My New Running Shoes – The Altra Zero Drops

I have to tell you how excited I am about my new running shoes.  If you haven’t read my running story go Here  and here is how I got started barefoot running and then running in a minimalist shoes.  If you don’t really want to go read all that, here is the gist of what it says…..I ran all through high school with pain in my hip…bad TFL pain, but I endured through it.  After getting married and having kids I ran, but just not as much.  I got some good shoes that seemed to help a bit, but after every run my hips and knees hurt and I didn’t love running any more.  My brother convinced me to run barefoot.  Yup totally barefoot.  So I did.  I started out really slow and ran short distances.  My legs ached, but I didn’t have pain.  It was like that kind of pain where you are hurting because you worked a muscle you didn’t even know you had.  After I got used to running barefoot, I ran 3 miles ever other day for 2 weeks totally barefoot.  I then ordered some great barefoot shoes that I love called Vibram 5 finger shoes.  Since wearing those I haven’t had any hip pain at all.  After having my last baby and trying to get back into running I started seeing people wearing “Minimalist” shoes.  I was a little frustrated because after running in the summer heat where I live my feet were hot and I had no kick at the end of the race because my feet felt so worn out. 

I had heard of the new Altra Zero Drop shoes from a friend and decided I wanted to try them.   Altra sent me a pair of Delilah’s and now I am hooked!  It was funny to actually put on regular shoes, my running friends said they looked weird on me because they were used to seeing me run in my 5 fingers. 
Let me tell you how much I love my Altra Delilah’s.   I LOVE them SO much!!  Here are my top 6 reason reasons I love wearing them.

• They have an insert so you can have a little more padding, or no padding at all which is nice when the ground is super hot outside.  I like both. 
• They are made really well and I love the design (especially my pink Delilah’s)
• You can wear socks or no socks. 
• They have a great amount of room for my toes.
• They are only $99, which to me is a really good price, since before I ran in minimalist shoes I paid well over $100 on shoes.
• It gives you the barefoot feel of running without having to be barefoot or wearing funny looking shoes.

If you are trying to get your body into it’s most natural stride, wearing these shoes is a great way to train.  If you are new to the minimalist running shoe, this is the perfect company to start with because they give you instructions written right on the box of how to start running in these kinds of shoes and how they should fit.