Running Shoes Reviews

I finished! The scenery was amazing. I didn’t run with my camera. I wish I could post the pictures I have in my brain of the sun beams shining through the misty redwoods - spectacular! The Avenue of the Giants Marathon is a double out & back, 6.5 miles on one leg of the course, then back to the start, then 6.5 miles on the second leg of the course. This design made me feel an overwhelming sense of connection to the other runners. Many of the people I passed going the other direction cheered me on, and towards the end, almost everyone I passed had something encouraging to say. I can’t imagine a better setting for a first marathon. Getting encouragement from people doing the same thing and feeling the same pain is much more meaningful than from spectators (though I certainly appreciated the spectators too.)

I felt awesome for the first 20 miles. I had an average of 11 minute miles and was still feeling relatively good. I focused on relaxing and on surrendering to the pain and not trying to fight it. Then around mile 21 I fell apart. My stomach started to cramp up and I had to walk for a while. When I started running again, I think my body had cooled down too much and I tweaked my knee. I walked again and kept trying to start running, but just couldn’t make it happen. My knee was really angry and I worried about causing a real injury. After a couple miles of failed running attempts, I just decided to walk the rest and accept that my time would suck, which it did 5:45.

I think that if my time would have been under 5 hours I would have been happy never doing another marathon… “I’m never doing another marathon!” has been a phrase on the tip of my tongue for the past month. Training has been time consuming and painful, but being disappointed with my time makes me feel that I’d like to do another one. I’m thinking that for the next few months I’ll focus on 10k’s and trying to increase my speed. I also want to lose some weight so that my joints are less likely to get angry. I think I’ll try another marathon next year - perhaps Napa Valley?

Aside from the last 5 miles, I had an amazing experience - even better than I was expecting. Thanks to everyone, especially Roadbunner, for teaching me about marathoning and helping me sort out how to train.

First off, I haven’t gotten any (that’s right, a big ol’ zero!) shoe reviews this month…so, with 3 days left to the drawing, I’m canceling the shoe give away. I haven’t had time to go to any races or to the gym and get runners to review their shoes and I’ve been pretty much incommunicado on the interwebs…sad! I’m not going to do a give away for another couple of months until I have more time to get a bigger number of reviews.

Sorry

In other news, I’m running my first marathon in a week and a half! I was feeling 100% on the mark with training up until 3 weekends ago when I was playing “giant paintbrush gladiators” with my bf at the 2009 Art Olympics. This is what the gladiator game looked like:

So, I lost the gladiator game, falling off the podium backwards with significant spine compaction upon impact. It hurt soooo bad. I was crying for a long time. It put a damper on my running and I didn’t get my last long run in at the time it was scheduled.

I did get a 22 miler in before the gladiator incident, which went really well…slow, but well

I tried running 22 again last weekend, but my knees were pretty shot after 12. That worried me because if I would have tried to run 26 miles that day, I would have been miserable. Sooo, I decided to thumb my nose at tapering…yikes! I’m planning on doing 20 or 22 tomorrow morning. I feel like it is a good decision to avoid injury on race day. Only time will tell if my gut instinct is right or wrong.

Roadbunner is running her marathon that we’ve been training together for this weekend! Good luck chica!

Hope you all are well!

Hey!
So, I did my 20 miles on Tuesday. I did the first 7 miles with Roadbunner, then headed off for the last 13 by myself. It was a great run. The weather was absolutely perfect. Sunny and gorgeous. I felt really good, but went very slow so that I didn’t wear myself out. Toward the end it hurt a fair amount and my knees felt like they might pop, but it wasn’t horrendous.

I have 2 more 20+ runs before my marathon and I’m trying to decide what distances I should go for. I’ve pretty much thrown my marathon schedule out the window…I would be doing 19 next week if I were following it.

I’m thinking I’ll do 22 next week and then 24 for my final long run before the marathon. I feel like that is reasonable, but it also seems like more miles than most of the training schedules I’ve seen call for. Any suggestions?

