Did my shoes really make me faster?

I dunno, but i certainly saw instant 10-15 sec/mile time improvement in my newbalance 805's which are also midfoot - AND my knees don't hurt afterwards.

Sometimes with new shoes that fit better your whole gait changes without you knowing it - so if your old shoes were horrible and these shoes fit you very well I would say that its realistic that shoes could make a whole lot of a difference.

They could be magic too...

That's great about your times though!

maybe? I feel like my newtons MAY be making be faster because I have a higher turnover in them... they are also lighter than the nimbis I would often wear.

I really didn't plan to make a purchase...only to get properly fitted so I could find out what I needed and go shopping online. I hate paying retail.

I hate to HIJACK your thread but "getting properly fit" is what you are paying retail for. Higher end retail stores give you service and expertise; something the operator usually can not do.

maybe you are just getting faster ?

Yeah, I know and I felt bad about it because I also like the idea of supporting a local shop, but I just had my hours cut and I'm especially poor right now. $100 for a pair of any kind of shoes makes me hyperventilate. So, I am happy all around that I did buy their shoes.

Yeah, unfortunately not all of us get to be rich.  Supporting local businesses whenever you can is great, but realistically not all of us can buy all of our gear from LBS or LRS all of the time.  We already probably feel bad enough about it, but what are we supposed to do?  Not ever get new shoes and give ourselves injuries?

The last time I got new running shoes, my times immediately improved by 10-15 sec/mile.  I think that part of it was that the shoes were much lighter than my old ones, and part of it was that the old shoes gave a little TOO much stability and messed up my gait a bit

I know nothing about running shoes but I like threads like these.  I've been training and improving in an old pair of Addidas and sometimes my Nike Shox.  I work for a large retailer that sells athletic shoes so I get a nice discount.  I just have to figure out what to buy.  I have not had any pains from running so I've not been in a big hurry to go spend a bunch of money on anything.

The best thing to do, if you can afford it at all, is to get your old shoes and your running gait analyzed at a specialty store.  The problem is that this is likely to set you back a considerable chunk of change.  The advantage is that then you will know what sort of shoe is best for you to wear, and you can take advantage of your sweet employee discount later.

The second-best thing to do, IMO, is to do as thorough of a job figuring out what kind of shoe will best suit you.  You need to figure out what your foot strike is (80% of people are heel strikers, 20% are midfoot/forefoot strikers.  There's an ongoing debate as to which is better -- IMO beginning runners shouldn't worry too much about changing their footstrike, and instead should focus on getting better @ running.)  You will also need to figure out what kind of biomechanics you have -- are you an overpronator (common), a neutral runner (uncommon), or an underpronator (uncommon)?  To figure this out, you will want to look at the wear pattern of your old running shoe, as well as just the general size/shape/arch height of your foot.

http://www.aapsm.org/selectingshoes.html -- This page has a good explanation of how to analyze your old running shoes to help you select a new pair.   

If you are a severe overpronator, or a moderate overpronator who is on the higher end of the weight range, you might want to look into motion-control shoes.  Moderate overpronators often do well with stability shoes.  Underpronators tend to do well with shoes with a lot of flexibility and a lot of cushioning, because the underpronation of the foot means that more shock travels into their feet/bones.  The rare, lucky biomechanically-efficient runner can get away with lightweight "neutral" shoes.

Whatever kind of running shoe you turn out to need, I would suggest getting a pair ASAP.  If you keep running in your old shoes, you're way more likely to do yourself an injury eventually.  (Plus, the new shoes make an awesome motivational tool to get out there and run, lol...) 

I too know that buying from those stores can be pricey. Without getting deep into it, especially since this is a hijack, how long can that store stay open or be more resonably priced if they are doing "free fittings" all day? Good luck with your shoes and sorry for changing the subject.

You did not say how old your NB's were or how many miles you had on them. It may be a combination of better fit and the fact that your old ones had seen the end of the useful lifespan. Congrats.

Well, it's hard to say. I bought them about 2-1/2 years ago when I thought I was going to start running more. I had run/walked a couple of 5k's and had a lot of knee pain. I thought it was maybe the cheap Target shoes I was wearing, I so I bought the NB's. Since I bought them for running, I saved them for running, but never ran. I wore them for one 5K, which I didn't train for, and my knees still hurt so it wasn't the shoes.  At that point I gave up on the idea of running and eventually just wore them as every day shoes up until March of this year when I decided to try running again. LOL. I'm assuming walking mileage counts, too, and I just haven't accounted for how much walking I've done. The majority of my running mileage started in March and most of it I've logged here.

Then again I've always been slow in those shoes...so not like I got slower as the shoes wore out.  Maybe it is a combination of the shoes and I was just going to run a little faster that morning anyway. Maybe I'm finally making a little progress. Whatever it is...I'll take it!

Thanks for all of your responses!

Yep...magic shoes.  Just wait until you discover the magic bike shorts too.  You will be flying!    I wish it were that easy... (coming from another EXTREMELY slow runner)