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Cold feet about winter running?
Shape, Jan, 2005 by Sarah Magill Mueller
If your outdoor runs seem tougher in the winter, it may not be all in your head. Running shoes lose some of their capacity to absorb shock as the temperature drops. Scientists at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn., tested four types of running shoes--containing air pockets, gel pockets, ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) or polyurethane foam--for their ability to absorb shock at temperatures from -4[degrees]F to 122[degrees]F.
The worst performer was the pair using a polyurethane foam shock absorption system. "Polyurethane's physical properties make it stiffer at low temperatures," explains Mansour Dib, M.D., a Mayo resident physician who co-conducted the study with Jay Smith, M.D., and presented the findings at the American College of Sports Medicine conference in June. Polyurethane foam systems are used in older versions of the adidas "a3" line and the Nike "Air Max Tailwind" line, so if you have a pair of these, you may want to relegate them to indoor running when the mercury drops below freezing. The other three shoes studied turned in performances similar to each other.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Weider Publications
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
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