Lately Minimalism has become all the rage. It is either barefoot running or differing levels of minimalist shoes. Have you jumped on board yet or are you still watching from the sidelines? This past year we have seen some sort of minimalist shoes from nearly all the top running shoe manufactures. One of the most interesting of course has been the Vibram Five Fingers as I mentioned in a recent post, but Saucony has recently taken it to a new level.
Showing posts with label shoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shoes. Show all posts
Saucony Is Going Minimal, Are You?
Lately Minimalism has become all the rage. It is either barefoot running or differing levels of minimalist shoes. Have you jumped on board yet or are you still watching from the sidelines? This past year we have seen some sort of minimalist shoes from nearly all the top running shoe manufactures. One of the most interesting of course has been the Vibram Five Fingers as I mentioned in a recent post, but Saucony has recently taken it to a new level.
Mizuno Wave Prophecy - Cool Looking Shoes
As runners we all love our shoes, unless of course you are from the barefoot running crowd. Barefoot running and minimalist shoes interest me, but I am still in the hmmmmm phase. Today Mizuno launched the new Wave Prophecy in one of their biggest shoe launches to date.I personally have not run in any Mizuno shoes, but my daughter's have, and have been very happy with their shoes. The Wave Prophecy is a very cool looking shoe and will be sure to turn some heads and prompt some questions. With the new infinity wave plates the shoe has a unique look, and one that will at first make you question what kind of support or cushion the shoe has.
Pearl Izumi SyncroFuel XC - A Great Shoe!
I received the shoe and was anxious to give it a go. This shoe is more of a neutral shoe than I have ever run in so I was cautious as I first laced them up. When I received the shoes I had never ran off-road or on trails and this shoe is designed for trail runners. I planned on taking it on the road first to see how it compared to what I was running in and then taking it to the trails to give that a go as well.
Strands Review - Win A Pair Of Shoes!
I have resurrected my Strands account and have given it another go at their request. This time I have spent much more time just getting to know the interface and checking out what it has to offer.
They have thought about almost everything. All the basics are there, the profile, the gear, the routes, and the ability to log your workouts and races. One of the pleasant surprises was how well the mapping utility works. I have tried this same feature on many sites and they are either clunky or just not very accurate.
Extremely good run with my daughter.... and new shoes!
I am not sure where to start. My daughter has been running off and on for a while, but finally got serious just about a month ago as she was leading up to Cross Country training starting. She is going to be a Freshman and will be running Cross Country her first year. When she first got serious about running she almost cried when we went 2 miles because she had never been that far before.
When she ran with me before she was always right around the 9:30 mark for the mile, and that is about what she started with at the two mile distance as well. We have since built to 4 mile runs and she is doing those pretty easily with the team and her coaches now, although in my opinion she is not running them as fast as she should or could :)
Her fastest two mile run (without me trying to kill her) was a couple weeks ago when she ran one of the miles in 8:19. I was so very proud of her to say the least. Her best two mile run was at a 8:33 pace. Both of those runs she was completely spent at the end.
Well, today brings a new smile to my face. She did not run with her team today so when I got home we went for a two mile run. It was just starting to sprinkle a bit when we walked out the door, but we hit the road anyway. We took off at an easy but brisk pace. She was doing really good, but she did comment it was faster than she runs with the rest of the team. By the time we hit the first mile it was raining pretty good on us, but we still hit that first mile in 8:31. We made the turn and kept on moving. The rain kept up and we sped up. I tried to speed up a little, but keep it where I could see she was managing it well. Well, the punch line to this story is....... she finished that second mile in 7:45!!!!! That is right, 7:45!!! I told her we would stop at two miles no questions asked so that is what we did. She was acting as if she could keep going, it was easy to tell she had been putting the miles in. I then talked her in to running easy to get home since it was another .4 miles and it still was raining quite good. The last .4 slowed the pace for the overall run, but the overall pace still turned out to be 8:15! I am so very proud of her. Here is the log from this run >> link
Now..... on to the shoes
I just got my new shoes in today. A big thank you goes out to one of my new Twitter Buddies @RaceSpeed who runs the online store www.telarun.com and who helped me by answering many questions about shoes and suggested I buy the shoes I ultimatly bought from him.
