Yesterday, I bought a pair of Nike Free 5.0 v4's and I got to try them out this morning. Everybody warns you to start out with low-mileage, so I did about a 2km loop by my house. I've had discomfort in my left foot for the past couple weeks while wearing shoes and walking, but I never noticed any pain while barefoot. That was the impetus for me to buy the Nike Free's.
Starting out, my left foot hurt like hell and I was wondering if it was such a good idea to try these shoes. The pain is normally the type where it'll be fine for 100 steps, and on the 101st, a twinge of pain shoots up my foot, but at the start of the run, I felt it on every step. I almost turned around after going 30 feet. Just as I was about to call it a day, the pain subsided and didn't rear its head again for the entire run.
After completing the loop in the Free's, I stopped home and got into my normal Air Structure Triax 12's and went for another 3.7 miles to get my mileage in for the day. I immediately noticed how clumsy and abnormal my normal shoes felt. Amazingly, after just 1.3 miles in the Free's, my feet had started getting accustomed to them. Now all I have to do is build up strength in the parts of my feet and lower legs that have atrophied from using running shoes all this time, and I'll probably switch to the Free's full time.
Overall, I'm still not sure what I think of them. They felt far better than normal running shoes, but at the same time, I think they still cushion a little too much. I'm not quite sure how I'm supposed to run in them. I chose these shoes to be an intermediate step to barefoot running, so once these fall apart, I think I'll give the Vibram FiveFingers a try.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Monday, December 7, 2009
Santa Shuffle 5k
So this past weekend, Carena and I went out to visit our friends Jenny and Doug in Chicago, and we raced in the Santa Shuffle 5k. It was a balmy 20-25 degrees or so when the race started, and the sun was out and shining. The weather was far better than you could hope to expect for a race in December.
I didn't feel like I was going to perform too well, seeing as I hadn't slept well and had the not-so-healthy race eve meal of a Hardee's Thickburger. We got there with plenty of time to spare, so we got our Santa hats and beards, along with our pseudo-Santa outfits, which were just silk screened long-sleeve shirts.
I lined up at the front of the 7-9 minute mile pace group. The gun went off, and off we went. It wasn't too bad as far as crowds go, but yet again, several people started too far ahead of where they should have and slowed me down a bit. Nevertheless, I passed the 1st mile marker in exactly 7:00 (which would actually be 6:50 in chip time). Feeling good, I kept up the pace even though it was faster than I had expected to run. Approaching the second mile marker, I saw that the first two digits on the clock were 12. I crossed the marker just as it turn to 13:00. I couldn't believe it! I had just run a 6:00 mile! Thinking I might be overexerting myself, I slowed my pace just a little bit. I had hoped to run at 7:15 per mile, but this was just too incredible. I didn't want to take the chance of ruining my so far spectacular race by running out of steam too early, so I eased up. Then, as I approached the finish line and the clock came into view, I saw the timer: 22:35. What!?!?!? I thought to myself. I did the last mile in 9:35!?!? I crossed the finish line as the clock read 22:52. It turns out that the clock for the second mile marker was too fast, and I hadn't run a spectacular 2nd mile, and I shouldn't have slowed down for my third. In the end, I'm guessing the 2nd mile was around 7:15, and the 3rd mile around 7:30. I don't really think it affected my performance by all that much, maybe 10-15 seconds, but it was more the fact that I thought I was running out of my gourd with a finishing time beyond my wildest expectations that bothered me. I was so impressed with myself, only to come back to reality. If I hadn't had a glimpse of a sub-21 minute 5k, I would've been ecstatic about my time (and now that it's had time to sink in, I am), but it kinda spoiled the result for me for a couple hours.
In the end, my chip time was 22:42, giving me an average pace of 7:19 per mile, a good 18 seconds under my goal time of 23:00. In a 5k, 18 seconds is quite a bit, so I kinda blew my goal out of the water. This race time shows me that my fitness has improved and it's time to adjust my training paces accordingly. For the next month or so, my Easy pace will be 9:37 (I'm not that strict on Easy, somewhere between 9:10 and 9:30 is fine), my Threshold pace will be 7:42, and my Interval pace will be 7:07. It's time to get back to work.
I didn't feel like I was going to perform too well, seeing as I hadn't slept well and had the not-so-healthy race eve meal of a Hardee's Thickburger. We got there with plenty of time to spare, so we got our Santa hats and beards, along with our pseudo-Santa outfits, which were just silk screened long-sleeve shirts.
I lined up at the front of the 7-9 minute mile pace group. The gun went off, and off we went. It wasn't too bad as far as crowds go, but yet again, several people started too far ahead of where they should have and slowed me down a bit. Nevertheless, I passed the 1st mile marker in exactly 7:00 (which would actually be 6:50 in chip time). Feeling good, I kept up the pace even though it was faster than I had expected to run. Approaching the second mile marker, I saw that the first two digits on the clock were 12. I crossed the marker just as it turn to 13:00. I couldn't believe it! I had just run a 6:00 mile! Thinking I might be overexerting myself, I slowed my pace just a little bit. I had hoped to run at 7:15 per mile, but this was just too incredible. I didn't want to take the chance of ruining my so far spectacular race by running out of steam too early, so I eased up. Then, as I approached the finish line and the clock came into view, I saw the timer: 22:35. What!?!?!? I thought to myself. I did the last mile in 9:35!?!? I crossed the finish line as the clock read 22:52. It turns out that the clock for the second mile marker was too fast, and I hadn't run a spectacular 2nd mile, and I shouldn't have slowed down for my third. In the end, I'm guessing the 2nd mile was around 7:15, and the 3rd mile around 7:30. I don't really think it affected my performance by all that much, maybe 10-15 seconds, but it was more the fact that I thought I was running out of my gourd with a finishing time beyond my wildest expectations that bothered me. I was so impressed with myself, only to come back to reality. If I hadn't had a glimpse of a sub-21 minute 5k, I would've been ecstatic about my time (and now that it's had time to sink in, I am), but it kinda spoiled the result for me for a couple hours.
In the end, my chip time was 22:42, giving me an average pace of 7:19 per mile, a good 18 seconds under my goal time of 23:00. In a 5k, 18 seconds is quite a bit, so I kinda blew my goal out of the water. This race time shows me that my fitness has improved and it's time to adjust my training paces accordingly. For the next month or so, my Easy pace will be 9:37 (I'm not that strict on Easy, somewhere between 9:10 and 9:30 is fine), my Threshold pace will be 7:42, and my Interval pace will be 7:07. It's time to get back to work.
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