As the title says–how can I make pavement running more tolerable on my ankles? My shoes and socks are quite high quality, so they’re not the problem; besides, my particular brand (New Balance 1221 with ultra arch inserts) is the only one I’ve found that my extremely high arches can tolerate.
I have however been told that I hit the pavement “pretty hard” and that maybe I should transition to a toe-first style of running. Is there an easy way to do that? Any other ways to reduce impact on ankles?
This should probably be in IMHO. But anyway…
I had a problem with shin splints when I started running. I asked an experienced runner what the root problem was. He said, “Let me see you run.” After I ran a lap he said, “You’re running wrong. You need to run ‘heal to toe’.” It felt odd doing it, but I gave it a try. The pain went away.
That was 10 years ago. Still no pain.
Now I understand some very experienced runners do not advocate the “heel to toe” method, but it has worked for me.
Oh, and I’m very flat footed.
Must… not… make… lame… joke… here…
Heel to toe, huh. Goes against everything I’ve heard in running. Interesting. I’ll shoot off a PM to Scylla and ask that he respond.
BTW, I’d argue this is a factual question, though I could’ve worded this better. This isn’t a “how to stop shin splints” question. This is a “how do I run softly like those Kenyans and treadmill gym bunnies”? question. Pretty factual IMHO… either you’re the only one in the gym making noise on the treadmill even though you’re far from the heaviest, or you aren’t.
I also mistyped shin splints as “splin shits”. Far more appropriate name IMHO… 
Did you have a gait analysis performed? Having the correct footwear for your gait is much more important than having “high quality” shoes. If you go to a footwear store that specializes in running, preferably one staffed by runners and preferred in your local running community, the staff there can perform a gait analysis and get you in the right shoes. If you tell us what city you’re in, maybe someone can make a recommendation.
In my case I’d had persistent stress injuries for years. I went to a good shoe store who videotaped my gait on a treadmill, had 3 staffers look at it, and put me in a suitable shoe. The injuries disappeared virtually overnight and have only come back when I seriously overtrained without taking a rest.
Just as a quick knee-jerk reaction, I’d say try taking shorter steps. A “hard” running style could be a symptom of over-striding. In an ideal world, your foot should be landing right underneath your nose, or thereabouts. People who tend to reach too far ahead not only tend to pound pavement hard, they also pound their knees and ankles hard, too, from the constant deceleration.
A shorter stride will let you shift your balance more onto your toes/mid-foot, help you preserve momentum and be easier on your joints. Or at least, this is my experience.
If you want to lengthen your stride, do it by pushing off to the back.
Anyway, just my two cents, and if an actual expert says something different, follow what they said instead.
I don’t know if this will help at all, but my middle school track coach pointed out that we should be putting all of our explosive energy into moving forward, not up. He told us to try to picture ourselves from the side as we run, and try to keep our head level through the stride, avoiding the bounce. As a result (I think), I’m a heel-toe runner, much to the confusion of my podiatrist who tells me that categorically, people don’t run heel-toe. Well, I do.
I see people at the gym on the treadmill, and in the park, running with a big bounce. Consequently their footfalls produce an audible “slap slap” as they run. I try to make as little noise as possible, which has the added benefit of putting less strain on my joints as I land.
I think your footfall technique will have a much greater effect on your joints than the quality of your shoes. From everything I’ve read the $150 pair of running shoes has marginal benefit over the $40 pair.
very interesting advice. I’ll certainly give heel-toe & running short strides a try. I noted that at the race, most people were running with their feet turned outwards. I tried just that this morning, kinda landing on the insides of my feet and had no pain; then again, it was just 2 miles.
The idea of stride length sort of approached this, but one thing I found helped was concentrating on not lifting your feet too high. Try lifting just a tiny bit off the pavement, sort of a gliding motion, with as soft a foot-plant as possible. Made a big difference for me, but you have to keep thinking about it until it becomes habit.
BTW, in more than 25,000 miles of running, I always did heel-to-toe. Of course, I never medaled in the Olympics. 