And now for the shoe review entries:

Audrey

Women’s Nike Air Zoom Vomero+

Marlene

Women’s Mizuno Wave Alchemy

duffrunner

Men’s Asics Gt 2140

Jared

Men’s New Balance MR8507

Ariel

Women’s Nike Air Zoom Skylon

Dylan

Men’s Nike Air Alvord

Scotty

Men’s Adidas Ozweego

Ashley

Women’s Pearl Izumi Syncro Float

Conner

Men’s Salomon XA Pro

Elle

Women’s New Balance RC152

M2M

Women’s Asics GT 2130

Ken

Men’s Puma Burmei

Marlene

Women’s Adidas adiSTAR

Marissa

Women’s New Balance WR833

Alisa

Women’s Saucony Pro Grid Ride

Stuart

Men’s Pearl Izumi Syncro Infinity

Blaine Hawkes

Men’s Mizuno Wave Rider

Amy

Women’s New Balance W790

I took a video of myself pulling the name out of the hat, but my hair looks soooo bad yo! Jeez! Um, so I’ll just tell you who the winner is: It’s Ken! Yahoo! Go Ken!

If you guys make me, I’ll put up the video, but it is truly the definition of bad hair day…ha ha!

I did my long run on Sunday. I was intending to go 17 miles, but I overshot by a mile and ended up going 18. Honestly, it was kind of awful. Most of the run was near the ocean and the wind was CRAZY! It was blowing sand in my face and sapped a lot of my energy. It was astonishing to me how much more work it is to run against the wind and how quickly I got tired. Even my knees started to hurt earlier than normal. I was walking most of the time for the last couple miles. I just couldn’t get my body to go anymore. Uff!

I am very thankful that my 15 mile long run last week was fantastic so that at least I know how wonderful long runs can be. Swinging from one extreme to another!

Next week I’m dropping back down to 13 miles, which is perfect since I’ll be back in Wisconsin where the weather will probably be uglier, though it looks like spring might be perking up there too.

Today I’m meeting up with Roadbunner for our weekly jaunt around the park! I didn’t get to see her last week because I was in Vegas, so I’m excited.

Vegas was soooo awesome! I stayed with a friend and we headed to the hot springs about an hour after I arrived. The terrain around Vegas is beautiful! I didn’t do any gambling, but it was fun to see all the silly buildings and the lights and fountains.

The Miracles first recorded “Heard it Through the Grapevine” back in 1966. In 1967 Gladys Knight and the Pips released a version of the song. Most music fans would argue that Marvin Gaye’s 1968 rendition was the most successful, but I’d counter that the California Raisins’ cover of the song back when I was a kid is the most memorable.

Speaking of miracles and raisins, I’ve discovered that raisins are my distance running “miracle”. I’ve substituted raisins for sports gels on three long runs so far and I think it’s going to be a thang.

I decided to test out raisins since they seemed similar to Luna Moons or Shot Bloks in consistency and portability. They are delicious (to me), cheap, convenient and filled with sugar. The market near my house has golden raisins that taste like caramel…mmm!

I did a little research to see if anyone else had tried using raisins as fuel for endurance sports. Not only have people tried it, there has been a STUDY about it! Click here to read download the pdf of the study.

The study tested “the differences in metabolism and cycling performance” of athletes who consumed raisins vs. sports gel. Eight endurance athletes, four men and four women were the subjects of the study. The conclusion was that raisins are a “cost-effective source of carbohydrate for pre-exercise feeding in
comparison to sports gel for short-term exercise bouts.”

It seems I’ve made myself into a guinea pig to determine if raisins are any good for long-term bouts of exercise, and as far as I’m concerned, the answer is yes! They’ve kept me feeling great for up to 15 miles (well, as great as I can really expect to feel after running for almost three hours)!

My 15 miler was truly incredible. The weather was ridiculous…60 degrees, sunny, flowers blooming, birds singing, waves crashing! I loved it!

When I met up with some of the other Bay Area bloggers a couple months ago, I remember saying how difficult long runs were and how I wasn’t sure marathon running was for me. Aron said that long runs were what she loved about marathoning and that she fell in love with them. I think I get that now.

