Tag: shoes

Dilemma

A week and a half ago, I did 18 ish miles in Yosemite. This past Sunday I did 5 at a new to me trail- Riconada- in my area. Both days my feet let me know that my new trail shoes were not winning any points. Boo. Which puts me in a predicament. I need shoes! And it’s not for lacking of trying.

My first few years running trails, I had perfect shoes. First Mizuno Wave Hayate followed by a move into Under Armor Horizon HTT. Loved both of them with no issues but neither shoe is made anymore. Not only that, neither shoe company makes any trail shoes anymore. WTH? Which has started a 2ish years of trying all the trail shoes. Let’s recap-

First up- Brooks Cascadia. Anytime I say their name, I hiss a little and call them devil shoes. Pretty sure I broke my foot in the them during Spooner’s Cove back in Dec 2019. 2020 and my lack of running gave my foot time to heal and nope- I never went to the doctor. Did get rid of the shoes. Full disclosure- the rep at the store talked me into buying mens and they ended up being too big. I might like the woman’s version but can’t bring myself to order them.

Both my first trail shoes were pretty minimal and the Cascadia was a beast of a shoe so maybe that was my problem???

Next- Altra Lone Peak. Felt good up until 5 miles… and only on flat. My feet slid around like crazy when running downhill and I needed more cushion. I tend to run downhill like a 5 year old without brakes so I need my feel to feel secure. As for the cushion, I mean I am carrying 50ish more pounds than I used to so that may make sense.

3- Merrell SkyFire. Ok, ok, not bad. Nice blend of running shoe meets hiker. Ok, we may have something here. Until I ate trail going down the Grand Canyon. Son of a!

4- Topo Ultraventure. Kind of like a cross between the Skyfire and the Lone Peak. Traction was amazing, cushion felt good. Until my first 8-9 mile trail in them and I think I broke my big toe. Ok, dropping a bottle on it that night was probably what did it fully in but it was already severely bruised from that day. Returned.

5- Nike Terra Kiger– Nope. Never made it out of the house. Went back in the back and back to the Running Warehouse. For a person who wants snug shoes- this was a form fitting brick.

6- Altra Timp– Tried a size 9, felt way too small. There went that idea. Exchanged for a 9.5 (my usual size). Holy fire of arch pain Batman. Returned.

7. Brooks Caldera- good lord, that’s a cushiony shoe! It also made me about 2 inches taller and that it just too much shoe for me. Back to the store without running in them.

At what point does the Running Warehouse fire me as a customer? And before you @ me about buying from a local running store, the Warehouse is my local running store. Shout out to local businesses going big. But the storefront still hasn’t really reopened since COVID.

8- Merrell MQM Flex 2 I liked the SkyFire but wanted more traction so I searched the Merrell site for a possible other option. They started out good. I’ve put more miles on them then any of the other shoes. But I didn’t really test them until Yosemite. The path was basic so I didn’t really need to worry about traction but my feet were so damn sore, I almost tore them off. My bad toe even reared its head again. Then in Riconada, I slipped 4 or 5 times on the rockier parts of the trail. Which is most of our local trails. WTH again!

So now I don’t know what to do. What else is there to try? I know there is Hoka, but that seems like it will be way too much shoe for me. I’ve looked at Saucony but nothing jumps out at me as the answer. I have dreams of running a 50K but I can’t even begin to contemplate that if I can’t last more than a few miles or a couple of hours in a pair of shoes.

So seriously, if anyone has any tips- throw them my way!

Rambling On -PTO

Happy Thursday!

I think it’s Thursday. I took another week of PTO and my days are a little blurry. Never thought I would be one for taking a week off 2 months in a row but hey 2020. The beginning of the year was so crazy and I just kept canceling all the time I had requested off. For a person who loves organized chaos and being busy at work, I hit burnout back in July. November’s PTO was all about escaping. This one is more of the sleep all you can, watch whatever crappy TV you want, and maybe don’t put on pants for a week-ish. Running crops aren’t real pants, right?

Speaking of TV, anyone watch The Wilds? I am torn on how I feel about it. And no, it was not like Lost.

I have watched a ridiculous amount of cheesy Christmas movies. Probably too many. But the one I watched the other night was the first time I ever wanted to reach through the TV and smack one of the characters. And I haven’t watched one since.

I decided I needed to work on my cross training so I made a trek to the back shed. Hey, look a fancy spin bike! Or what used to be. Then it had to be carried down the hill and into the garage. Yeah, that was fun- that sucker is heavy! I spent like an hour scrubbing it down- you know, spiders- and even went on a short ride. Now it hurts to sit down. Ouch! Luckily the thing is much smaller than I remember so now I just have to figure out how to get it into the house. Also, there is no onboard computer so not knowing how far I’ve ridden is annoying.

Any tips for sore backs? I have a half wheel but right now that is too much for me. I have been trying other things but nothing seems to be working.

Also, any suggestions for good trail shoes? Neither of mine are working for me right now. Nope. Oh, and speaking of trails- forgot to mention- had a little adventure in our own backyard a week ago-

So, tell me something- what’s new?

Rambling On- 56

And I finally looked up the number. 😉

Happy Friday!

Have you seen the Old Glory shoes from Brooks? Someone tell me I don’t need these. It’s so hard to resist!

I don’t talk about work much other than to say it was busy, but it has seriously been insane the last few weeks. Like full moon crazy for weeks. What?!?! Why?!?

