Hi all.

Just a quickie - have to get some training shoes for my interval / speed sessions on a grass track.

Spikes may be what I really need but I was hoping to ease more into them as I get closer to competition.

Training is mainly 200m-1500m repeats, fast, on grass. Some sessions are flat out i.e. pure speed work, others are more intervals.

I did think of waffles, but these are a quasi-spike, and again I think I would prefer something a little bit more solid. I tried my old Vibrams but they tend to slip a little on the grass.

Any recommendations? Was thinking of perhaps looking at touch football shoes, but these may not be designed for straight speed work and probably have some ankle support.

Not sure if grip is essential.

Weight wise I am 73 kilos, around 7-8% body fat and 178cms. As these are speed / interval sessions I would hope most of my running is on the forefoot, so cushioning, stability etc probably do not come into the equation (but I may be wrong).

Anyway your thoughts and comments appreciated.

I did my interval sessions for a season once at the grass track at Dendy park, and I'd say spikes are essential. Any moisture, and grass gets very slippery and dangerous - especially if you're fanging it around the bends. Great way to rip a groin to shreds. If you're concerned about going straight to spikes, you might want to consider getting a pair of cross-country spikes: they're a little more supportive than track spikes, but still offer excellent grip. Grass is a nice forgiving surface, and I doubt you'll have too many problems adapting (unless all your running is currently done in very supportive shoes, and you might feel the difference with the low heel-profile of spikes - but seeing as you own 5 fingers, I doubt that)

You're right: waffles won't do much for you on slippery grass.

Touch-football shoes? Wouldn't have a clue, but I'd imagine they'd be designed to offer some support during lateral movement, which is completely irrelevant for runners. Don't sound like something you'd want to be doing 1500m reps in.


edit: what's a sprinter doing running 1500m intervals anyway? I thought sprinters were allergic to anything that required more than a single lap :-)

Well sprinter is a bit of mis-nomer....I am more of a 400m/800m athlete.

The 1500m is more of the pyramid session e.g. 400/600/800/1000/1500/1000/800/400/200 2mins recovery.

One of the bastard things training as an 800m athlete - going aerobic or anaerobic!

As ex-800 (880 in my day) runner I always thought that you had to go both ways aerobic and anaerobic - the conundrum is to achieve the best balance for yourself - this varying throughout the year.
Have run, have fun.

Get some middle distance spikes, you wont regret having them.

They are designed for doing the work you describe, they generally cost less than $100 so not too expensive(sometimes you can get them for $50).