If you are serious about athletics and competitive running races, you have probably heard of running spikes. Unless you are experienced and have already raced in them, you might not understand the importance of using a pair of these spiked running shoes. They are basically designed to offer you the best grip possible when running a race. Because of this, other considerations tend to disappear. The first thing you need to get right is your stamina and strength, and your running action.
To build up the first two, you can wear normal running shoes, and you should do plenty of road running and hill practice. Hill reps can be grueling but are phenomenal at building up strength, and remember, you will not have to do this on the racing track, so it is more a reserve of strength that you will be able to call up when you want to inject some extra pace into a competition to drain your opponents. Another excellent training method is called “fartlek” (a Swedish term meaning “speed play”). You run a course, maybe at your local park, and pick out certain landmarks. Then you sprint flat out to that pre-determined point, and then carry on jogging while you recover. Then sprint to the next landmark and continue in this manner, varying the distances that you sprint. This will enable you to build up endurance even when injecting extra speed at crucial points during a long race. It allows you to stay in the running when somebody else makes a break, and gives you the ability to go for a sprint finish at the end.
However, none of this counts for anything if your feet are slipping when you run, because the track is wet after rain for example. And when you decide suddenly to inject some pace and make a break to kill off your challengers, you certainly do not want to end up sliding and pulling a muscle. So a good pair of running spikes allows you to dictate the pace and gain the advantage of knowing for sure that you can hustle without needing to worry about falling.
That psychological advantage can often be the biggest difference between the winners and the losers.