Hey, I raced 🙂
The short version. I finished in the window that I expected (22:00 to 24:00), the Brooks Green Silence running shoes did fantastic, nothing broke and I got to talk running with a bunch of other runners. I even wore my Central Maine Striders’ colors and might have squeezed in an age group thingy-ma-jingy.
So yeah, I went, had fun and did alright.
Now for the nitty gritty of the recap.
Yes, you are reading the title correctly, I ran in a new to me pair of Brooks Green Silence running shoes this afternoon. It is weird to be writing about a pair of running shoes that the model was discontinued back in 2013 and this evening thinking about how great they felt during that first run.
I had a pair of Green Silence before, but they were a size 9.0 and were too big, so the other night I was wandering around eBay and suddenly came across an auction that was ending in 33 seconds for the style/color Green Silence that I really wanted and in a size 8.0. Yeah, I had about 30 seconds to make up my mind to buy them or not, the price was under $20 with shipping. I processed all this looked at the sole photo, to make sure they were not completely worn out and with 5 seconds left hit the button to bid on them.
Surprisingly, I won!
I really didn’t know whether to be happy or not, I really didn’t need them, I had a good running shoe rotation before I made the bid (Skechers and Newtons), but at that price, okay what was there to loose.
I got them in today and took them to Waterville to check them out.
That was a mistake, they are damned comfortable, quiet, light and let me run my way in them. The Green Silence impressed me enough that I decided to wear them to my 5K race tomorrow.
Yeah they were that good.
It was 48*F with a 10 mph out of the NW, with intermittent showers, so it wasn’t exactly great running weather outside, but it was still shorts weather. I started out slowly to get used to the shoes and by the time I got off JFK, I was ratcheting things back.
Then I got to run against the wind for a bit, then I got to run downhill for a while (which is why I chose this course) and found out that the GS have just enough cushion to be comfortable for running down long downhill sections.
I had to purposely keep throttling back on the pace, since I knew that I would be running in a race tomorrow. Going back up the long hill from Cool Street to First Rangeway there was a lot of sand/salt left over on the side of the road and I didn’t have any issues with grip on that mixture or the slightly wet roads.
The Green Silence were comfortable at a quicker pace and also at the slower paces.
Once I got past the little hill on First Rangeway, I did pick up the pace a little, but I didn’t push beyond a comfortably hard effort, plus I had a certain feeling that seems to come on me around 3.0 miles on many of my runs lately. I made it back to Planet Fitness, but didn’t waste a lot of time getting to the locker room.
So I am rather excited about running in the Green Silence tomorrow.
I am not looking at breaking any PR’s or World Records tomorrow and figure that I will run somewhere between 22:00 and 24:00 if everything works out decently. I really do not know where I am with my race conditioning, I haven’t really raced a 5K since 2016. The race tomorrow is more of me finding out my baseline and where I need to improve – I know up front that I need to work on more speedwork and consistently getting in my long runs.
Plus being 20 years younger would probably help a little too, but that ain’t gonna happen hehehehe 🙂
Surpringly, I am looking forward to going down there and seeing a lot of people I haven’t seen since 2016. 2017 just wasn’t a good year for racing – between injuries and New Hampshire I didn’t put a lot of effort into it. This year I would like to improve things a little and race a bit more often, especially now that the weather is improving.
Let’s find out the Green Silence do at a faster for me pace. 🙂
Another storm went south of us, so we lucked out again and you know something I ain’t complaining about it at all 🙂
The temps were in the 40’s just bit of a breeze and overcast, in other words a pretty good day for a run. Since I did my long run yesterday, I purposely wanted a run where I would be slower.
Downback seemed like the perfect solution, a bit muddy, having to wear my Newton Boco Sols (a little heavier than I am now used to) and with the hills on the way back, I could just go by effort, not pace.
Yes the legs felt tired and I didn’t really get a decent stride going until after I passed the bog, then they loosened up and felt better. Nothing exciting happened on this run, it was one of those ones where you get out do the miles, smile because you finished and go inside to clean-up.
I haven’t run in the Boco Sols for a while and to be honest the first mile I was ready to turn around and throw them in the back of the garage until next winter. I have been wearing them as my winter do everything shoes and they sure didn’t feel like running shoes to start out.
Finally, after the first mile, the shoes began to loosen up, but I never got completely comfortable running in them. I am not sure why, but although I love the Boco Sols for walking and working outside during the winter, I am not a big fan of them being my trail running shoes. Oh, I am sure I will try them a few more times and get some miles on them, but they feel…well clunky to run in. Maybe that will change, we will see.