Sorry to be the hippy in this jock thread, but have you ever heard of the Alexander Technique? It helps with posture and good body use. I hadn’t run for a year or more and after taking Alexander lessons for a while I tried running again and I could run farther and easier then when I had been “working” on running every other day.
Really? It’s the most natural thing in the world to me. How were you running before?
Really, the best thing you can do is go to a good running store and let the expert watch how you run, and listen to his/her advice.
If you want my opinion as a longterm pavement runner, who’s been reading every article in Runner’s World for the last five years, and would like to think he’s been some help dispensing advice on running, than take this for what it’s worth.
Shoes make you run badly, and they give you an unnatural stride that puts a lot of stress on your body and can give you all kinds of injuries.
The shoe enables land on your heel, which is not something you’d be able to do, barefoot in the wild, where your physiology evolved.
Try it sometime, and you’ll understand what I mean the first time you slam your heel down on a pebble.
With shoes on pavement, when you run and land on your heel, you slam hard and transmit that force up into your ankle, shins, and knee-joints. By using your heel as landing gear you are turning it into a shock transmitter. What it evolved to be is a shock absorber.
Let’s go back to that barefoot runner in the woods. He can’t land on his heel without injury and great pain the first time he steps on a pebble or a stick. The underside, or arch of the foot is also extremely sensitive.
How then to run?
Well, your indigenous hunter/gather types tend to do it the same way as you would after spending an afternoon barefoot in the woods. Try it, and you’ll discover the stride pretty easily. You are born to it.
It goes like this.
The foot you are going to lan on actually points to the ground where it will land. You touch softly with the outside part of the ball of your foot (behind your little toe,) and roll inward toward the ball of your foot (behind the big tow.) It’s a pretty subtle roll and you won’t really notice you’re rolling. Just notice that the outside ball of your foot touches first and gradually contact is made towards the inside.
As full contact is made more and more weight is placed on the ball of the foot. You aren’t slamming down your foot, so much as placing it and testing the ground. Your heel acts as a shock absorber as you come down off the ball of your foot, but doesn’t bear significant weight.
It’s a very low impact and natural way to run. Once you understand it barefoot, it’s pretty easy to modify and implement for shoes.
Try it out, and you’ll see. It’ll make running on the pavement a lot easier. Watch the elite runners on tv during marathons and you’ll see they run like this. It’s what creates the soft “glide” that they are often credited with.
I always wanted to ask somebody about barefoot running, because my first question would be where do you do it and how do you protect your feet? I don’t exactly have a lot of grassy green fields here in the city.
Ole Whatsisface, the great barefoot marathoner ran barefoot on pavement, so it shouldn’t be any different in the city.
I run in my barefeet all the time, I don’t like shoes much, and running in them sucks. I will admit that I don’t much liking running as is, but I do it. I run on the payment, the sidewalk, where ever. The major problem with it is after years of not walking barefoot the feet are tender. I started out by just taking walks without shoes, now unless I’m at work I don’t wear shoes to walk in. I’ve only ever stepped on two pieces of glass, and neither one gave me any problems and came out with ease.
If you want to see more check out here.
Don’t you guys worry about stepping on pebbles or glass or whatnot? This seems nuts to me. Do you at least wear socks?
I’m not in the habit of doing this. The point is, that trying it will show you a stride that lowers impact, and helps you handle things like pebbles and glass. Instead of slamming your foot down, you rest it gradually and tread lightly.
Later when you put your shoes back on and run, you apply what you have learned to running with a more natural stride that is less punishing and more efficient.
No to all questions. All you have to do is look. Sometimes pebbles will hurt for a second, but that’s usually if you get them in the wrong place, like between a toe or something. I know I got one piece of glass in my foot from running, and it came right out with no problem.
The worst problem is that I don’t do it very often, so my feet tends to get blisters when I run, but that happens in shoes too. I haven’t had one in awhile though, that could be from the walking I’ve done.