Runny knows - Feb 12 to 17

[Wahine]

I ran 4 miles easy tonight at the track after work. Then I have a 10 km road race tomorrow. I'm kinda excited. Now before y'all get worked up, this is a training race with a very odd strategy. I have absolutely no plans on ranking well tomorrow.

Emily, you're doing great. There's nothing wrong with that time.

Teigyr - What shoes did you get?

[Grog]

Back home (at last)!

I was lodged at hotels in cold cities that can't seem to pick up the snow on the roads and sidewalks. I'm used to run in adversarial conditions but I didn't have the snowshoes I would have needed to tackle Toronto's sidewalks this week.

So the treadmill it was. I called it "mental toughness" week, which was also taper week so thankfully I didn't have to spend much time there.

Sunday is my half-marathon!

[teigyr]

Grog, I can't wait to hear about your race!

Wahine, you also. I kind of understand it but ugh...then again might be a relief just to get it over with.

My shoes are Brooks Glycerin. The only problem I have with them is that they don't come in other widths. I have to do mens shoes and usually I'm a EE. I tried a lot of them and the sales person seemed to think that those shoes combined with the orthotics would be the best. They weren't perfect but seemed better than the other offerings. They felt SO good compared to what I was using so we'll see! The store offers a 60 day return/exchange policy so I'll give them some time. I tried ASICS Gel Nimbus (2nd in contention) and a few New Balance ones. I kept going back to the Brooks though they look like Kermit the Frog had illicit relations with the guy from Tron. Or Michael Jackson, haven't figured it out yet. I wish I could use girl shoes, the colors are SO much prettier!

Does everyone alternate shoes? I've read about it and was talking to the salesperson about it. He advocated it but says he alternates the same make/model because his feeling is if he likes them, he'll use them every day. We also talked about the reason for alternating other makes/models just due to the fact it might be better for you.

[Wahine]

When I have a pair of shoes I like I usually buy 3 at a time and rotate through with the old pairs slowly introducing the new. Ideally I have 3 pairs going at one time and rotate on a 3 month basis. So pair A might be on the way out, pair B in mid wear and pair C new ones being broken in. Then in 3 months, A gets retired, B moves into A's place, C into B's and we intro D into the picture.... and so on. That way one pair will be used for a total of 9 months and I'm never running on really old shoes or new shoes all the time.

[Grog]

When I have a pair of shoes I like I usually buy 3 at a time and rotate through with the old pairs slowly introducing the new. Ideally I have 3 pairs going at one time and rotate on a 3 month basis. So pair A might be on the way out, pair B in mid wear and pair C new ones being broken in. Then in 3 months, A gets retired, B moves into A's place, C into B's and we intro D into the picture.... and so on. That way one pair will be used for a total of 9 months and I'm never running on really old shoes or new shoes all the time.

Sorry for the silly question, but if they are identical, how do you know which is which?

[limewave]

Grog--I usually date my shoes with permanent marker so I know which is which.

I just got back from a 10k snow shoe race. It was soooooo hard! Only 4 women participated and I got fourth place, but I'm happy. I averaged 15 minutes miles. For a normal 10k I average 9 min miles. I came home, made a huge mug of hot cocoa and watched Kona on TV and cried when everyone crossed the finish line. I'm such a softy.

[Wahine]

Same here. I will also buy the same shoe in different colour schemes if there are any, sometimes that works best if you're buying right when the stores are changing out the seasonal stuff, eg winter to spring.

I finished my 10 k this AM. Not great but OK. With my warm-up it worked out to about 7 miles. I'm up to 29 miles for the week and I'm not done yet.