I went shoe shopping yesterday and I have been looking for a new shoe to do more of my distance running in. I have been using the Brooks Pure Cadence to get me used to running in a neutral shoe and fell in love with that shoe. Unfortunately I have already put 437mi on the Brooks and I was starting to have foot aches and ITB issues. I wasn't sure if it was the shoe or over training, but I looked back at my training schedule and I have been adding miles slowly so I knew it wasn't over training and it had to have been the shoes. The average life in pair of training/racing shoes is about 350 miles, and I was definitely over that. I found a pair of Brooks Glycerin 9 that caught my eye with the stunning green/black color and intriguing, slick design. I read more about the shoe on Brooks website and it is a long distance running shoe for high mileage, I was sold. I tried a pair on and they felt amazing. I'm used to running in minimalist or almost minimal shoes so the cushioning was great. They use this material in the insole called DNA and this stuff is amazing. I could push the bottom of the shoe in with my thumb and it felt so soft, but if hit it with force it turns hard and doesn't go in. The DNA is suppose to change on different surfaces that you run on and provide different levels of cushioning and comfort. I swear by these shoes, It's absolutely true. We all know when you try a shoe on in the store it ALWAYS feels great, It's a new shoe, they're suppose to. I went for a run this morning with my running group Savannah Striders, I ran a 1.5 mile warm up before we started the training run and the shoes started to amaze from the first stride. It really felt like my foot was being projected forward, as soon as my foot landed it had a rebound to it, with an awesome cushion. I ran my warm up at a 7:52 pace. I knew this was going to be a good run. I started out in the front of the pack with the faster guys leading (and Sarah). We were maintaining a 7:35 pace for a good while and I was just following behind feeling great. Maybe it was mental, maybe the shoes really do make for a better run. I believe the shoes helped me perform a lot better by giving me the extra support and just being a damn good design. They have many features on them that supposedly make the running improve. I ended up stick with the lead pack all the way until mile 8, They were going into 6:30 pace and I wasn't going for that yet. I did end up maintaining 7:10-7:30 for the next 2 miles ending my run with 10 miles at 1:16:01 with an avg pace of 7:36. Today in training alone I made a PR on my 10K by 37secs and 10mile by 4mins. I love my new Brooks Glycerin and for anyone out there looking for a good shoe to train and do long distance to even shorter runs this shoe is Highly Recommended!
~Stay Strong...Never Stop Moving Forward!~
No comments:
Post a Comment