Richard's Running Kit...

Shoes / Trainers

I've tried and failed miserably to keep this section updated in the past - truth be told that I seem to get through trainers so quickly that I struggle to keep a list up to date!

My typical training shoes are your usual quite chunky, lots of cushioning type traininers - my usual brand of choice is Asics, as they just seem to fit my feet well, most notably the 2100 series, though if ever a bargain pair of Kayano's comes up I love running in them, and have been known to try the occaisional trainer from the 1100 range. Gait analysis has always shown I overpronate, though the more I run, the less I seem to be overpronating - I guess this is due to strengthening of the feet and associated muscles/tendons/ligaments. I've tried a fair few other makes/models without any major hiccups, but Asics seems to be my default buy.

As for Racers, oooh I do love a good racing flat... though I tend to be limited in choice as I generally look for something with a bit of support, which isn't especially common in racers. Racers used to date have included Asics DS Racer VII, Mizuno Wave Musha 2, Saucony Fastwitch 3 & 4 and the Nike Mayfly... the Saucony's fit me really well and give a nice plush ride, the Mayfly's were slightly too big and gave me seriously hot/sore feet when running anything over 5k. What I'd really like is some Asics Piranha SP3's... but sod off am I paying £90 for a low mileage racing shoe!

Off-road shoes have previously included the mighty New Balanc 840 (I think), which was a truley outstanding shoe... okay grip wasn't that of the Inov8 type standard, but comfort was awesome - mine lasted me a good 600mi of off-road abuse. I now have some NorthFace Singletrack shoes which are okay, but perhaps a bit stiff and clumpy, and a pair of Inov8 X-Talon 190's... which are awesome in every sense of the word. XC Spikes are in the form of Brooks Mach erm... 12? 14? I can't remember... but they serve me well during the XC season.

Running Tops

I have a number of tops that I'll use for running, and really it just depends on the weather.

Winter Tops
Thin long sleeve moisture wicking tops, a thicker helly hansen base layer top, a windproof long sleeve ronhill top, and a ronhill windproof zip-up gilet. If it's raining the windproof tops worn over a long sleeve base layer keep me sufficiently warm and are showerproof to an extent. As long as I'm warm enough, rain isn't a problem. On the coldest days I may add an extra short sleeve technical top over the top of a long sleeve base layer and under a windproof layer. I find gloves are essential in the coldest of weather, and in extremes something to keep the ears covered is also useful.

Shirts
Anything cheap and cheerful - As long as it's a moisture wicking technical top and doesn't cost too much, I'm happy.

Vests
Vests are my kit of choice where weather allows, both for training and racing. I'll train in vests all summer but keep covered up when it gets colder. I'll predominantly race in my vest all year round - only one race to date have a worn another layer underneath my vest (cross country event in freezing temperatures). My club vest is the Green, White and Black vest of Kenilworth Runners which comes out for races (inc club races) and can be seen in many of my race report photos.

Running Bottoms

Race shorts are very short and minimalist, these are the ones I'll happily spend a little more money on. For the rest of my running I look for shorts that have an in-built liner and a small pocket to store a key. Ronhill tracksters (or cheap equivalents) have started to make their way into my kitbag, helping to protect the muscles on cold training runs.

I have a pair on Skins compression tights, and also their 'recovery and travel' tights. I use the recovery tights quite regularly under normal clothing after races and/or hard training.

Running Socks

One step up from the white cotton socks one would normally cosider to be sports socks, I have a number of pairs of cheap running socks for shorter runs, and a number of pairs of more specific anatomical fit running socks for longer runs and races etc - In my opinion they fit a lot better and are well worth the money.

Training Gadgets

I started running with no gadgets at all. I'd set off out the front door, and peer through the lounge window to see what the time was before setting off on my 1.9mile run/jog/plod/walk and I'd check the time when I got back. Going on from there I got a fantastic 'el cheapo' stopwatch free with a magazine subscription, which served me perfectly well as I progressed further. I then bought my first Heart Rate monitor (HRM) from Lloyds Pharmacy for the bargain price of £10. It was absolutely fantastic, a stopwatch and heart rate monitor for next to nothing!

As I became more serious about my running I wanted something a bit more than a standard stopwatch, but loved the HRM feature so I certainly wanted to keep that. After a huge amount of research I finally settled on a Nike Triax C8 – A HRM with all sorts of features, stopwatch, lap counter, two countdown timers amongst other things. It also allowed me to save the details of my runs such as average heart rates etc.

Eventually I started to look into the possibility of a GPS Device. My prayers were answered at Christmas 2007 when Santa (or possibly my partner Emma) bought me a Garmin Forerunner 305 which is an absolutely fantastic bit of kit. Simply put it on at the start of a run, press start/stop/lap as needed, come home and plug it into the computer. The fantastic world of technology then displays any aspect of my run. An accurately plotted map of my run appears, along with graphs showing heart rate, pace or speed, elevation, and more that I can’t even remember! It really is fantastic for logging and analysing as much of my training as I care to.

I've also tried the Nike+ system, which was originally developed to work with the iPod nano, but has since had a sportband released that it works with. Personally I'm not a fan of the unit – it's a glorified pedometer… it knows roughly how far each one of your strides is, and it counts your strides, thus having the ability to calculate roughly how far and fast you've ran.  This is fine if you run everywhere at the same pace, with the same length of stride all the time, but I found that as my pace varied depending on the session I did, the accuracy of the nike+ system plummeted.