Posts Tagged ‘running shoes’

I said I was going to take 2 days off but a cohort from the Sub3:20 thread was in town (Hi Matthew!) and I couldn’t pass up a chance to run with one of my imaginary friends.  Plus, my ankle was feeling right as rain, so I ran the mile downtown to meet him.

I’ve never run downtown except during a race when the streets are closed and I realized how blessed I am to have my river loop.  All that starting and stopping at stoplights and curbs was ridiculous…but a novel activity nonetheless.  Matthew was cool and easy to hang with, albeit hurting from having done a marathon just 2 days before, so we jogged recovery pace and then walked.

While my ankle felt fine, my right pinky toe (as mentioned in the shoe surgery post) was still smarting behind the Kinvara’s rubber trim so after I got home, I inspected the shoe to figure out a plan of attack.

The good surprise was that the mesh underlay is not connected to the rubber, so I was able to leave the liner intact.  Note: if you’d like to modify your shoes but aren’t knowledgeable about sewing or tailoring, you might want to consult a friend who is since they’ll understand construction, thus defacing them as minimally as possible.  Or practice on a spare pair.

Et Voila!  Looks crazy up close but you can’t tell it’s there otherwise.  Happiness restored.  My toe thanked me and told me we were going places together.  I believe her.

Not on my person…my shoes.  Or rather, a shoe.  It’s always one shoe, the right shoe, to be exact.  This time, my lovely Kinvaras are giving me a hotspot on my right pinky toe, so I’m going to give it a week, trading off with my Elixirs, and if my toe doesn’t get hardened to the rub, seam ripper and scissors, here I come.

I’ve been operating on my running shoes for quite some time now, so I thought I’d give you a tour of my previous operations so if you ever have a troublesome shoe, this might give you some guts to go in and make your own modifications.

The first shoes I ever chopped into were my Mizuno Inspire 4s.  Great shoes, except on the right one, the plastic trim was keeping the shoe tighter across my foot than was comfortable, so I took a seam ripper (necessary tool if you’re going to cut stitches), opened up the side of the shoe and trimmed off the plastic that goes down to the sole.  Worked perfectly and I did it for every pair I bought afterwards.

The next shoe I operated on were the Inspire 5s, though this time, in a different place.  I remember running in my first pair and doing hills and the knuckle of my big toe kept jamming on the pretty piping trim, though I didn’t realize it at the time, I thought I had a stress fracture (at the time, I thought every ouch was a potential stress fracture).  I suffered for about 10 days with my foot killing me, making donuts out of moleskin to protect the area, but it wasn’t till I sat down and thought about it, that I realized it was the damn trim.  So I took some scissors and snipped right though it; fixed it like magic, made more room for my foot and no more jamming.  Did that for each of the numerous pairs I had in that series.

Now with the Kinvaras, it’s a little more difficult because the rubber part that’s rubbing isn’t stitched, it’s glued, which means this’ll be another scissor job.  It’s always a little scary the first time you attack a pair of shoes, but since the alternative is not wearing them at all, it’s worth it.  And it’s not like you change the structure of the shoe with a snip or a cut, it’s just a small thing but it makes all the difference in the world. Still, I’ll give it a week and if my toe doesn’t get used to it, that white rubber bit is getting snipped.

Hot Speed
Oh summer, how I hate ye for runnin’.  I set my alarm for 6:15 so I could get out at 7 for a speed session (need my morning coffee first) but still got stuck in 78 degrees with 66 dewpoint.  The one treat I gave myself is instead of starting at 2.5 miles, I started at 1.75 (which meant less slogging home). Workout was the usual lately: 6x.5mi w/90 sec rec’s.

Took it by effort, averaged 6:46 pace, splits were 3:26, 3:21, 3:23, 3:22, 3:26, 3:24.  I refused to think about the pace as it related to any sort of race pace, focusing instead on the fact that I got points for doing it and finishing it and that if I’m racing this summer, I should get used to manning up.  I was satisfied when it was over.

And with that, have a fab weekend folks.  Great racing to those braving the elements and I’ll see you back here next week.

My Garmin Is Sexier Than Yours
I started getting a ton of traffic yesterday to my Anatomy Of A Well-Loved Garmin post.  Apparently, there’s a fetish site called Watch Girls based on women wearing large watches.  Someone on their forum linked to that post with my full name included and a note that it’s an American blog.  It’s definitely a foreign proclivity, hardly any hits from the USA but the rest of the world is well represented, and they’re still coming in droves.  Check out their Models page -- too funny!

