On Thursday I went over to Run Logic for a free gait analysis with Brooks Running. They were offering a new kind of analysis on the day, and I wanted to give it a try and see what came of the results.

I got there, a little nervous because I didn’t know what to expect; and I’m also shy so meeting new people was daunting! But I got over that, changed into my running gear and hopped onto the treadmill.

Catherine, from Brooks, was doing the analysis. What she did was attach sensors to various spots on my leg, then took a static baseline based on a specific movement.  Then she recorded me running in my socks from the front and back, that gave her my run signature.

My run signature (in yellow) isn’t too far off my baseline (blue) except for shin rotation and heel roll. You can see from my baseline that my knees shift outwards, and from my run signature that my knees still shift outwards, my shins rotate inwards and my heel rotates outwards. Remember this is me running in my socks.

Then Catherine had me run in a support shoe (Brooks Glycerin 14 – I currently run in Glycerin 12) and that shows up in yellow, which you can see has changed significantly from run signature.  You can see that in these shoes, the yellow, my run signature is more balanced than the baseline.

I also ran in my current shoes and those showed a significant loss of support.  I’ve run nearly 300 miles in them already so that is no surprise. I know most runners can get a good 400 miles out of their shoes but I asked if because I’m overweight, my shoes would fail sooner. She said that’s likely, because of the pressure being put on my shoes.  So I have decided to fully retire my marathon shoes (which I now only use for walking), bump my current running pair into my walking shoes and start running in my newest pair.  I feel a little sad to say goodbye to my marathon shoes, they’ve seen me through a lot of miles! So long dudes, you done me good!

So, back to the analysis!

Catherine seemed happy enough with my footstrike and gait, she was very good at making sure I knew it was a personal thing, unique to each runner so there was nothing ‘bad’ about what was showing up in the analysis. It’s just the way my legs do what I want them to do. The point of the analysis was to find the shoes that was right for me specifically; no matter the brand or colour or style. How my shoes interact with how I run is the main thing.

The whole analysis was really informative and interesting. One thing I would be keen to find out is if weight loss would affect my baseline.  I will have to go back and see! I asked a lot of questions while I was getting the analysis done and Catherine was incredibly knowledgeable about running, shoes and the technology behind the analysis.