Runners - How to Tie Your Shoes

I was talking to the Qat Lady the other day and she mentioned these shoes hurt her feet so she just got new ones.  Sometimes, it's a totally legit thing to do and the only way to really deal with an ill fitting shoe.  (An aside here - congrats to the Qat Lady for rocking week six of her training program and even increasing the speed of the treadmill at the end of the working.)  But before you go drop another $100 on new shoes, a small suggestion if I may: lace and tie your shoes correctly. I had to re-lace and tie my newest pair of shoes after my first run because they were freaking my feet out.  But a little correction was all I needed to make the shoe quit bunching up on top and hitting my foot in the wrong place on the bottom.  Thankful!

Lacing your and tying your shoes correctly is so important there have been TED Talks on the subject, and who websites developed for all the ways to lace a shoe.  My personal favorite commentary on the subject is right here.

Things to look at when lacing and tying a running shoe:

• Holes or cloth lugs:  Some running shoes have holes in the uppers where the laces go, some have cloth style lugs.  It changes the options available for lacing, and how the shoe will tighten on your foot.
• Lace the tongue or not to lace the tongue: I have it one way on some shoes and the other way on other pairs.  The only pair where is seems to really make a difference are the Green Silence where the tongue is actually a seemless part of the upper and I liked it to hold still.
• Straight across the bottom, or an additional cloth lug in the middle:  My older shoes have this extra feature on the bottom of the laces.  I wanted it for my black shoes when they started freaking my feet out.  I was sad those didn't have it.
• Heel lock lacing or not heel lock lacing:  That means do you do a weird thing with your laces on the last couple holes or not.  I can't stand the heel lock lacing, on any pair of shoes ever in life.  But that's just me.  Apparently there's scientific data that it's good for you.

All the ways*Some of the ways* to lace of the kicks:

• Criss Cross Lacing - all your shoes are tied this way.  Most of the time I'm too lazy to change.
• Ove Under Lacing - the shoes that aren't tied criss cross are tied this way.  It has fewer cons in the pattern, plus it's Ian's favorite!
• Ladder Lacing is my own personal favorite.  The shoes stays tight forever once it's on.  The pressure across my foot is distributed evenly so it doesn't feel like it's laced too tight.  This style of lacing also makes shoelace ends shorter and doesn't work so well in shoes with cloth lugs.