A pretty good run and the kind of run I needed after 10 miles in town yesterday. The soft mud/dirt road down-back forced me to go slow and didn’t beat the hell out of my tired legs like a treadmill or another run on pavement would have done.
Test Post – Blogo
Just seeing if it is any better than the WP.com editor. I used to use it on my Mac, it seems like it has come a long ways since then.
Well that probably got your attention, yes it was snowing out the entire time I was bumbling around trying to get 10 miles in. No, it was not the kind that would stick, but it did give me a pretty good idea of how the Forza 3’s would do on cold, wet, sand covered roads that I navigated on today.
Yeah, if you look real close you can see some white flakes in the photo and it kept getting a bit worse as I kept running, almost sideways at times. Although I got to admit, it did turn to rain for about 5 minutes to keep things interesting and make sure that I wet through, not just cold.
Yep, it was also one of the coldest almost 40*F days I have felt in a while and 5 mph breeze, my arse too, when you were running into that headwind it was a good deal more than 5 mph.
There I go whining about the wether again, but at least it was not the conditions that Boston had on Monday, today was a pretty good walk in the park and everyone there would have gladly had the conditions I had today. So by comparison I had it pretty good today. However, I do still like to whine about the weather. 🙂
As you can see I made the entire 10 mile run, although I did question my sanity a couple of times. I felt really good the first couple of miles and surprisingly did not have to make any pit stops along the way today (that has been my standard operating procedures for far too many of my runs lately).
Once I got to heading up towards Colby my feet began to bother and I seriously thought about heading up First Rangeway and calling 6.0 good enough. However, I didn’t, but I did slow down even more because of how the feet were feeling all the way through Colby.
They were hurting.
Although I did slow down a bit to watch the baseball game in the snow too. I almost snapped a photo, but was afraid if I stopped that I wasn’t going to get going again and it was a long walk back to Planet Fitness, so I kept going.
It was almost as if something in both shoes wasn’t quite right (or more likely, I thought to myself – at the time – it was just MY feet). I did slow down even more going up the hill going out of Colby and when I got to the parking lot road, it almost seemed like something (???? I don’t have a clue) released in the shoes and within 50 yards my feet stopped hurting and was able to just run.
WEIRD!!!!
I have never had a pair of shoes do that in all the years I have been a runner. Usually, my feet get feeling worse every mile and I suffer to the end of the run. Today, I was able to finish the last 4.0 miles without discomfort (tired feet yes) or pain. So I will definitely take it as a sign that the shoes broke in for me, but it was definitely one of the weirdest, but good things to happen to me on a run in a while.
Thank goodness, I didn’t have to deal with the dog by Fred’s Coffee, it wasn’t anywhere in sight and the thermometer there read 40*F. Yeah right. It was still colder than a witches teat or so the saying goes.
I did pick the pace up a little and then settled back into a comfortable, let’s finish this run pace that was slower, but definitely easier to maintain today.
I do like this course for a 10 miler, it is not one that I would call super easy, but while the hills are not really challenging, they still get your attention.
Overall a nice 10 mile run and I even got to feel my Forza 3’s break in. 🙂
We will see how they feel next time out.
The conditions outside were definitely not as bad as yesterday, but it was still raining lightly and only in the low 40’s, but the winds were almost gentle at around 5 mph. To be honest this kind of weather is something that I almost like running in.
I wasn’t sure about what kind of run it was going to be, I didn’t want to drive into Waterville and didn’t feel like coming back up Philbrick Hill, so that limited me to doing laps, since down-back is a mud run and not what I felt like doing today.
Since I hadn’t decided on what, I took the first mile pretty easy (over 9:00) and then picked the pace up a little each mile, with the final one being pretty close to an 8:00 pace.
A nice 5.0 mile progression run at about 80-85%, but it did let me know a few things…
I was wearing my Newton Gravity 3’s and they did great until the last mile (mile 5), when the ball of my left foot began to bother a little from the Propulsion Plate, nothing serious, but it was a distraction and unfortunately is the limiting factor for me. If I were to keep running further in them, it does become more of an issue – as I am learning. Oh well, I will just keep them to under 5 miles, they are great up to those distance.
Second, I overdressed and the wind pants were definitely not needed, shorts could have been worn comfortably.
Third, in the rain I need to take off my glasses when I start, not half way through.
