Thursday, October 31, 2013

Shoe fly, shoe!

Much to my wife's chagrin, I added another pair of shoes to the stable--a pair of Mizuno Wave Inspire 9s.  I had gotten the Brooks Adrenalines as my go-to pair, and my Brooks Pure Cadences for speed work and intervals.  However, I find myself spending a disproportionate amount of time in the Adrenalines.

At this point, I'm not sure I want to push things with the Cadences--they are more of a minimalist shoe, and designed for midfoot strike.  I've heard and heeded the warnings of both minimalist and non-minimalist proponents:  If you're going to transition, do it slowly.

Very slowly.

I have been 100% pain free using the Cadences, both while wearing them and in the days immediately post run.  But given the fact that I'm still dramatically increasing my mileage and my paces, I just don't want to chance it.  So far, one workout a week (I'm running 5 days pretty consistently now) has proven to be just enough.  I love the feeling of wearing a different shoe.  And I can feel my pulse quicken when I lace up in them, because I know they are for running fast, and I'll soon be in the midst of a blistering intervals workout. I do notice my legs are tired in different places after my Cadence workouts.

It's a great feeling.

Anyway, all that to say that I thought another go-to pair would be a good idea for the rest of my runs.  This way I can rotate between the Inspires and the Adrenalines and potentially eliminate any overuse injuries from running on the exact same platform all the time.

I read lots of reviews from lots of different sources, but I couldn't find a place locally that had my 14s in stock.  So I took a chance--and I'm thankful that after trying them on for the first time today they feel perfect.  Haven't run much in them yet, but the heel grips my heel, the laces snug them down on my midfoot, and the toe box is nice and roomy.  Looking forward to putting some miles in in them. 

And just look at them.  I'm crushing on that blue and yellow scheme.

Another exciting and proud-papa moment is when my 7 year old daughter came home from school and announced she wanted to be part of the running club.

After making sure she knew what running actually entails, I set about finding her a good pair of shoes.  The poor girl is cursed, unlucky, blessed with my long and narrow feet.  So it only stands to reason that the same shoe would fit her needs.

Introducing her very cool purple Brooks Adrenalines For Kids.

Too bad the first day of Running Club she was promptly informed that 1st graders weren't allowed.  Only 2-4th graders.  She was devastated, and we were a little miffed we'd spent the money on these shoes for her.  But what can you do?  Public school will be public school--nobody every claimed it all made sense.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Aaaaaand we're back.

It's so tough to get going again when you take a blog hiatus.  Ideas form in the head, take shape into potential posts, and then the hurdle of restarting causes them to wither like fruit left on the vine too long.

There's the pressure to explain why it's been a month since your last post.  There's the mild embarrassment that others have had to reach out to make sure you're doing OK, that nothing bad has happened.

Well, I had a little hiccup.  I had a crazy work week, combined with exhaustion on my days off.  And then I left town, and then crazy work schedule when I got back.

Oh, yeah, and that event that sent 5 years of work and focus down the drain--not getting into grad school.  I'd like to think I took it all in stride, and certainly I didn't have a nervous break down--I kept getting up in the mornings, and going to work, and playing with my kids.  But all that was habit if nothing else.  Sticking to the routine was a way to avoid dealing with and feeling the loss of a dream.  I was bobbing and weaving, my gloves were up, but I was against the ropes and more than a little punch drunk.

Through all of this, I did the worst thing I could have.  I stopped running.  And so, add the loss of my stress outlet to all of the above.

But I'm here now.  I've been running regularly for almost 2 weeks back now, after a 2 week hiatus.  It's always amazing how quickly things start to regress after a break.  Especially when a new runner like I am.  Something I'm glad didn't regress though, was my weight loss.  I gained a couple pounds, but it was easy to get back on track.

The blog, apparently not so much.

Soon with new content.