Running and lifting in the same shoes killed them every 6 months, so now I bought different shoes for running and lifting

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
01/12/2017 at 20:27 • Filed to: None

I have wide, flat feet, which makes finding any workout shoes a challenge. I also do cardio 6 days a week and lift legs 2 days a week, which has killed my last 2 pairs of gym shoes after 6 months. So now I bought lifting and running shoes.

I’ve gone through a succession of running shoes that I thought felt amazing at first and progressively got worse and worse. Before I started lifting, I got about a year out of a pair. But with the lifting, that cut the shoe life in half.

Oh, and I get gnarly callouses that require periodic pedicures. My wife enjoys me coming to the nail salon with her where I happily pay a nice lady to take a cheese grater to the bottoms of my feet.

My progression of running shoes has been...

1. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - a super beefy “motion control” shoe from when I was still fat and needed all the help I could get. After I lost a bunch of weight, they were just too chunky.

2. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! - a lighter weight stability shoe that still had decent support for my flat feet.

3. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (pictured at the top of this post) - a more cushioning focused shoe with some stability thrown in. I loved the cushion on these but my running pace went down compared to the 860v6 because they were too soft.

Now that these are nearing their end, and also because I squat and deadlift better in bare socks than cushioned running shoes, I picked up some !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! cross trainers for lifting.

While it might be hip and cool to lift in CrossFit weirdo cult member shoes like Reebok Nanos or Innov-8s or Nike Metcons, I need the damn extra-wide 4E width. I even tried the NB cult member shoes, which came in a 2E width, but no dice. At least the 1267s have some neon green on them and don’t look entirely like dad shoes, like say, these.

So that solved the lifting shoe need (at least it will once UPS Ground finally delivers them to me next Monday) but my runners are still shot. So today I went and tried on a bunch of runners. It came down to the updated !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , or the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Both of which are light-stability shoes like the 860v6 I had before, except gray and ugly.

It was a bit of a toss-up, so I went with the GT-2000 5, because they were at the same store where I got my GEL-Nimbus 18s, and they have this deal where if you buy one pair of shoes at full price, your next pair is half off. They ended up being $60 instead of $125 for the 860v7s.

Hopefully, now that I won’t be lifting in my running shoes or running in my lifting shoes, they’ll last longer.

DISCUSSION (16)

DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time > Textured Soy Protein
01/12/2017 at 20:30

Go barefoot. Because the caveman were in better shape than us!

Textured Soy Protein > DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time
01/12/2017 at 20:33

I’ve been doing my squats and deadlifts in my socks lately. It’s better than in runners but not really sustainable long term thanks to my gnarly feet. The cross trainers should give a nice stable platform to push with. Not like real weight lifting shoes, but they’ve got a sorta similar looking wedge shape to the sole at least.

Kinja'd!!!

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Textured Soy Protein
01/12/2017 at 20:47

I need to get a pair of dedicated lifting shoes. Using a low-drop minimal type running shoe at the moment with varied results. I’m thinking about a pair of Metcons but traditionally my forefoot is too wide for Nike trainers.

nermal > DC3 LS, will be perpetually replacing cars until the end of time
01/12/2017 at 21:01

Yep, home gym + barefoot.

Just don’t drop any weights on your toes.

Textured Soy Protein > SPAMBot - Horse Doctor
01/12/2017 at 21:04

Supposedly the Metcons run wider than your typical Nikes.

You should check out the NB Minimus 40 Trainer . Basically their take on the Metcon. They come in a 2E width, but that wasn’t quite wide enough for me.

Kinja'd!!!

TheRealBicycleBuck > Textured Soy Protein
01/12/2017 at 22:08

Wide feet. I have a pair of those. I found New Balance fit well, but some models are narrower than others in the same size. For outdoorsy stuff, I usually wear five finger shoes. I had an issue with plantar fasciitis for a while which cleared up after I started wearing the five fingers.

When I was doing martial arts, we wore flat soled shoes or no shoes at all. When I say flat, I mean a simple flat rubber sole with a canvas top. Perfect.

Textured Soy Protein > TheRealBicycleBuck
01/12/2017 at 22:52

A lot of people lift in stuff like Vans or Chucks because they’re stiff and flat. Which is all well and good if you have normal width feet but not an option for me.

TheRealBicycleBuck > Textured Soy Protein
01/12/2017 at 23:02

That’s why I like the five fingers. Even though I wear a 4E width, the fingers fit fine.

