Tempo Tuesday
Today marks the first (real) week of training for my next marathon. I went to clinic last week, but, seeing as I’d run a 50km two days before – have I mentioned that? – I decided a 6km tempo would be a bad idea.
I have a 6km tempo (plus warm-up/cool-down) on the schedule for tonight. I haven’t done any sort of speed work since May 2011 and it’s definitely showing. I may or may not explode my lungs this evening. Here’s hoping the positive attitude I have right now sticks around…
On another note, running an ultra can completely kill your shoes. Mine didn’t have close to the usual end-of-life mileage, but they are done. I tried to run in them on Sunday and made it a measly 5 out of 10km. My knees told me that it was time to pack it in. Thankfully I have a loving husband who picked me up a pair of my standbys while I was at work.
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| Asics GT-2160 |
This is the 3rd pair I’ve had of this exact same shoe.
And I’m thinking of mixing it up a little, which terrifies me.
Let me explain. I have been wearing some version of the Asics 2100 series for years now. I have had very few problems (fingers crossed/knock on wood). They have served me very well. However, I’ve started to consciously make the effort to not heel strike quite as much so I think that they aren’t the best full-time shoe for me anymore. I’m still willing to keep them around for long runs – as a friend at the running store said, I’m more likely to need the cushioning at the end of long runs when I’m tired and not so focused on form.
I’d like to get a second pair of shoes that are more suited to a midfoot strike while still providing some sort of pronation control. I would use these shoes for my shorter runs. I put the question out there on Twitter and got a couple of answers back so far. I’m not 100% brand loyal – I’ll get the one I can find at work or for cheapest.
Here are my options so far:
As suggested by Asics – Neo33:
As suggested by Melody (a Brooks rep and HTC teammate) – PureCadence:
I still want to see what the comparable Saucony and Nike shoes are as well.
Any thoughts? If you run in either of these shoes how do you like them?
Turnaround Tuesday: Results Edition
Oops, it’s been a while since I wrote something!
My last week went a little like this:
1. Got C to pick up my new shoes.
2. Wore/broke in new shoes on 20km run. The trail around Burnaby Lake is mostly boardwalks and pea-gravel, so it was pretty and decently shady. However, the ground was not level and in a few spots it was so soft you could tell that there was probably mulch underneath which was BAD FOR A KNEE THAT WAS ALREADY HAVING PROBLEMS! You know you aren’t having a stellar run when it takes you 15km to “get into” it. I’ve been doing Colin’s physio exercises ever since…
Ended up with re-blackened toenail – that sucker has been in various states of purple since OCTOBER. Enough already… and it didn’t even come from running. At least this time it seems more like a badge of honour. Also have an awesome blister on side of my right big toe – good thing my callous is “protecting” it. I won’t post pictures out of respect for your eyes, but let’s just say that I won’t be going to get a pedicure anytime soon.
3. Took M to a commercial shoot on Monday and Tuesday. Long days with a 3 year old, but he was paid handsomely for doing squat diddle playing in the backyard.
4. Ran on Tuesday evening – 6km tempo. Leg felt like crap at 4km. Kept saying that I wanted to quit, but somehow ran through it and my last 2km were around 5:15 per/km = SCORE! Total run was about 36 minutes. Awesome for something that felt like it wasn’t going well.
5. Read some more “Run Like A Mother” – the chapter on mental toughness was really appropriate (see #4). I am loving this book – it’s even better than everyone says it is.
6. Skipped scheduled 10km tempo run to take M to hospital for “Nursemaid’s Elbow” (read: partial dislocation). Awarded self “Worst Mother” trophy for having pulled him up too fast and caused injury (it’s really common, but still…).
7. 2nd Thursday night clinic. Went out for a 7.18km steady run. At 6.23min/km average – 45:50min total – it was a little quick for our pace group. I blame the run up the tree-lined river for the speediness… none of our GPS units were keeping reliable pace. It was a good run and it helped that it was on the cool side tonight (I actually pulled out the hoody, which was only overkill by a little bit). I’m very happy that I’m coming up to my half marathon taper run this Sunday. 6km will be a nice change from the 20km I ran last week.
T-Minus 10 days to the Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon!
Happy National Running Day!
Okay, so it’s an American invention, but I can’t imagine anyone caring if I hijack it and bring it over the border, so to speak. I’ll be celebrating by going on a 10km tempo run this evening with C and M. Let’s hope the little bit of sunshine that’s out now sticks around… I don’t think I’ll be so happy if I have to run in the pouring ran; especially since M doesn’t like his stroller’s rain cover any more.
Completed my 10km run and it didn’t rain! Yay! We watched all the rain clouds move north as we ran and even saw the sun for a little bit at the end. Many thanks to C for pushing up the last long, slow incline since he knows that I don’t do anything close to a tempo pace when I have the stroller! Quite proud of myself for completing it in 1:03:13 at an average pace of 6:19/km.
Love My Runners 