Inside my Boston Boost

Of all the sports, running is probably the most ideal for the body in terms of the least injuries. If done properly, it uses your entire body evenly and does not put excessive stress on any one part, like say a bowler’s body goes through with respect to his shoulder and back. Yet, injuries is one of the most passionately discussed topic in running circles.

post the 5km

Last to last year, I went through a phase of injuries (and I keep sharing my learning time & again), that had me crying out in pain while foam rolling, spending a fortune on physiotherapists and had to skip a lot of events. Take for instance, my heel injury, I tried everything, even sat at home for almost 2 months but nothing worked until someone gifted me a pair of new shoes. I had been using Nike Pegasus (and quite liked them) that were less than a year old and seemed in perfect condition. But as I started running in the new shoes, my injury started to fade away. I cursed Nike Pegasus and forgot all about it until someone told me about how worn out shoes can cause the gravest of injuries. I said hold on, there is no way the Pegasus was worn out, not a single tread on it was gone. It was then that it was explained to me that shoes these days look all well and good from the outside for years but the foam inside dies much sooner. This was a part of the discussion I had with the product head of Mino, a tracking chip that can go underneath the insole of your shoe and tell you when your shoes are good, ok or dead through different coloured lights.

Now, I am someone who looks at technology in the way a small child might look at her father’s car – I know I will learn to drive it one day, just not right now. So I straight out told him that it seems a bit farfetched. After all, how can a chip independently tell you if your shoes need to be changed. So he started to explain the technology to me all over again. I am guessing he must have read the blank look on my face well so he gave me a trial chip to test out instead.

This chip was meant to last for an optimal run of 5k. I put it under the insole of my shoe and quite accurately, it showed me a red light (meaning the shoe is dead) at 4.2km. But why didn’t it go red at 5 you might wonder. Because my foot strike and gait isn’t optimal (and trust me, it isn’t for most runners) hence it caved before the 5k mark which is also why my shoes were dead way before I thought they ought to be. The Mino, in essence, tracks your unique weight, gait and the compression you exert on the shoe with each strike to tell you when it is time to change your shoe. You might get 600km out of a brand new shoe whereas, your running buddy might get 450 depending on running style. And it didn’t feel like anything inside my Boston Boost either, not sure about how it would be for a minimalist shoe though.

Seems like a good idea. I think I will take it out for a spin.

Read the review of Boston Boost here.