Yes, more experimental footwear!

I’m always interested in the science of performance, so when I saw the distinct-looking Newton shoes at the Boston expo, I decided to stop by.

I had heard of Newton before (perhaps because they’re based in Boulder), but didn’t know much about them. The shoes are light (7.4 oz, compared to the 10.2 oz for my Sauconys), and are intended to help you run more on the midfoot.

Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion is the inspiration for our Newton Action/Reaction Technology. Replacing the foam and inherent energy loss of traditional running shoes.

As you land on your midfoot, the red lugs absorb the impact, and then the energy is transferred back to the foot as you propel yourself forward. It makes sense; when you land on your heel, you’re absorbing the impact, but then you need to generate your own energy to push off (because you don’t push from the heel).

—————
So I was anxious to try my new toys out, so I went for a short run today. (You’re warned that Newtons take some getting used to, particularly if you are a heel-striker). Obviously I’m not 100% recovered from Monday, but overall I have to say the shoes felt pretty good!

The shoes are built up on the midfoot so I do feel naturally propelled forward, even just standing still. When running, it feels awkward to let your heel touch down, so it wasn’t something I had to necessarily concentrate on: I naturally gravitated to running on my midfoot.
I had met someone in Boston who had Newtons, and she warned me they were rough on the calves. I can see how this is, they’re much more engaged. This will definitely take some getting used to. I did notice that hills were much easier to approach, as I was already landing appropriately on my feet.

I also think my overall posture was better. Keeping (mostly) off my heels seemed to make me stand up straighter, taxing my lower back less.

Obviously, two miles three days after a marathon is a pretty rough test of new equipment, but so far I’m impressed. More to come!

Last week when she was in town, my Mom and I had some good mother-daughter time shoe-shopping.. for running shoes! We headed over to the Boulder Running Company, where they video-tape you running on a treadmill to assess the type of shoes you need. She got regular running shoes, and I took the opportunity to pick up some trail running shoes.

I’ve bought trail shoes a few times before, but invariably they end up hurting my feet and I abandon them. I always worried that I wasn’t getting trail shoes with enough support. As it turns out, I have a very neutral gait, so the actual problem may have been that I was picking shoes with too much support! I strayed from my beloved sauconys and picked up some brooks cascadia 4s. I was amazed by how light they felt: they were cushiony and comfortable.

Today I decided to take them out on their maiden voyage. We got a reported 8 inches of snow on Thursday, but only two days later much of it is melting. The sun was shining brightly so I headed out in shorts and a long-sleeved shirt. I ended up at South Valley Park (a park I haven’t run at before). I wanted to take my camera with me, but was worried about dropping it in the snow and slush.

The trail was a bit of a mess, but the sun was shining and it was a fantastic day for a run! As well, I wanted to really try out the new shoes! I scrambled over red dust and snow, in part amazed by how many other folks had already explored the trails since the recent snowfall.

While my shoes didn’t keep my feet dry, they certainly held up well on the run. My trail shoes in the past have left me with calluses on the side of my foot, and I felt great during and after the run. I will admit, every time I hit the trails in Colorado I feel completly humbled. THIS is some hard running!

I thought about a recent blog post when I wrote about time on my feet and Meredith claimed that speed was equally as important as time. As I struggled up 356ft and down 225ft in a single mile, I knew that this was significantly more of a workout than most any run I’d done on a flat surface!

When I run the trails here, I never really force myself into a certain time or distance: this helps alleviate some of the pressure, and brings the fun back into the run. I told myself 6 or 8 miles, or an hour, would be a good run. As a wound my way from trail to trail (I ran on the Coyote Song Trail, the Swallow trail, the Lyon’s back trail and the Columbine trail), I found myself nearing my car at 57 minutes, so I finished what I consider a great run of 5.25 miles.

Distance: 5.25 miles
Time: 57:35
Pace: 10:57
AvgHR: 158
MaxHR: 177
Ascent: 1069ft
Decent: 1113ft

The shoes passed the test and I got sufficiently muddy/slushy to consider this a successful trail run!

I’m such a gear geek and brand advocate.. I’m in Denver and decided to pay a visit to the REI flagship store. Lately with my friends getting excited about trail and ultra running, there has been plenty of talk about trail shoes and gear. I used to have trail shoes a few years back, and I’d been considering getting some anew. What better place to buy them than Denver, with the mountains ever present to the West? I AM going to Pikes Peak tomorrow, if only to take a train, not run..

Before I even made it to the footwear department, however, I had to walk past rows and rows of socks. Now, I am more of a sock snob than any other piece of gear. And there they were, row upon row of my beloved smartwools! I wandered the sock aisles, and noticed a promotion if you bought three pairs of socks. I also saw that they had Injinji socks, which I have always been curious about. I know my Mom has been looking for Balega socks, so I sought out a sales associate to see if they carried that brand. He said no, but he could recommend some other running socks if I liked. I asked his opinion, and he suggested my beloved smartwool. I grinned widely and complemented him on his taste. They literally had 15 or 20 different brands of socks, so I was impressed that was his suggestion.
I resisted the urge to buy the same socks I know and love, and decided to force myself to test out some different brands. In addition to the Injinji toesocks, I decided to go with the “anatomically designed” theme and also bought keen sox. Lastly I rounded out my purchase with a two-pack of wigwam cool-lite pro socks. Expect reviews to come!