Tonight was bouncing around eBay and came on this auction with 33 seconds left and on the spur of the moment decided to go for it. I really didn’t have time to do much more than a quick look, make a bid and see what happened.
Surprisingly, I won!
I figured $20 for a pair of Green Silence was worth it. I don’t really need them, but I couldn’t resist getting them and while I didn’t like the size 8.5 ones that I had (they were a little too big and were the black/green colorway), these were an 8.0 and in a colorway that I like.
Who knows, maybe it will get me interested in Brooks offerings again. I like their premise, but haven’t found any of their current shoes that really interest me enough to want to try them out again.
Yeah, a pretty good day.
Well…I can’t say that the weather the Boston Marathon really motivated me to want to run a marathon this year, but the runners sure did. This wasn’t the year to go for anything other than place or finish and hang onto your hat. Speaking of my hat, I am taking it off out of respect for all of those brave runners who started and then finished the Boston Marathon today – you had it tough and you done good.
Congratulations to Desi Linden, she ran a great race in damn tough conditions and Shalane Flanagan finished 6th despite having some issues.
If you do read through to the end, I have a question for you.
The weather conditions up heah were not all that great, down-back was nasty, but the tar roads were mostly clear, it was just raw as hell, some showers, with a bit of icing going on in places since it was still in the low 30’s.
Since I wasn’t doing Boston, I had the choice of shorts/t-shirt and being pretty comfortable or getting outside to be cold, wet or miserable.
Me…well I wimped out to do a steady 6.0 miles on the treadmill at Planet Fitness. I forced myself to keep the speed right at 6.8 mph and although I really, really wanted to speed up, I kept it right there the entire 6.0 miles. Although, I did have that 3.0 mile pit stop.
After I got done, I asked about their promotion for free use of the hydro-massage, I had wondered about it when I saw it at the Waterville location, but it is one of those “Black” card perks, so I had never used it. Color me pretty impressed, I got to go on it for 10 minutes and you know something, it is one of those things that could convince me to upgrade my membership.
No it is not like a true massage, but it does help and for basically the cost of one massage a year, I could get to use that machine daily. So I have something to think about and need to talk with Mary about it. Also the idea that I could go to Augusta every so often as a black card member is appealing as well, kind of the best of both worlds.
So I got in a nice treadmill run, watched some of the Boston marathon and tried out the hydro massage – so actually it was a pretty good day, even though the weather really sucks and scrapping windows on Clifford this morning was a chore with a quarter inch of ice on the windows.
So am I tempted to train for a marathon this year? Watching all those runners finish Boston is really making me think seriously about getting on the bandwagon and seeing if the old body can hold up to training for one in the fall. Which gives me until June to see how things hold up, before I have to make a decision.
So I am not going to go ahead and spend my money on entry fees and all that quite yet, but barring injury or suddenly getting smarter, I have a feeling that I will finish a marathon this Fall.
We will see. 🙂
Now to decide which one. Something fairly flat, Sept/Oct in New England. I sort of have my eye on the Maine Marathon, but am I am not looking at any of the big ones, I don’t like lots of people, so a smaller more low-key/local marathon would be my choice.
26.2 miles is still 26.2 miles.
Any ideas or suggestions?
A busy, but productive week, we got a few things resolved, had a great anniversary, I made a couple of changes on the tech front (nothing earth shattering) and I even ran a bit.
Favorite Photo from the week
Elliott sniffing my toe socks. Continue reading
Well the title pretty much says all it needs to say. No, I am not injured, not I am not in trouble, but yes, I am stoopid.
Yaddy yaddy, yah about the weather, everyone is getting crap for weather and tomorrow’s Boston Marathon ain’t gonna be a lot of fun most of the folks out there running. Today was not all that great for April 15th, so I went for another treadmill run, just because I am getting wimpy.
By the time I got on the hampster wheel, I really just wanted it over with. Yesterday was a faster 5.0 miles and I figured that yesterday’s workout would probably affect anything faster that I would do today
That is when I got a case of the stoopids.
Initially I had thought about doing 5x1K at race pace, but with yesterday’s run and not feeling like doing 6-7 more miles today, I decided on doing a full 5K time trial, not all out race pace, but closer than I have done this year. Also that way I would just get the workout over with as quickly as possible.
Like I said I just was not into doing the treadmill today.
I started out at 8.1 mph and held it there through 1.5miles. That first mile was tough, I am not used to running that fast of a pace for a longer distance, then I got to feeling better and kept up with the belt. Continue reading
