Back to the Newtons

This is like one of those "forgive me for I have sinned" moments... Thinking that my old Newton's weren't cutting it I went off the reservation and bought a pair of  Saucony Triumphs. They felt good. They felt different. And I put 150 odd miles on them. But after the first few runs I found that they just were not working for me. My gait was off, my ankles didn't feel right, my achilles got tight... nothing was right...

So I went back to my old Newtons and immediately felt the difference. It was like finding an old friend. They felt great. Well used, but my run felt so much better than my runs with the Saucony's.

But I don't think that this necessarily has anything to do with Saucony shoes from a quality perspective - they are good shoes - they just weren't working for my gait and physical characteristics.

One of the things that I noticed while running with the Saucony's was that my left foot was toe'ing in. A friend suggested that it was because of a weak or tired muscle - but I was somewhat skeptical about that. I did sort of notice was that when I ran in my old Newton's that it did not happen, but that little fact did not totally register with me until later.

Then, on a whim, I went into a local running store to re-visit Newton's and the woman who took care of me suggested that perhaps I needed more of a stability shoe.

I said "nah.... I'm good, I want to try the Gravity's that I've got now"... I did, and as I ran around the store she noted that my right foot was caving in from time to time.  Hmmmm.  I mentioned my issue with my left foot toe'ing in, and she said yeah, that makes sense. That the left foot was basically compensating.  More hmmmmm.  I'm not totally sure about all of it, but ok, I'll take it at face value. Then she had me try the Newton Motion Stability model - and I absolutely noticed that both of my feet were on track, no toe'ing in. They felt great. I want to be back in Newton's!

And I would have pulled the trigger on buying them if they didn't cost $175.  Folks, that's a ton of money for me, and so I didn't buy them, much to that woman's disappointment. I also had a little issue with the woman, but I won't go into that - it was just a little off-putting, and that was another factor in my not being that anxious to give her my money. But still, $175 is a lot of money.

But guess what?  I was able to get a 20% discount directly from Newton. I feel bad for not being able to support my local running store, but 20% turns $175 into $140. And now we're talking.  I'm hoping to get them before I leave for my Reach the Beach relay run in New Hampshire next week. Hopefully, I'll be able to have a great run with them!

568 miles on a pair of Newtons

After putting 568 miles on a pair of Newton Motion running shoes, it was time to replace them.  I almost feel like I could get another 100 miles or so out of them, but my feet were starting to feel a little weird and I am sure that it was due to the shoes wearing out.

From the pictures you can probably see that I pretty much wore the nubs off the mid-foot area and the area just in front of (towards the toes) is completely slick (when new there were some grooves and a bit of a raised area – all gone now).  And in the event you can’t tell….  the new shoe is on the left…

I switched from the “Motion” model that provided something that they called “medial posting” to offset pronation, to the “Gravity” model, which is supposed to be a neutral shoe.  I really don’t know that I have a pronation problem, so if I go back to “neutral” perhaps I might learn something.  When I made my original purchase, the helpful store clerk recommended the Motion model because it provided a bit more “support”, something that might be helpful to me since at the time I was complaining about dealing with Plantar Fasciitis – I’m not sure where that support is provided, but it’s supposed to be there somewhere.

With the recent arrival of my new shoes and a 20K event this weekend (Leesburg 20K – Virginia), I have spent some walking time in them, then a short 2 miler, and today a hillier 6 miler. The new shoes feel great! And after this last run, I can definitely feel the different shoe symmetry in my calves. This may also be due to the fact that the new shoes are “new and unused” vs the “old and worn out” ones that I’ve been in for a while.  I’ll do more walking and run at least another 6 to 10 miles in the new shoes over the next 4-5 days before the event.

I’m looking forward to seeing how I do in the event itself – I didn’t have a chance to run any events in my previous Newtons so I’m looking forward to see how I feel after 20K and what kind of time I can post.

4 days to the Leesburg 20K  [UPDATE:  here is a link to the Leesburg event:  http://runningthrutime.blogspot.com/2013/08/leesburg-20k-great-run-great-event.html  ]

74 days to the MCM

damn shoes....

I should know better than to experiment with different shoes - Let me rephrase that: I should know better than to run 4 fast miles with shoes that I've never even walked 300 ft in before.

I joined the Potomac River running group for their Tuesday evening run - Brooks was there displaying and offering trial runs in some of their shoes. And I naturally, against my better judgement, went for it. The shoes themselves, a Ghost 6 model, were great; good stability, well cushioned, nice feel.  Overall, just wearing them felt good.  But given my history with my feet and lower calves, I should not have run 4 hilly miles in them.  It was also a pretty fast run too.

Before we even got to mile 1, I was beginning to feel a twinge in my right achilles area.  I thought that was kind of weird since the heel on these shoes was higher than my Newtons.  I figured that I was actually giving my achilles a bit of break by wearing a higher heel shoe! But this morning (the next day), my achilles is not happy. Very tight and somewhat sore. No running for me today.

The run itself was pretty good though.  From mile 1 through mile 3 it became hilly with what seemed like a monster hill at the very end of the climb. The total elevation was not much, all of 280 feet, more or less, but it was the pace that did me in.

Since it was "only" at 4 mile run I figured I would go ahead and run reasonably hard and try for a 8:15-8:30 average pace, so I wound up in the forward 1/3 of the group of maybe 20 runners.  Two of the guys were just lightning fast - I lost sight of them after the first turn.  Then there was a group of two guys and three girls that I figured were clocking along at around an 8min/mile pace - I figured that if I could keep them within sight I'd know where to go.

As soon as we hit the first of the hills that group slowed down enough for me to get within 20 ft or so of them. The route was along some neighborhood streets at first so it was easy to run along the side of the road against traffic, but then some of roads were substantially more busy and there wasn't always a sidewalk or much of a shoulder.  At that point I was happy to be running as tail-end-charlie, allowing these guys to spook drivers on their own.

At about mile 2 1/4 we had a bit of a downhill which enabled me to refresh myself some and it was just when I was starting to feel good that I saw the final hill.  It's not that it's that steep (more or less a 5% hill), or that long (about 1/3 of a mile), but that by the time I got to it, I was tired!  At this point I am running with the 3  women - one of the other guys had literally sprinted ahead and totally conquered that hill - the other guy had fallen back.  And we are all struggling - and I feel that I am really struggling, but there was no way that my stupid male pride was going to let me slow to a walk, which of course would have been the smart thing to do... Nevertheless, we gratefully made it to the top and were rewarded with a short downhill slope, only to be followed by another (short) uphill before we got into the final downhill leg of the run.  I should also mention that we ran into the two speedsters that shot out at the start walking backwards back down that hill so that they could enjoy it yet again (thank you very much, may I have another....).  Jeesh - I wish I could do that. More power to them...

My overall pace was 8:17min/mile which I think is awesome, especially considering the hills that I had to contend with.

On the other hand my right achilles is not happy and I can't, shouldn't, run today.  Just hoping that I'll be better for tomorrow.  My goal is no injuries this year.  And once again I'm learning a lesson: don't experiment with shoes!!!

137 days to the MCM!