My Favorite Running Shoes

Having a good pair of shoes is definitely a great way to make sure that your run is more comfortable and more fun, so there are definitely things that I look for in a shoe. (PLEASE NOTE: I’m going to be a little bit biased 😉 since I am an ambassador for Altra running shoes.) 

One of the best things you can do is to have more than one pair of running shoes. I know that can get expensive but if you think about it, it’s an up front cost. You can wear out one pair of shoes alone quicker than alternating between four pair. In the long run (pun intended), it will save your feet to have more options. I actually always have FOUR pairs of running shoes that I’m running in at any given time: two road shoes and two trail shoes. I also like to have a shoe that’s a little more minimal (I’ll explain that in a little bit) and those are usually for my shorter distances, whether that’s trail or road.

So those are two different shoes. If I’m going on a longer run, then I want to have a little bit more cushion, so I will tend to have a different shoe for a longer run on road or trail again.

Why Altra Running Shoes?

The major reasons I love Altra running shoes: 

• They allow me to move my body as naturally as possible. 
• They have a wider toe box that we call Altra FootShape™ technology. What happens is if you look at some at some running shoes they come to a point like a pizza box, right? A triangle! And our feet are not triangles! Unfortunately, the shoe industry has really really caused a lot more running injury issues for people, because they’ve used the shoe to help mask all the problems, which is why people don’t learn technique. So they use shoes to help them, but in the long run that’s not the best thing to do.

• Altra shoes are also specially designed so that your heel and your toe are basically at the same level. (If you watch the video, you can see that the heel and the toe are same distance from the ground.) This is called a Zero Drop. There’s no heel lift, because what happens is when you have a heel lift in your shoe (usually measured in millimeters) it’ll say, you know, “five millimeter heel lift.” Now you’re putting your foot in this position that is not natural, and when you put your foot in this position it’s changing your entire body alignment. 

• Altra Running shoes are also very flexible! Your foot should be able to move naturally and, even with Altra models that have a little bit more cushion, you can still see (in the video) that my foot still actually moves with the shoe. They’re not very stiff. If you grab your shoe and it’s very stiff, then they can’t move and you can’t expect your foot to move naturally. 

My Shoe Rotation – My Altra Models 

• Escalante 

  These are my road shoes for short distance because they do have less cushion. 

• Torin 

  These have that same wide toe box as other Altra running shoes. Even though here you can see here (in the video) the cushion difference, my heel and my toe are still at the same level. There’s no heel lift in this shoe, so these are my preferred longer distance road shoes. The Torins are one of my favorite road shoes and they also allow my foot to move.

• SUPERIOR 

  So I’ll start with my most minimal trail shoes. (lol, these are a little dirty! They’ve obviously hit the trail quite a few times!) One of the principles with ChiRunning™ is that we don’t push from our toes to move us forward. All we’re doing is lifting our foot, so we don’t have to push off. I never feel like I’m pushing myself out with my shoes. Everything just stays nice and in place. I use these as my shorter distance trail shoes and you can see here (in the video) that they’ve got these great grips! This is one of the other things I love about the Altra shoes. The grips don’t have so much to do with the mobility of the shoe, but from a trail perspective, these really help out with that. 

• lONE PEAK

  This is my second of two pairs of trail shoes. Mine are purple – my favorite color. You can see the nice grip on here, so you know when you’re out on the trail, these grips help and there is also a little bit more cushion on these, so these would kind of be a medium cushion shoe for me. 

• tIMP

  Last, but not least, this is other shoe that I like to wear for longer distances. These are newer to me – I usually wore the Lone Peaks – but I tried these and now I love them! Every time I try a new model, I can’t help it, but these have the most amount of cushion and all have the same qualities that I talked about at the beginning of why I really like these in a shoe. 

That’s why I just love the the Altra running shoes! They help me with my ChiRunning™ and they help me move as naturally as possible.