it’s due to the larger hips…

As an over-pronator you’d expect to find plenty of (durasponge) cushioning with these trainers, but the DS 14′s also have a harder material on the outside edge of the foot, which normally tends to wear faster with an over-pronating style. This apparently grips better in the wet too.

Overall, the trainers perform very well, look great and are very comfortable. But for £90 I might have expected to see a little more extravagance with the design (possibly a flamboyantly designed heel or some titanium flugelbinders). Never mind…

Sir Win A Lot

Fancy winning a pair of these bad boys*? Thanks to the people at Fitness Footwear, Sir Jog A Lot is offering the chance to win a pair of ASICS Gel DS 14′s, worth £90, to one lucky reader and all you have to do is answer this question:

Which trainers did SJAL buy to train in and eventually run the London Marathon 2009?

A. ASICS Gel Foundation 8

B. ASICS Gel Speedstar 3

C. ASICS Gel 1140

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.
.
.

For those that have just started running, whether you’re looking to lose a few pounds or you’re keen on running more competively, a 10k race is a great first challenge to really test your endurance skills.

If you’re a fully fledged marathon runer, 10k is a nice distance to keep yourself in peak physical condition during those winter months and is a fantastic platform to start improving your long-distance times. Because of this, the 10k running race is one of the most popular events in the jogging community.

Here are 5 tips that will ensure that you’ll run and finish a 10k race in the time you’re looking to:

1. Pick your training plan:

   You’ll need to decide on the training plan for you. This will depend on how seriously you’re going take the race and how far in advance you’ve been given to train. Annoyingly, unless you’re a regular runner, it can take a number of weeks to significantly improve your distance running so if your race is in a couple of weeks then getting round will be your main goal. Runner’s World and Cancer Research UK (beginners and advanced) have some good 10k training plans that are based on how long you have until race day.

2. Choose the right clothes:

   If you’re new to running then you might be inclined to dust off those old trainers that have been lying in the back of your closet and start pounding asphalt. Don’t. Trainers are the most important tool in a runner’s arsenal and are the one area you should never skrimp on. Visit a recommended athletics store to have your gait analysed and pick up the shoes that are best suited to your running style. Your posture will improve and you’ll avoid unneccesary injury. With shorts, shirts and socks stick to light material and try and avoid heavier fabrics like thick cotton. This will hopefully reduce friction between thighs and armpits and will ‘wick’ away sweat should you get hot. Find out what you feel the most comfortable wearing (and how much leg you’re happy with showing off) and get plenty of…

3. Practice:

   Unlike training for a marathon, 10 kilometres is a distance that you can perform at the end of each week that’ll leave you enough time to recover for the following week. Get a few 10k practice runs under your belt and try to discover what sort of times you feel comfortable with. Some may manage to crack the sub-one-hour mark on their first attempt. Others may struggle, but you can save yourself a few surprises by having a go around your local park. Use the Google Maps distance measurement tool or the GMAP Pedometer to map out the 10k and work out some split times based on landmarks on your route. It’ll come in handy come the big day as you’ll know whether to slow down or speed up as you reach each kilometre mark. If you’ve got the wallet, there are plenty of GPS tools you can purchase, like the Garmin Forerunner.

4. Prepare:

   It might not be a marathon, but that doesn’t mean that a good bowl of pasta the night before won’t go down a treat on race day. Stock up on carbs , pin your race number to your shirt and plan your route to the start line the night before. The last thing you want is to arrive late at the start line and exhaust yourself getting there, or worse still, miss the race!

5. Pace yourself:

   It sounds like simple advice, go steady and you’ll make it all the way round, and it is simple. But the amount of times I’ve been passed in the first mile of a 10k race, only to overtake them by mile 4, is absolutely astonishing. Your aim should be to obtain the much-heralded negative split time, where you run the second half of the race faster than the first. If it’s your first race you will almost certainly get caught up in the mad rush at the start and launch into a 4-minute K pace. You know your body, so you should know your extremeties. The rumours that the crowd will keep you going are only true so far. If you run too fast at the start you’ll struggle at the end and you’ll leave the race feeling disappointed and upset with yourself.

This year, Justgiving have a competition to create a video that promotes your fundraising efforts for the London Marathon. The prize is a £100 donation to your Justgiving page. Last year Gwan Yips won £500 with this effort (obviously the credit crunch has hit Justgiving as they’ve cut their prize by £400). With my fundraising target still in the distance and sponsorship drying up I thought it couldn’t hurt to sacrifice one Sunday to create an entry for this competition…

…and here it is:

Possibly the most embarrassing Sunday of my life (parading around London like a lunatic and getting filmed doing it) but I console myself with the thought that it’s all for charity. Anyone can do this and I encourage you to give it a go. I made this with a digital camera and Windows Movie Maker and it’s a fantastic way to drive traffic to your sponsorship page.

However, if you are going to do a video then wait until after Friday (as that’s when the competition closes)!

If you’re interested, the backing track is from a song called ‘Mr Munchies’ that myself and a couple of  old school friends, Paul Child and Thom Hawkins, wrote when we were 16. It comes with lyrics too and if you want a copy then let me know. Be warned: The lyrics are very childish, rude and resemble any song by Afro-Man.

Pronator or Supinator?

I’m into my 2nd week of training now and the repetitive strain injuries are kicking in. My feet are so bloody soft. I blame living in a household that forced me to wear shoes day in, day out (I used to live in a pub and my Mam was always warning of broken glass). The extra running has given me two whacking great blisters, one on each foot, in exactly the same place, exactly the same size.

The socks I wear cost me £8 and don’t seem to be helping. I won’t go into too much detail about the formation of blisters but allowing excess space and moisture inside the sock has meant that the epidermis and the dermis (layers of the skin) have separated and fluid has formed between the space. Interesting stuff. What’s more interesting is that Compeed, the blister patches designed for women going dancing in their high heels, is what I use to soothe those tender little areas and keep me kicking asphalt!

So today I upgraded my socks and trainers. Paul Radcliffe’s advice is a good pair of trainers is essential and with this in mind I visited Runner’s Need in Holborn, London during my lunch break. I was plonked on a treadmill wearing my suit and a pair of their test trainers. I had to roll up my trousers so the analyst could see the shape of my ankle as it rolled from heel to toe (which made me look like Mr. Bean) while their video cameras filmed my feet. Not pretty. I have one foot that turns out as it hits the ground and both feet roll from the outside of my heel across to the big toe. I’m a pronator (supinator is the opposite) and I look like Phoebe Buffay in that episode of Friends when she’s running in the park.

I went with some Asics Gel 1140′s (£69.99) and some special double layered socks (the extra layer moves so that your top layer of skin doesn’t). 25 minutes easy jog tomorrow so I can ease them in.

If you’re interested, Compeed can also be used to prevent joggers nipple. Just get a pair of scissors and cut a small circle… I’ve said too much.