January 23rd, 2009
Remember how I was going on about wearing my shoes till they got to 500? Well, I’ve been feeling a little nervous about them since they’ve hit the 400s – I felt an ankle twinge on a couple mornings that disappeared when I wore my newest pair.
So today I did an experiment and put one new shoe (75 miles) on one foot and on the other foot, a 421-miled shoe. It felt like I had a shorter leg. Seriously, the old shoe was noticeably compressed. My 364-miled shoe felt pretty close to the new one, but the 402-miled shoe was almost as bad as the 421. Thus, I tossed the 421 and 401 pair and kept the 364 (which I’ll throw out at 400 miles).
This left me no choice but to go on a shoe shopping spree at Running Warehouse. Such fun, because both my Mizuno Inspires and lightweight Elixirs have new models (no complaints heard on either yet, knock on wood) and the women’s models are both lighter, so yay.
I also bought a small version (12 oz.) of my Amphipod handheld. I’ve been ignoring hydration in these cold winter runs – haven’t felt the need to bring anything, but my longer runs could use something, so the little bottle looks perfect. I might occasionally bring a gel on my long runs again, too, since I’ll have some water to down it with.
Temps look fine for Saturday’s Pickle, 26 degrees windchill, though I could do without the 15mph wind they’re calling for. Not that it matters, it’s not a real race and I’m just going to go there with fun on my brain (hey, didn’t I give myself this same propaganda pep talk last week?).
On the run menu, yesterday I had 7 w/8 strides, avg pace 8:28. And I forgot to post the pace on my 7.25 fartlek the other day – even with snowy footing at spots, a very zippy 8:13 avg. Been a fast week, aside from the recovery run.
Today’s going to be 6 at a modest pace. Since I’m not tapering for tomorrow, I figure I should at least make today a slower one. It’ll be my shortest run since Xmas week, I seemed to have stopped doing 5s and 6s these days.
I will close this entry with an embarrassing admission: I have been using my HR monitor more lately but haven’t been washing the strap when I get home, so over the last few days I’ve developed an annoying rash under my boobage area. Little red bumps, not itchy, just hot and uncomfortable. So I’m hereby going to be extra clean with my strap, and no monitoring for me till these little bumps go away. Just when my HR info was getting interesting, too…
From short legs to rashy bumps. I know, I know, my hawtness intimidates you. Deal with it, people.
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LOL. I have permanent chafe marks in my boobage area. SexAY.
Good luck in the Pickle run tomorrow! I bet it really be a blast. Interesting shoe experiment. I have been in a couple runs with the new Inspires and I love them. That is, I forget they’re there, which is a good thing when it comes to shoes. I hope you got the red, white and blue Yes We Can! model.
I thought I was the only one with chafing in the boob area from my HR monitor. Man, that shit can hurt? Do you think it is safe to use Body Glide or will that mess up the HR monitor? Oh so many unexpected running issues!!!
That was a very extensive shoe experiment. Personally, I guess I don’t have enough shoes. I stand corrected and will try and rotate my shoes more often.
Man, you guys are treasure trove of information.
The 500 mile per/pair of shoes rule does not apply in any way to me. I swear there are some pairs that I am lucky to get half that before my knees start to scream. I am currently rotating about 5 pairs, most of them last year’s models bought on the cheap. The funny thing is that Mrs. Progman had no idea of the number of pairs I had until I posted a picture of them on my blog (“I’m sorry honey, did I forget to mention those last 4 purchases?”). Oops.
Good luck at the pickle.
I always love borrowing(stealing) your running knowledge. I bought my 20 oz handheld amphipod because you recomended it long ago, but its a bit bit too big when sometimes all I need is say 10 oz or so. Beautiful, I will now buy the 12 oz’er!
I’ve been weary about changing out my shoes because I’ve thought that the whole mileage thing was “hogwash” thought up by the manufactuers, but now I just may change out those shoes.. or could it be because I am cheap?….