Then I actually made it to the shoe section. I tried out a few different pairs (the store had a fake mini ascent to scramble up to try out footwear) before deciding on the Vasque Blurs. I remember the Vasque brand name from TrailRunner magazine, although I don’t remember what was said Now of course I’m anxious to hit the trail! Nothing like new gear to renew your excitement!

Happy day for a runner!
Originally uploaded by afhill

Great mail day! Now I just need to get different shoelaces so I can tell them apart..

Today I met Meredith and Dave for our last midweek “Long” run before Boston. It was gorgeous out, Meredith and I both wore tanks and shorts. We had 7 miles on the schedule, and Dave had a 90 min run (he’s in training for his first half Ironman). Our standard route is about 6 miles, so we just went on past where we were parked til we hit 7, and then we decided to run back with Dave, rather than walk. So overall we ran 7.85. As we were going (at a decent 9:29 average pace on the warmest day on the year thus far), I mentioned that I hated taper, as I just didn’t feel “right” (my knees were a bit sore). I’d been thinking about the age of my shoes, and Meredith even said “do you think it could be because you’ve run 500 miles this year???”

I knew it was a sign when I input my miles into LogYourRun, and IT even pointed this out. “Please update your shoes”??? Now, I know that not all those miles are on this particular pair of shoes. But yes, the computer guilt trip was enough to make me pull out the credit card.

I’ve been wearing saucony omnis for a few years now. It used to be the omni moderate 5, then I went up to the omni moderate 6, and then the last pair I bought (on sale) were omni ultimate 5, extra narrow. They seemed just fine, so I just ordered a couple more pair. I plan to actually put on different shoelaces for each and seriously track the mileage on each of them. I’ve heard that it takes over 24hours for shoes to “recover/decompress” after a run, and that two pairs of shoes worn on alternate days will last longer than three pairs worn one after another. So I’m going to actually try to do the alternating, and track the miles on each. Since it appears LogYourRun wants to do it anyway….

Earlier this week, I finally broke down and ordered yaktrax. On Wednesday I received a UPS delivery notice, and I was walking out the door to run last night when I saw that familiar brown truck.

Good timing, for we’re dealing with some great weather conditions here: Tonight…Snow. Areas of blowing snow. Snow may be heavy at times after midnight. Visibility one quarter mile or less at times. Additional snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches. Lows in the lower 20s. North winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. Chance of snow 100 percent.

So yes, thank goodness for those darned yaktrax, which served as a motivator to get outside and give em a try.

Notice: I don’t know that little coils on the bottom of your shoes really help with 4 inches of deep snow.

Still, I slogged out a respectable 2.5 miles.. the streak is still alive!

I was emailing with my friend Andy today, and he asked how many marathons I’d run. I broke it out by year:

2004: 1
2005: 5
2006: 6 (+ 1 ultra)

His response was that I was set to run 11 this year.. or 12. I responded with “or 7″. Whoa guess that makes both of us big dorks, but what can you expect from two computer people? I then went on to say I didn’t think I’d even hit 100 miles this year thus far, so I wasn’t sure either of those were happening. He said he’d actually just hit 100 miles the day before. Well, of course I then had to go back and see what I was at.

January, I’d run 88 miles.
Feb 2 – 8 miles
Feb 3 – 7 miles
…
…

and that’s the last time I ran. So sure enough, I’ve passed the hundred mile mark, but not by much!

I did order TWO* pairs of shoes today, and I’m definitely planning to meet the gang tomorrow, so hopefully I can get back in the game.

*why two? because of this fantabulous sale. I know I like these shoes, and it gave me free shipping as well as a good price

today was GORGEOUS! So much so that I skipped out on my plan to hit the gym and went to target and bought some cheap running clothes so I could run outside instead. Tried out the new shoes I bought.. which may not have been a good thing. Granted, my knee is bruised (I think from Sunday), but I ended up having to walk the last .2 of the 6 miles since my knee was hurting so bad. When I picked out the shoes (Sauconys of course, but a different style than I’m used to), I was excited b/c they seemed to have more arch support than I’m used to. Now I’m wondering if that’s a good thing, if perhaps I picked out some for ppl who pronate (I don’t). Before worrying too much about the shoes, however, I should also pay attention to the fact that my carb intake lately has been about zilch, although I’ve been craving protein like it’s my job (I even had a hamburger yesterday at Fuddruckers – the first in a year and a half!). So that may have somehow contributed to my low energy, and resulted in lazy running or somethin. Who knows. I’m off to finish off my Fazoli’s lasagna, and hopefully these danged shoes will perform better tomorrow — I was planning on wearing them Sunday–