I got a new pair of Mizuno Inspire 15s for Father’s Day and wanted to see how they compared to other Mizuno running shoes that I have run in over the years.

The Run

Planned run and focus: 4-5 miles at a comfortable pace and do my first run in the Inspire 15 through the dirt road down-back.

• Course: Lyons Road O/B to TOH
• Weather: Mostly cloudy, but the sun was shining quite a bit, 70*F, 87% Humidity, Wind 4 mph from the S
• Distance: 5.01
• Time: 46:55
• Pace: 9:22

Splits:

• 1.0 – 9:02
• 2.0 – 9:04
• 3.0 – 9:23
• 4.0 – 9:25
• 5.0 – 9:57

What did I do well?

Running well in the Inspire15s, no hotspots or any issues related to the shoes.

Sticking to the plan of running comfortably by effort, not pace.

What do I need to work on?

Getting out a little earlier to avoid the heat/humidity build-up.

Shoes:

Mizuno Inspire 15 – Definitely got the correct size with the 8.0 2E, felt really good with the heel hold and the toe box didn’t bother at all. I had plenty of room up front to let the tootsies spread out and do their thing.

Running on the rocks didn’t hurt my feet like they do in other shoes I have been wearing down there, especially with the Mizuno plate in the heel, where I do land heel-first most of the time.

Until I get the Inspire 15s broke in and the body used to running in them, they are a lot noisier on landing than any of the other shoes I have used this year on a consistent basis. With all that rubber on the outsole it has to be expected. No more Ninja style sneaking up on the wife while she is out walking, while I am running in these shoes.

Surprisingly, I didn’t get any bigger rocks stuck in the heel cavity like I usually do with Mizuno running shoes. 😉

What was I thinking?

To start I was thinking about how different it is to run in 12mm drop shoes that are designed for heel strikers. I could definitely feel the difference and while the Inspire 15s will never be mistaken for speed shoes, they are comfortable and should work for what I want them to do. Recovery runs and mileage hogs.

Then I thought about the last pair of Inspire 11s that I had and how I really loved them and how the 15s reminded me a lot of them. Then my right knee twinged a little to remind of why they also went away after 200 miles, so we will see how the 15s do in a few months.

Going through the rock fields over on Blake Road, I thought about how nice it was to not have rocks bashing the bottom of my feet like they did the last time I ran down through there.

When I got to the end of Blake, I decided that the weather was cool enough to safely do a 5.0 miler. Boy did I kick myself in the arse for that decision on the last mile ;-). I will never learn.

Today was more about thinking about how the Inspire 15s were doing on different parts of the course and thinking about how to finish up my post on running form and how poorly I was doing on changing mine. A couple of ideas floated through the old noggin and I incorporated them into the post this afternoon.