AestheticsInMotion > Textured Soy Protein
01/13/2017 at 00:50

Have you tried converse chucks for lifting? I’m a believer. The new ones with Nike insoles fit a bit wider in my opinion (don’t have wide feet though so grain of salt and whatnot)

Textured Soy Protein > AestheticsInMotion
01/13/2017 at 11:47

Any non-wide shoe is too narrow to give me a stable platform for athletic stuff. I wear a 10.5 4E in New Balance and 11 4E in Asics, but to get enough width in your typical medium width shoes I usually go with an 11.5. Some shoes don’t get wide enough until I go up to a 12, but even then it’s hit or miss and some are still too narrow.

SPAMBot - Horse Doctor > Textured Soy Protein
01/13/2017 at 12:21

I like the grabber blue looking color! I will look into them. I usually try to avoid Nike at all costs haha

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Textured Soy Protein
01/13/2017 at 23:14

My wife is a marathon runner with flat wife feet and won’t touch anything besides Brooks and Karhu. A few Brooks come in wide sizes. They are expensive, but you can usually find last year’s colors on sale for under $100. Karhu doesn’t sell wide sizes in the US, but she started buying them maybe two years ago a size up from what she would in a wide and she’s been happy enough that there are 5 pairs of them sitting on the floor of our closet now. You might want to check out those brands. Personally, I’ve had good luck durability-wise with TNF running shoes to the point that’s all I buy now, but I don’t think they have any wide sizes. It wasn’t clear to me from the post who picked out your shoes. If you haven’t, it may be worth checking out a smaller, locally-owned running/training shop. You might pay a few $ more, but you’re paying to have someone who knows their shit hang out with you while you try on several pairs and take your time with each. Usually they can order stuff in from their suppliers and take care of sending it back too. When my wife first got out of Nikes and into Brooks she tried on the one model they had a wide of in her size at the local indie shop and liked the fit but not the cushioning and they were able to get two other models in and let her pick the one she liked better so we didn’t have to worry about ordering two and sending one back ourselves like you would with an online order.

Textured Soy Protein > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
01/14/2017 at 11:17

I pick my shoes based on my own research and trying things on.

I’ve had Brooks before but lately their shoes haven’t quite been what work for me. Going a size up is an option for shoes I won’t be using athletically but they end up too long for running.

I need a not-super-beefy stability runner, a shoe with too much cushion slows me down. I weigh around 200 lbs so a really cushioned shoe compresses too much and keeps me from getting a good spring in my step. Going from the NB 860v6 to the Asics Nimbus 18, my pace dropped noticeably, and my very first run in the Asics GT-2000 5, I was able to go noticably quicker.

What I learned from that Nimbus experience is if at first try-on a shoe feels lovely pillowy and comfy on my feet, it’ll likely slow me down. Whereas shoes that feel slightly stiff at try-on might seem like they aren’t cushioned, but after I pound on them for a while the cushioning becomes apparent.

The Brooks light stability shoe is the Adrenaline GTS, which I’ve tried out the last few times I’ve gone shoe shopping and never end up choosing it. It fits me well and is comfy walking around, but it’s got a thicker sole and a steep heel-to-toe drop. It’s just a bit too beefy.

The Nike Zoom Structure is another option in this category that in theory would be right up my alley as it also comes in 4E width, but the last few versions have been much too soft in the heel, they compress way too much.

So really the NB 860 and Asics GT-2000 series are the best match for me. I didn’t like the GT-2000 4 back when it was the current version because the heel-toe transition was a bit clompy. The 860v6 was way better.

I revisited both of them this round of shopping, and while the 860v6 still felt pretty good, both the GT-2000 5 and 860v7 have surpassed it. If I’m being honest with myself the 860v7 may be the better shoe but the GT-2000 5 is still really solid and at only 60 bucks with the half-off deal it was a no-brainer.

Xyl0c41n3 > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
03/18/2017 at 18:01

I know you meant “fat wide feet” but “fat wife feet” made me laugh nonetheless.

Xyl0c41n3 > Textured Soy Protein
03/18/2017 at 18:05

I’m gonna second Blown Headgaskets and suggest you visit one of those specialty athletic shoe shops that actually fits your shoes to you. It’s kinda like going to a LBS (local bike shop) where they fit your bicycle to your optimum seat height, pedal distance, handlebar distance, etc. depending on what you need your bike to do. But at a shoe store like that they collect data on how your feet fall, what your gait looks like, etc. and find you shoes that fit. I mean, the average “I run twice a week around the neighborhood and I can buy any pair of shoes from any store” joe probably doesn’t need that much analysis, but it sounds like you do. It sounds like the extra cost would be worth the investment. Good luck!

Cross Training > Textured Soy Protein
04/12/2018 at 04:10