This morning was a much needed recovery run, yesterday’s track workout left me a little listless and just a bit sore in the legs. It was a good sore and the listlessness was more a result of not being used to running fast that it took more out of me than I thought it would.
Today’s plan was for an easy 30 minutes, so I figured that running 4.0 mile courses to either Wildwood or the Town Office would be just about right.
I have been doing my semi-annual weeding though my old shoes this morning to see what needs to go away. At the last minute I decided to run in my old Newton Gravity 3’s, I have over 200 miles on them and liked them a lot last winter, but stopped running in them outside, because the POP1 pod was too much for my forefoot and bothered me after 3-4 miles.
I wanted to know whether they still bothered – or not.
So off I went.
The first quarter-mile was – I admit it – tough.
The body didn’t like the idea of going out for a run this morning, the brain was more than willing, but the body wasn’t into it. My right hip was complaining and the right periformis area was telling me nasty stories about how it needed to not run and that I was an idiot.
Luckily the weather was pretty great and by the time I got going down Stevens Hill the body had accepted that it needed to get this damn thing over with versus just complaining about being out there.
The first mile was right about where I wanted and then I forced myself to keep it easy down to the Town Office. On the way back I just attempted to keep a steady effort and didn’t really worry about the pace.
When I got back, I was pretty shocked by the mile splits: 8:54, 8:56, 8:57, 8:53, about as consistent as I have been all year. Although the Strava pace graph was not quite the same, the mile splits were right where I wanted them to be.
How did the Gravity 3’s do?
Great until about 3.5 miles and at that point my left forefoot began to bother from the Newton front Action/Reaction pod. Both feet were not happy by the time I got done with the 4.0 miles.
Not really the result that I wanted, but it is what it is sometimes and as much as I like the looks and fit of the Newton Gravity 3’s, for running outside it seems that the POP1 system is too much for my feet. I do think that they would be fine for use on the treadmill next winter or for the elliptical possibly. I am not ready to complete give-up on the Gravity 3’s, there is something about them that I just like too much.
So I will put them in the back room and see how they work with the elliptical and if they do not work there, then I will have to re-think whether it is worth keeping them around or if it is simply time to get rid of them.
I did put 6 pair of shoes that do not work for me in the back of the garage to go away. A couple were hard to get rid of – like my Asics Hyperspeed’s (not working for me and I poked a rock really deep through the outsole) or my Skechers GoRun Ride 7’s (starting to bother my left heel too much), the others bother my feet or they just are not working for me and I can’t justify holding on to them any longer.
Over the years I have learned that I just can’t keep shoes around forever and then every few months or so, going to the back of the garage, get the shoes out of storage and believe that something has changed, so that they will now work for me. It doesn’t work that way most of the time.
I don’t change how I run all that much and if a shoe doesn’t work for me the first time, it generally has the same issues down the road. After doing this so many times, I am finally learning to let those shoes that do not work for me – go, sooner than later.
Today’s run was a nice recovery run that stretched out the legs and one of the more consistent easy runs I have had in a while. After I got done running I did do my post-run stretches for a changes (gotta get better about that) and the later in the afternoon did a mini strength session.
Overall, a pretty good day.
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