I’m flying to Vegas tomorrow for a conference. I’ve never been there before, but I’m pretty stoked. I’m definitely not a gambler, but I’d like to see the spectacle.

I’ll make sure to do something crazy while there so I can say “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

Hey Guys!
So, February 26th it is, and I thought I’d spice up the shoe drawing with a little help from my amigos! Here ya go:

Find more videos like this on RuncastTV

The Enries:

raulgonemobile

Men’s New Balance MR859

Noah

Men’s Asics Gel Stratus

Evelyn

Women’s New Balance WR909

Abby

Women’s Reebok Swara

Josh

Men’s Adidas adiSTAR

Ethan

Men’s Nike Air Max Assail

Emily

Women’s Nike Air Max Dream

Blaine

Men’s Saucony Ignition

Marathon Maritza

Women’s Saucony ProGrid Omni

Amy

Women’s Saucony Pro Grid Ride

Alisa

Women’s Mizuno Wave Rider

Nina

Women’s Adidas Adizero

Ben

Men’s Nike Air Max Torch

Nicolas

Men’s Puma Voltaic

tfh

Women’s Reebok Premier Verona

Mel Dittrick

Women’s Pearl Izumi Syncro Pace

Ron

Men’s Nike Air Structure Triax+

Kristen

Women’s Asics Gel Cumulus

In other news, I ran 4 miles yesterday, the first three at a 8.66 pace - the fastest I’ve ever ran that distance…woo hoo!

I’m doing a little gym/stairs action this afternoon.

Tomorrow is 15 miles! Yao!

Have a good night everyone!

Anyone else suffer from long-run-induced-butt-pain?

My last two long runs have left me with a sharp pain right where the back of my leg meets my bottom. I did the 7 on the 7th with Julianne and some other bloggers, along with her husband. He said the pain is a pinched sciatic nerve…sounds kinda bad right?

Well, I looked into it a bit, and it seems that stretching can help. So can Advil . And massage is a nice treat as well (guess what my Valentine’s day present was!).

It seems that the irritation of the sciatic nerve is caused by piriformis syndrome. The condition is apparently 6 times more prevalent in women than in men. One cause is outwardly pointed toes…definitely me!

Here is my new favorite stretch:

Piriformis stretch:

In other news, I haven’t blogged for awhile. Sorry about that! I think I needed a break from cyber interaction. Between blogging, commenting, twittering, daily mile-ing, runcast.tv-ing, not to mention facebook-ing…I was feeling a bit spent. I think I’ve recuperated though, and I should be back on the blogger train!

I have been keeping up with marathon training. I did 14 miles last Friday, and I’ll be doing 15 this coming Thursday. My BF is planning to do the first 13 of the 15 with me. I think I should strap jet engines to the back of my shoes so I can keep up with him (he’s pretty speedy).

My favorite non-running activities in the past couple weeks:
1. Hitting strangers over the head with a pillow on Valentine’s day at the ENORMOUS SF pillow fight downtown. It was SSSOOOO much fun!

2. I went to a sock puppet party. I dressed my sock puppet up like Blagojevich, named it Blagojesock, and tried to sell Basock Obama’s Senate seat. He he!

If you are sick of running, you are in good company. At least in the silly world concocted by my silly roommate. He made the following video (starring me & my friends!). It is so hilarious it makes me want to pee my pants. Take a peek! He’d love you if you vote it up too.

In running news, I’ve been a bit under the weather for a few days now, so I haven’t been running much. I’m hoping to get out today for a little trot, but I expect that my lungs are going to be a little angry.

Tomorrow I’ll be meeting Roadbunner for a run in the park! Yeah for running buddies!

