Friday, January 29, 2016

Fitness Friday

Hello! I hope everyone on the East Coast is finally shoveled out from all their snow. We had some snow this past weekend/week, but definitely not as much! Still, it makes for some interesting running conditions.

Saturday - My motivation lately has been in the toilet. Honest truth. Today was no exception, especially when looking at the weather report - 12 degrees (yay! no negatives!), but 12-15 mph winds. Uuuuuugh. Thankfully I was able to meet up with my running group: a cast if diehard running characters that are going to go out regardless. I've said it before and I'll say it again - misery loves company.

Our route is mostly a north to south out and back route, and the winds were coming from the south. I suggested we go south on the highway first, into the wind, to get that out of the way and allow the wind to push us back. Everyone agreed to that plan, so we set out. No joke - it was horrible. Take your breath away, slow you down by a minute or more, blister your face kind of wind. We managed 4 miles out, and then decided to turn around with the plan of doing about a mile on the east to west road that we start on. Once we turned around, it was so much better and the run was over before I knew it! We even overshot the 10 mile mark a little. 10.40 miles @ 10:26 overall pace.

Sunday - Sunday we spent going to church, and then shopping for funeral attire. It's harder than you'd imagine to find a black or dark colored dress for a little girl. Especially with Easter right around the corner. So we were out all day, but I managed to not only find an appropriate dress but also get in 30 min of abs & oblique pilates.

Monday - Once again, this run is brought to you by Lack of Motivation. I don't know where my mojo went, but I'd like it back. The roads were slushy due to wet snow on Sunday, so I strapped on the Yaktrax and headed out anyway. On tap was a cutdown run - 1 mile warm up, 1 mile at 8:55, 8:45, 8:35, 8:25, the 1 cool down mile for a total of 6 miles. The first few miles weren't so bad, but those 8:35 and 8:25 miles were real work. Uphill, sloppy snow. Ugh. At one point I was running on a clearer, more traveled road, and basically made the cars go around me because the shoulder was too sloppy. I got it done, slightly off pace, with the workout miles being 8:58, 8:41, 8:38, & 8:30. Good enough.

Tuesday - an unexciting morning on my stationary bike. Thank goodness for Gilmore Girls.


Wednesday - 5 easy miles @ 9:50 average pace through some soft snow with more wind that I would have liked. It was ok for the most part, but my newest pair of shoes (Saucony Hurricane ISOs) are rubbing on my posterior tib tendon right below my ankle, causing some lingering discomfort throughout the day. The stupid tongues are sewn into the shoe. In theory, that's nice, but in reality it's hurting my foot.

Thursday - 6 easy miles @ 10:09 average pace. In an effort to relieve that post tib pain, I ran on my treadmill this morning in the Saucony Guides I bought right after the Detroit marathon. They felt better on the post tib tendon, but they rubbed my peroneal tendon on the left foot. So, uh, yea....I'm sick of shoes.

Friday - My body feels like it needs some rest. Unhappy peroneal tendon, unhappy post tib tendon...so nothing today. Maybe some pilates later. Maybe.

I'm starting to feel like I just can't win with shoes lately. I may head down to Duluth on Monday to try out some shoes at the running store. I have a 10 miler on tap for Saturday morning, so I'll run in the Guides again to see how my feet react to that, but most likely I'll be shelling out more money for more shoes. Not exactly what I want to do right now, but I can't run in shoes that hurt me, right? 

Are you loyal to a shoe brand? Do you rotate brands or models depending on your training?

3 comments:

  1. That cut down run would be really tough in slushy, sloppy snow! Wind is my least favorite weather to run in, so great job on that long run last weekend. I would have gotten the wind in your face part out of the way first, too.

    You had me chuckling a bit with the "I'm sick of shoes." But I do know how frustrating that is and I hope you are able to get something figured out. Right now I run in the same brand of shoes (Hoka) for both road and trails. I have one model I like for roads and a different model I like for trails. I stick with them for now, as they have worked for me for the past two years. If things change, then I'd see what else I can find. I'd probably stay within the Hoka family first, but then I'd branch out if I wasn't finding something that would work.

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  2. LOL right off the bat at your confession from last Saturday. I TOTALLY feel you! I'm sure it helps having a group to suffer with, though?
    I'm totally loyal to a shoe brand (Newtons, but I'm sure you've heard me blab about them enough to know that). They've updated to a new version recently and I don't LOVE the newer ones - I wear 2 different models from them and, in fact, I REALLY disliked the new version of one of them so much that I sent them back and thankfully managed to find another pair of the old version. So that's majorly bumming me out. I've been wearing them for a couple years though, so maybe it is time to at least try something new (even though I probably won't leave the Newton brand)? I feel like my feet are with shoes like my hair is to shampoo...it just feels good to switch things up sometimes, you know?

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  3. I'm not loyal to one particular shoe brand. I've tried Brooks, Saucony, Asics, and I currently run in Mizzuno. Honestly, I haven't found one in particular that I like or don't like more than any other. Maybe I should be more picky...

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