I probably should’ve been changing em anyway due to my poundage. I beat the snot out of my shoes!
I probably wear my shoes too long but I always rotate shoes and thats supposed to make them last longer. Right now I got a 3 shoe rotation going, usually only 2.
Ill be carefull if I ever get a HR monitor.
I’m lucky if I can get 300 miles out of my daily duty training shoes before they feel like I’m running on cardboard. Racing flats, forget it: They start to feel stale at 200 miles.
I also just dropped a load of cash at both Running Warehouse and Holabird since it was That Time. Since I was spending loads of money anyway, and it’s up to all of us to save the economy, I added a pair of Asics spikes to the cart. They have nifty interchangeable spikes: rubber nubs for cross-country and carbon spikes for track work. I have a promise to myself that I will not wear them to the track until I am doing intervals at 5:45 pace, lest I look like a poseur. So I’ll crack open that box in mid-March if all goes according to plan (*evil laughter*).
With the insane number of shoes I have to buy, running isn’t cheap. But it’s still cheaper than heroin or psychoanalysis.
Good luck in the PIckle tomorrow! With your new Speedy Gonzalez ways, you should be smoking your nemeses. Or perhaps finding completely new, faster nemeses…
Happy pickling tomorrow Flo! (Why am I feeling a slight deja vu?),
Good idea on the shoe test. My last venture into lightweight shoes for racing ended painfully, but it might have just been the particular shoes. Never worn actual flats (yet). Now I just wear my Brooks Defyance all the time. They’re past 300 miles, and seem OK, but I wonder how they would fare if I test them like you did?
Mir, thanks for the Inspire review. I can’t wait for ‘em now! I skipped the Red, white and blue “Yes I can” ones for the blue/yellow “I think I can” model.
Christi, don’t know about Bodyglide on your strap, never tried it. Glad that you find out stuff from reading here, that’s a wonderful thing.
Progman, I can relate to the excess shoe situation. Now that I’ve figured out my mileage limit, I hope to have no more than 3 Inspires for rotation (oh, and my Elixirs, which I still need to figure out how many miles I can put on before discarding).
Dave, cool on the water bottle. Yeah, I was the same about thinking it was the manufacturers making us change them, because it’s hard to tell when they’re on their way out. That, and I was trying to save some dough, too. It’s worth comparing if you have a fresher pair, you might be surprised either way.
Bruce, good for rotating your shoes. Glover says it makes them last longer, though some folks on the forums say that’s a load of crap. I think it can’t hurt, so I rotate, too.
Julie, your new shoes sound really cool. Spikes! You’re so hardcore, I love it. I’m getting closer to buying a real pair of racing flats (Elixirs are my stand-in). I’m waiting for a significant 5K result, maybe around 21:15ish to feel worthy of buying a pair.
Jim, definitely worth trying some lightweights again, you look like a pretty light guy and could benefit from them.
So, kids…I went to the Pickle site and some people showed up last week so they went ahead and raced. The times were pretty slow (granted it was 7 degrees) but the fastest guy came in at 22:17, most of the times were around 25:xx (there’s a mention of hills on the page, too), so I’m going to expect something completely non PR-related, like 24:xx. I’ll let you know tomorrow how it went.
Good Luck tomorrow!! I hope you don’t get in a pickle with your time!
My mileage on the Elixir 2 was 313 when I retired them. Current Elixir 2 has 180ish and Elixir 3 has 220ish. Interestingly the Asics 21xy with thicker soles and heavier and what not only last like 230-250 miles and I think I am running in dead shoes. I have 3 shoes in active rotation right now, plus one pair of Asics 2140 that I will rotate in once the 2130 retires and an Asics DS Trainer for races. Cannot really stand the 21xy anymore.
Really like the idea of having one foot with the old and one with the new shoe! If that would not show a difference I recommend running a couple of miles in the new ones and then switching on the fly into the old ones. Sometimes that is like running into a wall.