Today is January 26th, so you know what that means!?! Time for a new running shoe winner Here are all the entries:

Aerin

Women’s Adidas Jhana Lux

Amit

Men’s Helly Hansen Trail Cutter

Becky Giovelli

Women’s Adidas adiSTAR

Benny

Men’s Saucony Grid Cohesion

Bob Schmidt

Men’s Reebok Operator Hex

Carl

Men’s New Balance MR1350

Charlie

Men’s Saucony Grid C2 Roadster

Dave

Men’s Puma Complete Calibus

Farah

Women’s Pearl Izumi Shine

Fox

Men’s New Balance M505

FrayedLaces

Women’s Pearl Izumi Streak

Jake

Men’s New Balance MR1306

Jill

Women’s New Balance WR587

Jim Dowell

Men’s New Balance M570

John Henderson

Men’s New Balance MR1001

Juan

Men’s The North Face Chinscraper

Justin R

Men’s Asics Turbo Phantom

Kara

Women’s Asics Gel Enduro

Kevin Garfield

Men’s Mizuno Wave Rider

Kyle

Men’s New Balance MR993

Lisa Slow&Steady

Women’s Asics Gel 1120

Marie Wangari

Women’s Asics Gel Enduro

Matt

Men’s New Balance MR800

ovidiu apostoaie

Men’s Adidas Merumo

Phil

Men’s New Balance MR8509

raulgonemobile

Men’s New Balance MR1011

Reese

Men’s New Balance MR1123

Ross Longhi

Men’s New Balance MR909

Tomele

Men’s Nike Air Pegasus+

Travis Liles

Men’s La Sportiva Fireblade

Travis Liles

Men’s La Sportiva Lynx

Travis Liles

Men’s La Sportiva Imogene

Trent B

Men’s Saucony Grid Excursion Trail

Vernan

Men’s Nike Zoom Celar

This month’s winner is Benny for his review of the Saucony Grid Cohesion! Congrats Benny (Sorry for no video…you don’t wanna look at me with my snotty nose and icky cough anyway!)

Monday’s hill run was incredible. It ended up being just me and my boyfriend, so we turned it into a date I had a bottle of Malbec I had brought back from Italy in my closet so we put it into a backpack along with a couple of glasses. We ran up to the top of Tank Hill again and had an alcoholic picnic. MMMMM! It is sooo amazing to sit and watch the city twinkle with airplanes circling and cars winding their way around the hills. Plus my boyfriend was wearing tights…hilarious!

My goal is to start going to other running clubs in the city and recruit some hill runners. I sorta think wine drinking at the top of the hills should maybe become a habit… ha ha!

I’m planning a strength workout for today and then maybe some stairs. I think I’m a freak for loving the stairs so much!

I started meditating recently and am very hooked on it. I did a 5 day Buddhist meditation retreat a couple years ago in Thailand, but haven’t been good about keeping up with it. I’ve been feeling super distracted and like my brain is getting messy lately, so I thought that maybe meditation would help. It totally does! It makes me so happy and it inspires me to get organized. Plus I really think it turns me into a kinder and more compassionate person.

Wanna know what meditating in Thailand looks like? Check it (notice the, ahem, bed):

I just watched the coolest thing ever: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ron_eglash_on_african_fractals.html

It has nothing to do with running or running shoes It’s about how indigenous Africans build their villages using fractal algorithms.

So cool!

Alright, I’ll put my inner nerd back into my pocket and get on with the running news:

It’s been a crazy week with life getting back to normal after the holidays. My roommates & my boyfriend are finally all back from vacation, and I’m happy to be around lots of peeps again. All the peeps meant less time for blogging this week and more time for silliness Sorry!

I have gotten in some running. The first 43 hills running club run was on Monday. I did 2 runs on Monday! 2! It was just me and my roommate…he he! It was TOTALLY amazing though. We ran up a hill in the middle of SF called Tank Hill. You can see the entire city from the top. It was a balmy night and the sun had just set. SOO beautiful!

And it is so nice to have a running buddy to keep me motivated!

Any bay area runners wanna run hills this Monday night?

So what about those long runs? I hadn’t done one since…um…I can’t remember. But I did 8 miles today. I’m still in line for the Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 plan, but I need to get my act together a little more.

How do you guys keep to the marathon schedule? Are you relaxed about which day you actually do the training? Do you put it in Google calendar?