Running with Newtons

After running unhappily for 6 months in shoes that had bad karma, I decided to explore the world of Newton running shoes – and so far I’m glad that I did.  I wound up selecting what Newton calls a “Motion Performance Trainer” (the blue one’s with the yellow sole), for the princely sum of $175.  These are by far the most expensive shoes (of any kind) that I have ever bought (I’m not a big “shoe” kind of a guy).   Newton will allow you to return any shoe within 60 days for a full refund, no matter how many miles you’ve put on them… That little option is what finally convinced me to give them a try.   I’m also not sure why Newton designates all of their shoes as “Trainers”…  what’s up with that?

So far I have a grand total of 12 miles on them and I really like them.  Per the advice of a customer at the store that I bought them at (MyTriGuys on 5 Mile in Livonia, MI, www.mytriguys.com), I have been “easing” into them starting with short runs and adding distance slowly, and I could immediately understand why that was important.  In my case, I could feel the shoes stretching and manipulating the muscles in my calves and hamstrings, along with the ligaments and tendons to my ankles.  The design of the shoes has a way of changing my running form just a tad, with two (hopefully positive) effects: 1) I believe that I’m making better use of my muscles, and 2) I think that I’m a little bit faster!  The latter point will be made more evident for fact or fantasy as I put on more miles.

During my first 1.5 mile run I could feel muscles in my hamstring (specifically the muscle area closer to my knee) working differently and after the run I felt the result of new stretching in the ligaments and tendons towards the back of my ankle (in the area of my Achilles tendon).  Subsequent runs, each one a bit further, have resulted in the same feeling in both areas.  It’s not a bad feeling, just different.

While running I can’t help but be conscious of the “knobs” on the bottom of the shoe – it’s not that I feel them so much as I know that they are there and I should be using them to my advantage.  Which forces me to focus on my form: keep my hips forward, lean into the run just a tad, land (lightly) on my midfoot, and release without pushing off with my toes.  When I concentrate on that form, I have been able to post better times per mile that I have in the last 6 months.  For three runs in a row, I have averaged a 7:20 min/mile pace in my last mile (I like to finish harder than I started…  it’s just my thing – I know that most coaches won’t approve, but I’m 55 and it’s what I do…).  That is compared to a mid to low 8 min/mile average with other shoes.  For all I know I’m subconsciously pushing myself, but like I said, fact and fantasy will be borne out as I put more miles on.

This of course is causing me to develop and exercise slightly new muscle groups, so I am now slowly building up mileage with the result of pretty much putting my attempt at the Grand Rapids Marathon out of the picture.  I'm still fighting and dealing with the Plantar Fasciitis thing and I have 5 weeks to go to the event. I can't see any realistic way that I’m going to be ready.  I am very bummed about it, but I don’t want to run it just to run it – I want to have a good time doing it.  I think that if I pushed myself I could actually finish the event, but I don’t want to just finish it – I want to do reasonably well, and I want to have a fun time doing it. (Which takes me to my next thought – someone asked me how could anyone possibly “have fun” running 26 miles?  I didn’t have an answer for the guy – there is just no way to explain it in a way that he would get it…)

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