What Happened At Yesterday’s Race
My finish time was an entire minute slower than expected.  Now esplain me this, Lucy:  just 10 days before the race, I did a 3mi tempo run in 21:06 in 75 degree temps.  That’s a pace of 7:02 compared to yesterday’s 6:59 -  just three seconds slower, same conditions.  I don’t run my tempos at 5K pace, so WTF happened yesterday?  Part of it was this:

These are 1/4 mile splits.  My first 1/4 mile was 6:25 but only because I looked at my Garmin, saw 6:16, freaked and put the brakes on.  As you can see, I kept those brakes on for the next mile!  It wasn’t uphill or anything, I was simply unsure of myself and that did me in.  I didn’t even look at my watch after that first mile, I thought I was going as hard as I could sustain.

So I tend to think it was my brain and lack of race practice that were the real culprits here.

Thus, I spent yesterday afternoon searching out summer races and came up with 6 races from June-Aug: five 5Ks and a 5-miler.  Frankly, I dread each and every one of them -- I hate racing in hot weather and these ain’t gonna be cool, but the only way to get over the dread is to face it, or to quote that overused acronym, HTFU.

A final thing worth noting (apologies to my male readers): Last year, a couple weeks after my 5K PR, I raced another 5K and much to my dismay, came in a full minute slower.  That race was 6 days before my period.   Guess what?  I’m expecting my period in 6 days.  So perhaps this was also a possible contributor to the suckage.  Hormones are so confoundedly mysterious.

Saucony Kinvaras!
I’m really not good with shoe reviews, I don’t have smart things to say like “the cushioning felt resistant yet firm while the feedback from arch to blah blah gave a smooth ride and handled blah blah…”  I’m not that observant.  But I’ll say this: I LOVE these shoes!!  Rovatti, you had it right!

Few things: I always wear 1/2 size larger in running shoes, but not in these, they’re size 9s and they feel fantastic.  I have wide-ish feet but they feel very comfortable with enough wiggle room in the toes.  And so incredibly light at 7 oz!  That’s only 1/2 oz. heavier than my racing flats, yet I think they can handle being my regular training shoes from here on in.

I didn’t notice the heel drop per se, though there’s a lot of cushioning on the forefoot and it seemed natural to be running the “new” way in them.  I took ‘em for 7 miles and could have kept going but didn’t want to go too far after a race day.

Design-wise, they have an unusual sheer fabric over the main upper mesh…it’s like running shoe lingerie.  They’re also horribly pink but that’s all the store had.

My Running Gait Video
Memorial Day means nobody was around on the street this morning,  so after my run I took some video to see how my gait’s coming along.  It’s coming along!  Not perfect by any means, but the overstriding is getting under control.  Very pleased.  Btw, I didn’t think much about gait during the race so if I get a photo worth posting, expect to see me overstriding.

This video shows 2 views, 3 speeds for each view.
Edit: for my opinion of what I need to work on from seeing this video, read the comment I made to Jim.

Had a great interval session today.  Was a bit daunting on paper 10x1k@HM/10k, 1min rec’s, especially since most of you know I don’t take well to anything over, say…4 reps.  Kidding, but anything over 6 makes me nervous.  Surprise of surprises, I did this thing without a negative thought in my head (never happens).

The final story was 12.3 miles with the interval paces like this (some wind and small elevation difference explains the “every other”):
7:07,6:51,7:01,6:53,6:59,6:53,7:00,6:57,7:03,6:53…avg 6:57

I also inaugurated my marathon shoes that just came in the mail yesterday.  Fresh Elixirs! Purdy.

Backtracking the last few running days, Tuesday I had a nice MLR, 13.2@8:43.  Took two trips up my mile-long hill so felt very pleased with myself for that.  Then yesterday, I did my slowest recovery run of the cycle 8@9:57.  I enjoyed it quite a bit.  The slower pace was two-fold, the hills the day before and also, my HR has been a bit elevated for a few weeks.

I’m not really worried about overtraining because I’m sleeping better than ever (new jackhammer quality earplugs) and I don’t feel irritable or dreading the runs, plus my HR went up near my May Half, so it doesn’t concern me hugely, but obviously it bothers me some.  So anyway, I want to make those slow runs really slow, especially as the mileage and workouts peak.

In other news, I signed up for Boston yesterday!   I was going to wait till after Philly but you can change your qualifying race after the fact and all the cool kids on the 3:20 thread were doing it, so…I did it!   I’ve had the room booked for awhile now (thanks to my Women’s BQ thread pals getting that over with months ago) so now all I’m lacking is an airplane ticket, which I’ll wait a bit longer to deal with.

