Yep, That Didn’t Work – RunLog 5-30-17

Sometimes you just gotta try something one more time.

Now my New Balance Vazee Rush v2’s have been sitting in the shoe rack since April 7th. I stopped running in them at that time, because didn’t know if they were part of the solution or part of the problem with my left foot bothering. However, I haven’t run in them or my other New Balance shoes very often since then and the foot has improved immensely. I have walked around in the Rush v2’s pain-free over the past week and figured that it was time to find out.

It would be a good day to test them out.

Today I was supposed to run for 50 minutes easy and the weather was just about perfect.

Well until Bennie started acting up, wanting to go and make sure that I did a proper workout. Over the past few days he has gotten used to being my shadow again, so when Mary took him for his long walk this morning, while I went to order some new glasses to replace the ones that I broke last week. When I got back, I figured that 50 minute run would be solo since he would already have had his walk which would let me do a nice slow and steady run.

Mary let me know that Bennie was not keen on me leaving him behind and only did a short walk. When I got my running gear on, he started doing his Bennie’s gotta go running too routine and the last time I left him home, Mary said he barked the whole time I was gone.

So I took him with me.

That worked out fine, he was on his best behavior, ran right along, stopped did his business, but wasn’t fussy about traffic or anything else.

We went down to Wildwood and went through the first mile under 8:30. Nothing to write home about, but a nice steady pace that felt comfortable. The shoes were doing fine, so we picked it up a little for until we got to the tar and everything felt good. So I backed off and we just ran comfortably towards Wildwood.

Just before the turn-around the left foot began to complain a little. Nothing serious, but it was more than the usual this is just to remind me that I am still around kind of thing. By the time I got back to Bartlett, the foot was making angry comments about my ancestry.

So I was glad when Bennie decided to take a quick break, it gave the left heel area a chance to calm back down and stop its complaining quite so vigorously. We started off again and by the time I got to Blake Road, the left heel decided that I was a good for nothing douchebag and told me about it six ways to Sunday.

Well, it is less than a mile to the house from there, so I figured that I would simply suck it up and make it home. When I passed the big pine, things really went down hill. I began to feel real pain in the heel area while running – never a good thing, but being a dumb runner versus being a smart runner, I had to keep running and see if it was going to keep getting worse.

It did.

So I stopped at the lower gate, waited a couple of minutes for the foot to calm down and then started walking up Stevens Hill. The heel was not hurting as bad walking, but it was still damned uncomfortable. By the time I got back home, it was not too bad, so I had stopped before I did any real damage, although I did feel like throwing the Rush into the trash when I walked through the door.

If I had attempted to run that last half mile up Stevens Hill to the house, I have a feeling I might have been on the shelf for a while.

I do not know what it is about New Balance shoes and me, but I am 0 for 4 this year with their shoes. The thing is that I really, really like how they fit my weirdly shaped feet, but the four pair (880, 860-V5 & V6, and the Rush v2) that I have worn have all bothered that left heel pretty badly. There is nothing wrong with the shoes themselves, it is more me and the way my feet are, but for some reason they all bother my left heel.

Well at least I know that I didn’t do any lasting damage, because I went out and mowed the lawn in a pair of Mizuno’s for two hours, without any issues on the left heel area. No, none of the other running shoes that I have been wearing do seem to bother that left heel area.

Which means it wasn’t a good idea to wear the Vazee Rush v2’s today, but at least I did learn that they are not going to work for me and that it is time to get rid of them. They are in the back of the garage, waiting that next trip we make to Goodwill.

This is another reason why I don’t by first run running shoes anymore, it seems that all too often that shoes I think are going to work – start having issues and by the time I get close to that 20 runs in them mark, they are ready to find a new home.

Like these are gonna do.

Economically, until I find shoes that are going to let me run comfortably, getting last year’s models is saving me a boatload of money.

Yeah, the New Balance Vazee Rush v2 fit like I want, but didn’t let me run in them without other issues.