Shoes

I still don't know.

All my recent runs have been while wearing barefoot shoes. That's a very stupid name, but it's the only one that fits. They are foot-shaped, and each toe gets its own sleeve. The soles are only a millimetre or so thick. No support at all.

Wearing them, one can never use a heal-strike stride. It's all on the balls of the foot, or as I call it, tippy-toed.

Tonight I ran with regular running shoes on.

I could feel every difference between the two styles. My normal runners felt very heavy. I also was running about 10% faster. My stride went back to heal strike. Over the length of the run, I felt the effect the pounding had on my knees. I have flat feet, and they felt better after the normal-shoe running than they feel after tippy-toeing.

Tippy-toeing is also very hard on my calves. It must be good for them, strength-wise, but it hurts.

Bottom line, they are very different shoes for very different styles.