Weekend Update

Here is the weekend update. Saturday my goal was 8 miles slowly building back some mileage on my calf. I ran the Rancho Vista Loop from my house (7.5 miles) then tacked on an extra half mile to make it an even 8 in 62 minutes exactly. My calf felt pretty good but every once in a while it would remind me that it is still not 100%.

Here are the mile splits: 8:41, 8:03, 8:11, 8:00, 7:39, 7:30, 7:10, 6:47.

I felt good about my run. Good enough that I emailed Dale about meet in up for the Sunday morning 10 miler. That evening I started getting a sore throat, headache, and could feel my resting heart rate was elevated. I bailed on the run in favor of extra sleep. It has been a tough month for training so far. I don't think I will be reaching my mileage goal for the month. I will use the last two weeks of the month to build back up to where I was in July.

Race Results from the weekend:
A friend of ours, Dawn Schneider, ran America's Finest City Half Marathon in 1:52 in San Diego today. Congrats Dawn!
A high school teammate of mine, Ryan Fitt, ran a PR at the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon in 1:24:06. Nice work Ryan! In high school he was like a 1:56 800m guy.


I thought I would write briefly about my running shoe history. I used to be an Asics Gel-Kayano guy. I can remember even in high school asking for a pair for my birthday because I liked them so much, and I new they were expensive. Then in college I switched around quite a bit, mostly because of lack of money and lack of shoe knowledge. I remember a few pairs of asics that I didn't like (in hind sight were neutral) and a pair of New Balance that I did like (that were probably motion control). I had a bad bout of shin splints my freshman year in college that I even got some custom orthotics for. I sure wish I had the knowledge then that I have now. My shoe selection and orthotics use would certainly have been different.

After PT school I still didn't have good shoe knowledge. I was picking shoes based on comfort and price. I ran my first marathon in a pair of Nikes and seemend to do ok. After that I finally went back to the Asics Gel-Kayano and stuck with them for the next 5 years. Finally last year I switched to the New Balance version of the kayano, the 1224. They are both in the stability plus family. I really liked my first pair and after the Gel-Kayano 15 was giving me blisters, I made a permanent switch. I also found a deal on the New Balance 1224 for 40 bucks a pair and stocked up! When the Kayano 15 was bothering my ankle right away I took it back to the store and exchanged it for the New Balance 1225. There was a big change from the 1224 to the 1225, mainly the material used for the medial heel portion and arch support. I was able to run in them, but never liked them as much as the 1224. This new material was called "stabilicore" and just felt much more rigid then the material used in the 1224 which is similar to the Kayano. Well, I noticed in the recent Runners World shoe preview that the New Balance 1226 is coming out and they are still using the "stabilicore" material. Interestingly, it is now classified as a motion control shoe. No wonder I thought it was too rigid. I recently found a deal on the New Balance 769, which is their stability shoe, so I gave them a shot and found that I like them quite a bit more. I also have another pair of 1224s that is waiting in a box for my fall training. I still like the kayano and would run in them again but can't bring myself to spend over 100 bucks for a pair of shoes, and the kayano is rarely on sale.

The moral of the story is, the shoe manufacurers are contantly making changes to their shoe models. Just because you think a particular shoe is perfect for you doesn't mean that it won't be different next year. Make sure you try them on in the store again if they have upgraded. Or just forget the shoes and go to barefoot running (just kidding).


Ever want to ask an expert in your field a bunch of questions and get answers to all of them. I found a video interview with Pete Pfitzginger a US Olympic marathoner in 1984 and an exercise physiologist who writes for Running Times Magazine. They are about 10 minutes each but worth watching.

Pete Pfitzinger Part 1

Pete Pfitzinger Part 2

Finally a video interview with Alberto Salazar on training Galen Rupp, how he started training Galen Rupp, and how important well rounded athleticism is to distance runners. A great interview!