Do we want to place bets on if I will get up early to run on Saturday? You’d think I would learn but clearly I don’t. I wouldn’t even bet on me at this point.

I recently started rewatching Warehouse 13. I miss cheesy, awesome sci fi shows like that. Where did they all go?

I was social! Well, kind of. Networking is not my strongest skill. Socially awkward over here. But I went to the monthly mixer and was moderately social. It helps that it was small and at a very pretty location.

I was torn between 2 local 5K’s in the next week and then time passed for registration for the first. Oops. But seriously, how is it almost July??? I think I am in such denial about how fast time in flying these days.

Anyone else feel like running has lowered their standards on what is acceptable to wear in public post run??? I used to be pretty put together and now I’ll go around in just run in clothes with sweaty hair, looking haggard. Which might not be so bad if people from high school or elementary school didn’t suddenly decide to be everywhere lately. I’ve be recognized at the random-est times by people I don’t always remember lately. What?? People, I was recognized by someone from the office staff of my elementary school. How??? It’s been decades. Literally.

What are you watching?

Ever get recognized when you least expect it?

Week 1- Bumpy Start

2019 Race Schedule (so far):
3/24 Oakland Running Festival (more to come)
4/28 SLO Half Marathon
~~5-4 Wildflower (Thanks BibRave)~~ Canceled
8-11 Oaktown Half (Thanks BibRave)

And just like that we say goodbye to 2018 and hello to 2019. I celebrated the New Year like I usually do, quietly, haha. Big partier over here. You all partied for me right?

Last week was chaos at work. For a short week, it was the longest week ever and I swear we had 3 Mondays. I still wasn’t great and a migraine came to visit on Wednesday. It’s still here. Then I compounded the issue by wearing a new pair of shoes on Friday. They are super cute and I have worn thembefore but they are tight and I ran around ragged on Friday and now my left foot hurts even 3 days later. Crap.

I am planning on changing up these recaps up but I haven’t quite fully worked out how yet. So let’s recap the active things I did do. It wasn’t much thanks to rain and my foot but it was still more running than I did the last 3 weeks of December- ha!

Tuesday- 4 New Years Miles
I ran outside! Yay! I forgot how much I missed it. Ever since I was sick, everything seems cold to me so I was bundled up like it was 20 degrees cooler than it was but it worked for me. I ran surprisingly well though and powered up a few hills and then promptly had a wheezing attack. Haha! I also lost my Buff partway and had to take my car back along the running route to find it.

Saturday- Treadmill 5K
Rain came to town and I ran and hid. High winds and flood advisories, oh my. I did a few miles on the treadmill at a nice, easy pace. I felt a twinge in my left foot, I immediately slowed down but the twinge didn’t really go away. Not cool.

Sunday saw more rain and wind and a not happy foot. Instead of my 6 miler, I sat and watched the rain. Boo.

7.1 miles for the first week of 2019. Less than I planned but 3 times more than last week so I’m calling it a win.

How did you greet 2019?
How was your week?

Week 17- Surprise Race

Upcoming Races:

Destination Races Santa Barbara 13.1- May 13
Rock N Roll San Diego 13.1-June 4

I had a plan coming into this week but was thrown an unexpected curve ball towards the middle that slowed me down. And left me craving burgers- seriously, I ate 3 this week. 😛 Maybe I should avoid the scale for a bit? Or should I just call it carb loading? Except that’s a bit excessive.

We got new alarms at work this week. Which would be awesome if we didn’t keep setting them off. Grrr. Speaking of work- a few weeks back I mentioned that I hit 10 years but I thought with the company change it would go unnoticed. On Friday, I learned differently-

Monday- 2.5 miles Since Sunday’s run had been such a hot mess, I kept this short. I also ran in the Sayonara’s again for the first time since the knee pain. I wanted to see what happened. It’s official, the shoes are toast. Even 2.5 miles was too far in them. Boo.

Tuesday- Rest Yeah, my knee was not happy. Sayonara Sayonara’s.

Wednesday- Rest Surprise! I recently randomly quit birth control for some heath reasons and it’s been an interesting ride. I’ve been taking it since I was 16 so I’ve been feeling a little all over the place. Wednesday was the start of my first real time of the month in years. And it jacked up my week. 😛 Plus sent me into a burger craving spiral.

Thursday- 3.55 miles This run felt so hard. I kept an easy pace throughout but it felt so damn hard and I was so tired. I blame hormones. I also changed the way I lace the Brooks to see if that helped with my arches. Why it took me so long to remember to do that, I have no idea. I did it with all my PureFlow 4’s, these would probably be similar. Silly Slacker. It was also insanely windy for this run.

Friday- Rest– This week just felt long and it was time to prepare for my weekend plans. I had some odd leg pain though. I have it every time I up my mileage though so I wasn’t overly concerned just more annoyed.

Saturday- RaceSLO packet pickup I needed to run 12 miles this weekend but we all know I haven’t been doing so well with following through with that. So I figured why not add a mile and run a local half on Sunday instead? Sounds like a great idea right? I did enjoy some amazing carb-loading though. 😛

Sunday- SLO Half Marathon- 13.1 miles Recap to come but let’s just say that my morning started like this-

19.2 miles for the week. Much better than last week if still a little rough in places. I have a work heavy week this week so getting in the miles is going to be tricky so let’s see how I do!