I wanted to replace my shoes with the same New Balance MR768ST shoes since I really liked them and they were exactly what I needed. I ended up finding out that they were discontinued and no matter where I looked I could not find my size in the shoe I currently ran in. The shoes were replaced by the New Balance MR769SB, but I was nervous that they would be enough different and would cause me problems.
The shoes I bought were in fact the New Balance MR769SB, and they came in the mail today. This same run became my trial run with my new shoes. If all is based on the first run, I am sold! I forgot what it was like to have the feet and legs feel so good. I guess that is because I had way too many miles on my old shoes (don't ask how many)
Bottom line, the day started out horrible, but it ended on running cloud 9!
Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow
Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow
More New Shoes
The first leg of my running journey was in a pair of New Balance M767SB. These were my first running shoe and carried me through many a mile of training, and my first 5k, 10k, and Half Marathon. These shoes were tired and I retired them to be casual everyday shoes just a day or two following my Half Marathon. I had racked up over 450 miles on those shoes and they were starting to hurt me.
When retiring those shoes I went back to the running store and purchased myself another pair of New Balance, but this time went with the newer model MR768ST even though they had a pair of the same ones that I had just run so many miles in..... the new model just felt better. I went ahead and purchased a new pair of insoles as well to go with the new shoes.
Now, on to the newest addition. My new Pearl Izumi Syncro Infinity pair of shoes. At first the looks didn't do anything for me, in fact I thought they were pretty ugly, but so far as I have had them sitting around the house and have taken them for a walk and their first run this morning, they are really starting to grow on me. I may even have to say that I may be even starting to like the way they look. :)I got these shoes this past Friday. They are a bit narrower than all my other running shoes so at first I was a bit worried since I have a wide foot. Saturday I went out for a 10k training run but opted for my current running shoes because of the distance. I didn't want to run that far in a new pair of shoes.
Sunday, I put them on for the first time to go for a walk with my wife. They felt great as far as a pair of shoes fitting, and I was looking forward to see how they felt walking and then running. We didn't walk far because of my wife's feet starting to hurt, but I was happy that my feet weren't hurting. My knee did start to hurt a little bit, but I am not sure if that was the shoe or not.
This morning I took them for their first test run. I went out for only 2 miles to get a good feel for how they felt without getting too committed in case they started to hurt me. The first mile they felt absolutely great, and the second mile my feet felt great but my right knee started to hurt a bit. I, again, am not sure if it is the shoes, it may be because I am used to running with insoles and I do not have insoles for these shoes. I may try to move my insoles from my other shoes and see if they will fit in these shoes. That will give me a good indication on how these shoes are going. I will keep you posted!
Looking forward to more miles in my new Pearl Izumi's. A cool place to find out more about the company (a Nautilus company) and their shoes is www.runlikeananimal.com
The First 2 Miles
This morning was no different, that first mile seemed to drag by, then the second mile got a little better. It is magical, once I passed the second mile I was confident I could go as far as I needed to. This mornings run was a 4 mile run. My run this morning went well, I just didn't feel like I had a lot of energy. I am thinking this is due to the added stress lately at work and the 10-12 hour days I have been putting in. Hopefully that will subside in the next couple weeks.
Following my Half Marathon on Saturday, I went for a 1 mile run with my daughter, Payton on Sunday. I was hurting pretty bad and it took everything I had to get moving. Once I got moving I was in pain but I was fine. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to run with her, like I have so many times in the past. Following our 1 mile I went back out with my son, Brady for just over 1 mile of a walk/run. This was another nice time like the week before.
I took the next two days off to let my body recover and also because my ankle was starting to hurt again. I decided I would not put even one more mile in with my shoes. Tuesday evening I went and awarded myself with a new pair of shoes. I think I am also going to get a second pair of shoes as well so I can alternate between the two and see which ones I like better. I will let you know more about my shoes soon, and keep you posted on how I like the two shoes.
Well, I need to find myself a 10k to run in the next few weeks. I need to get a seeding time before March 16th so when I register for the 65,000 strong Peachtree Road Race I don't get so far back in the pack like last year that it takes me 45 minutes to cross the starting line. There is one this Saturday but I am just not sure that I want to do another race so soon.
Until next time...... thanks for following my Quest to a Marathon!
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