3 Miles - 10/11

I've always used Nike Air Pegasus running shoes (once tried Gel Nimbus shoes by Asics - with rather disappointing results), and I got my current pair back in April. They have been getting near to 300 miles, so my thinking was that I'd do this half marathon in them, and retire them. The past few weeks, I started wondering about the health of the shoes though. Figuring it's better to be safe then sorry, I went to Marathon Sports to get fitted for a new pair of shoes. What I found was a little surprising.

First of all, the Nike shoes I had were actually trail running shoes. Not cross trainers - but just designed for trail running. I got them at the Nike store at the Wrentham outlets, and since they were Air Pegasus and felt fine when I was trying them on, I figured I would be good to go. Long story short, the trail running shoes are not as long lived when running on asphalt, like I tend to do. So 300 miles on them is actually quite a bit.

Second, apparently my mechanics have changed over time slightly. I've been fitted for shoes before, and always been a very neutral runner. But this time, the person watching my mechanics noticed that my left ankle was collapsing ever so slightly. So he suggested a shoe that has a little bit more support on the inside heal area. Apparently things looks a little better on the test run, so I bought them.

So today's run, being 3 miles, was rather uneventful except for it was the first run in these shoes. The left foot feels perfectly fine. I've never had much of a problem with breaking in new shoes (they've always just kinda worked right away), but I noticed that my right foot seems a little over supported - at least compared to what I'm used to. Given that the left foot is ok, I'm not sure whether the issue with the right foot is a bad mechanics issue that will get fixed over time, or perhaps the shoe provides too much support. My concern is that if the shoe provides too much support, it might actually induce poor mechanics. Ultimately though, I have to give these shoes some miles to break in before a final verdict can be delivered.

Total Time: 29:00
Total Distance: 3.04 miles
Avg HR: 153

I'm blaming the slightly high HR on the fact that I had spent the hour beforehand mowing the lawn, and was a little dehydrated. Since it was only a 3 miler, and I was primarily interested in trying out the new shoes, I didn't see a driving reason to really make sure I rehydrated and refueled beforehand.