speed/weight

Has anyone else been tempted by a pair of racing shoes or lightweight trainers in the hope it might make them a little faster.

I've been running in my Adidas Supernovas for a while now and am satisfied with them. However whenever I open a running magazine or go into a running shop I can't help looking at the shoes that runners world says are for speed merchants only and wondering what difference a pair would make. Would I get faster or just end up injured - or both?!

At 12 and a half stone I am (according to most shops) heavier than most runners and apparently I do pronate a bit - so I should probably be sensible and stick with something like the Supernovas - but in truth I know that I wont really be satisfied til I've tried something lighter and got injured.

Has anyone else suffered the same temptation, did you give in to it, what happened?

I've recently switched to exclusively racing shoes and I've not been injured at all yet. I'm 11.5 stone and not a particularly fast runner. Read the earlier thread 'What type of shoes' - (its only a couple of days old) for the reason why ...

Sorry popsider, I've just realised that you've just come from that thread.

I'm also overweight but do use a pair of lighter shoes for some fast sessions and short races.

I can summarise the results quite easily: yes, they do make me faster; yes they do cause problems with calf muscles, achilles, knees etc.

I think if you wear stable shoes the rest of the time you might improve times wearing lighter shoes for races. In fact the contrast seems to help. Why not try it on something like a 5k and see what happens?

I'm 6'1''and weigh 12st 7 lb and run 40 miles per week,christ does this mean i'm overweight?

No, it just means you're heavy for a runner.
On the upside, if prizes were awarded for weight divisions instead of age, you'd probably win them all.