Category: Running

First six miles on the new shoes

Yesterday I ran my 5K loop. It was a pretty good pace for someone who oNew Balance 857verdid his long run on Saturday. The shoes were very comfortable.

They felt light. The Nikes I had been running in for the past 460 miles have always felt heavy. I compared them with my old shoes and they felt about the same just by feel. But when wearing them, they always felt heavy. I think I now know why. These New Balance 857s are very wide. I bought 11.5 EEEE. They were actually wide enough for my feet. And, they feel light. Again, I compared them to my Nikes and they feel about the same in my hands. So it must just be that because they are not tight across the toes, they feel lighter.

They also felt a bit rigid from heel to toe. They are a stability shoe. I presume that this is the cause of the stiff (ish) feeling to them. It seems that they are keeping my feet from rolling to the inside of my foot as I pass through my step from heel (or mid-foot) to toe. I assume that is a good thing.

Both of these aspects were noticeable enough that I felt them and were surprised by them again this morning as I ran my next 3 miles in them.

I plan another short run tomorrow in them. I will take Thursday off. They Friday I will do a 6+ mile run in them. That should be enough information for me to know how I like them. I doubt I will be sending them back though. My friend that brought them down is leaving Saturday morning. So the possibility of exchanging them for any reason leaves with him.

My Thought Spot 06: Talking on the Run

Here is a fun episode for you. I did a full blown run cast. The only part of this done in the studio was the editing. If there are horrible mistakes in it, I blame it on my poor memory while trying to run and talk at the same time. If it is spectacularly lucid and understandable, then I give my strong memory credit while talking on the run.

It was funny that I originally started out this episode saying that it would be a short show. I edited that part out since it ended up being my longest show to date I think.

Show Notes:

Got the new shoes!

I will run with the new New Balance 857s tomorrow. I am excited about it. That is assuming that my legs will let me run. I did an 8 mile run yesterday (I had a blast by the way). I have not run further than 6 miles in quite a few weeks and I have not been having very high mileage weeks recently. I definitely broke the 10% rule which says you should not add more than 10% of your previous week’s mileage to this week’s mileage (or time).

I added 200% to this week over the week before. And 100% over the previous two weeks. Um, a bit too much. My legs are quite sore today.

But, I will run in my new shoes tomorrow. Even if it is just around the block.

Mexican races

Frustration. That is a single adjective to describe many of the races I have been to here in Mérida. Today was no exception. I try to stay flexible, but today pushed my flexibility a bit too far.

I got notification on Thursday that there was an 8K cross country race today. I was very excited about that since I would like to do less road running when possible.

Sunday races are always difficult for a pastor in a Christian church since Sunday is the “big day” of the week for us. Fortunately, our church does not start its services until 11:00. That means that I can race in the morning as long as I can be home by 9:30 to get ready for church. This race was to start at 8:00. That would allow me enough time to run and hang around a few minutes before having to head home.

Out of the 12 or so races I have run here, only 3 have charged an entrance fee. So it was not unusual to not see any fee amount in the race announcement. It was not an official race announcement, just a posting that someone put on a local mailing list. When I got to the registration table this morning (pre-registration means that you are there at least a few minutes before race start to register) the lady told me that the fee was 15 pesos (about $1.40 USD). The amount certainly was not an issue. The fact that I was parked quite a ways away from the venue and had to return to my car was. I went back and dug between the seats to try and find 15 pesos.

I returned with the money, thankful that I found exact change. Otherwise I would have had to make another trip back to the car to put away the change. I registered and pinned on my bib. 219 was my number.

Race start was at 8:00 and it was currently 7:40. Enough time to do a slow lap around the course as a warm up. The course was 2 Km. in length. About 3/4 of the way around the lap I heard the announcement that the ladies would be starting at 8:00 and the men would start at 8:30. 8:30? What happened to an 8:00 start?

When I made it back around to the starting area, apparently this announcement took others by surprise. No one was complaining. They were just talking about how they should not be doing as much warm up yet since they did not start for 30+ minutes now. No biggie to them.

But for me, this was not going to work. The announcement said 8:00 start which was fine. 8:30 would give me enough time to run and rush straight home with hopes of maybe being ready on time. Really it was going to cut it too close.

I went back to the registration table to tell them I was not running and to turn in my number. I was not looking to get my money back. I did not really care about that. I mainly wanted them to know that the time change was a deal breaker for me. Did they care? Probably not.

They offered to let me start with the women. I don’t think so. “8K won’t take that long to run,” she said. I told her that some of us are not elite runners.

To me, it did not matter how long it took to run. Changing the start time to later was not acceptable. I understand that it was a small course and they wanted to give everyone a chance to race without being too crowded, but this decision seemed to be made just before the race was to start.

I was really frustrated.

I went home and ran 5K. That helped some.

I put off doing a long run yesterday because I knew there would be a race today. I have not had a good long run in a while. I need to get an 8 or 10 miler in soon or I am going to lose something there. I may have already been away from it too long.

I heard there is a 6K race next Saturday. I would not normally be interested in doing a 6K as opposed to a long run. But, since it is a very rare Saturday race, I could stick around for the awards. I have only been able to stay at one other awards ceremony. It was a Saturday race as well. Saturday races are very very rare here. It is a shame to pass one up. The only Saturday race I have run was a PR at 5K.

Oh, and one other point of frustration with racing around here are the distances. I have moaned before about how the races are rarely never the distance advertised.

New shoes coming soon

I ordered some new shoes this week. I got confirmation today that they should be delivered to their destination on Monday. They will go to North Carolina to a friend’s house. Our friends are coming to visit on Saturday, so they are brining the shoes in with them. I am over 420 miles on my current shoes. They say that you can expect 300-500 miles out of shoes. I think I am getting to the end of life for these shoes. My legs have been aching and my knees particularly the last 2 weeks. I hope it is just the shoes.

My knees were bothering me enough this morning that I thought about leaving from exercise class early (I did not). I have been wearing my running shoes the last few weeks to class because they are more cushioned. I may go back to my $10 Wal-Mart shoes for class.

I hope the new shoes fit. I am very concerned about the fact that I have not had a chance to try on the shoes. I am just going on a wing and a prayer. Fortunately, I bought from Road Runner Sports. I will get a chance to run in them for a week. Then if they don’t feel right, I can send them back with my friend and he can send them in for exchange to a better size. I don’t know when the next chance to get shoes brought in after that will be.

We will just have to wait and see how they fit. They will not be too small. I made sure of that.