Hope you’re all having some lovely runs out there.  Later, babies.

So the race is over but my body is still in argumentative mode.  I’ve never had to run three recovery runs in a row, but I have this week.  Monday was a 5mi recovery run @ 9:45, Tues was a 9miler @ 9:25 and today was a 12miler at 9:13 (and I even had side stitches for 3 miles, lol).  Technically, 12 miles is too long to be called recovery but it was slow going, so that’s what I’m calling it.

I don’t feel bad about having to take it slow these past few days, though it is a new one on me to not feel repaired by now.  It could also be that I got my LadyTime yesterday, which might explain some of my discomfort during the race and why I’m feeling so drained and sleepy this week.  I hope so, because otherwise I have SARS.

Thanks to everyone again for all the positive comments about the race.  After all is said and done, I’m pretty pleased with the outcome.  I looked at the 133 females who came in ahead of me and realized that only one woman was older than me (a 51 year-old with an Age Grade of 94.4% who came in at 1:22:13).   So I’ve got absolutely nothing to pout about and it’s all onward and upward from here.

In other news, I had a new injury for a couple weeks that I didn’t mention because it was slight, but I think it’s worth typing out since you never know who might benefit from reading it.  I had my first case of metatarsalgia for a couple weeks there (ball of foot pain), likely due to rotating a couple pairs of shoes with over 400 miles on them.  It was pretty mild as far as injuries go in that I was able to run with it, though one day it really did feel like I had a pebble in my shoe (classic symptom).

I got rid of it without much ado by ordering a new pair of shoes, but more proactively, by simply massaging my foot whenever it started to “feel” (not on the run, but while sitting here at the computer).  Took me about 10 days to figure out that I could knead the painful area without harm, and once I realized I could, it only stuck around a few more days.  So no big story, but worth a mention.

As for the rest of the week, I’m going to attempt a speed session on Friday and then I have my first 20 (22 actually) this Sunday, so here’s hoping I’m back in fighting shape by Friday.  The workout looks like this: 3 easy, 2x(10x400m @ 10k – 5k pace w/1min rec), full recovery between sets, 3miles easy.  400s – not your usual marathon workout but should be fun to do and get some movement back in my legs.  Good stuff.

Now if I can keep my eyes open for the rest of the day, I’ll be a force to be reckoned with (against what I’ve no idea, but it’ll be real forceful, that’s for sure).

After publicly eschewing the idea of buying proper racing shoes so soon after the IT crap, I made an impulsive decision yesterday.  I was all “I said if I broke 21 I’d get to have racing flats, doggone it, I’m gonna go buy me some!”  So I went to Philadelphia Runner and tried on a few pairs.

I always feel like the Princess and the Pea when trying new running shoes on, there’s undoubtedly something that leaves me reticent (the arch on this one, tight toe on this one, too much room in another…) and because these were racers, I was even more anxious to choose the perfect pair.  I finally settled on the Puma Complete Roadracer IIIs, my first neutral shoe.

Once home, I put one on my postal scale, comparing it to my Mizuno Elixirs (the performance trainers I wear for quality runs and racing).  With my big feet (these are Men’s size 8 – I usually wear ladies 9.5 in running shoes), the Puma weighs 6.4 oz. – that’s 2.7 ounces less than the Elixirs – which may sound inconsequential, but my Elixirs are only 1 ounce lighter than my everyday Inspires and I honestly feel that difference, so 2.7 oz qualifies these as magic slippers.

Speaking of shoe weight, I’ve read from several sources that for each ounce you lose off your shoes, it’ll save you one second per mile.  So 5.2 oz total could potentially chop 16 seconds off my 5K.  That’s no small bonus.

The only thing I’m left wondering about is that I asked the sales girl (a super-fast local runner) if it’d be ok to wear them for, say, a speed session couched within 9 miles total.  She advised against it, but when I got home I read Puma’s sales blurb saying they’re “categorized somewhere between a 100% racer and a lightweight trainer” and “The Roadracer should be worn for weekly fast runs or races, but does not have the support or heel stability to be used for everyday”.  Sounds to me like wearing them for tempo and speedwork should be just fine.

She also said I could consider up to a Half in them, though that’d be pushing it, but the sales copy says “from 5k to marathon”.  Not that I was wanting them for marathons, but still, if I can safely run a Half in them, that’d be great.  I’ll just have to test them and see.

For now, I’ve placed them within the sightline of my computer chair, the better to admire them until raceday.   They remind me of a swimming pool, so pretty.  Yay shoes.