Adidas Training Spikes

Interval   Adidas Training spike (nothe the padding under the heel)   Made in West Germany   About 1972  

These were my best and favorite training spikes in college.

I ran my first track workout at Oregon in September 1971. I was new to college training and didn't know the protocol. I was ready to do the track workout when Dellinger told me to jog a mile as warmup, stretch, and do some strides which I did.

Then he asked where my spikes were. In high school I only wore spikes to race in. The size 11 spikes which my mother bought my freshman year were in he dorm so I ran over to get them. Dellinger asked to look at them and declared them crap.

Dellinger asked a teammate to take me to a barrel where discarded spikes were tossed and I dug out a pair of size 9 Tiger spikes which were incredible compared to what I was used to. And they fit!

I wore those Tiger spikes for my freshman track season of training and wore them in my first competition.

(left to right) Pre, Knut Kvalheim, Steve Bence, Mark Feig

I won my first races at Oregon and then ran sub 1:50 relatively early in the season. One of my teammates said I should write to Adidas and they would probably send me free shoes, which they did. I received a training, a training spike (the Interval pictured above), and a racing spike. The spikes were even better than my Tigers.