Sunday, March 6, 2011

The Joy of Running

When I first started running, I used an old Target pair of sneakers – I quickly learned that there is a reason running shops exist and gait analysis is important.  My first real pair of running shoes was the Brooks Adrenaline GTS, ~2006 model.  Later that year, Brooks upgraded to the next year’s model and suddenly they didn’t work for me –> ankle and knee pain.  *sob*  Here I’d loved these shoes and suddenly I had to give them up.

From there I switched to the Mizuno Wave Inspire, which were lovely but seemed to wear down faster on significantly less mileage than my Brooks had.  I couldn’t afford to keep up with them!  About 3 years ago I ended up switching over to the Asics GT-2130s, followed by the 2140s and 2150s (I think the 2160 is coming out now). 

I’ve had no problems at all with my Asics, and I also race in a lighter Asics model, but I still began to wonder if after all these years maybe the latest Adrenaline GTS would work for me again.  So I bought a pair and began to alternate them with my Asics on runs the last few weeks.

Today I wore them for my long run with hill repeats and while I can’t pinpoint anything in particular, I decided they just don’t feel as good as my Asics feel.  Especially in terms of downhill cushioning.  So it seems for better or worse I am an Asics girl!

The rains started last night and while I got lucky to not get poured on while running it was still dark and wet out.  The creek was raging from all the runoff.

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Running up up up one of the local favorite biking hills.

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I dressed in very bright colors so I was visible to cars – there’s not a lot of shoulder on the country roads.

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OK, so despite what I said yesterday, maybe even on a rainy day, you might be jealous.

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Despite a really cruddy-feeling warmup, I felt AWESOME on the hills and managed a nice steady pace for every climb.  Wonderful way to end the week!  Now if I can just drag myself back out to grocery shop for the week…

5 comments:

Tea said...

Beautiful pictures! If it's anything like Colorado, it'll be brown by the end of June.

Nice job on the hills!

taio said...
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Anonymous said...

I have a similar running shoe history! Started with a pair off of amazon just because I liked how they looked. :>X From there got fit into a pair of Mizuno's only to have them breakdown on me quickly. Went with Asics for a while and now I am in Saucony's. :>D

Anonymous said...

I love Asics! I am on my 5th pair of Gel Kayanos. I have tried others and they just don't feel like "home" to my feet. I just bought a pair of their GoreTex trail runners so I can do trail runs with the doggies. They are great for trail running or hiking but too stiff to just wear around town on rainy days :(

Wes said...

great minds, indeed! :-) I went through Brooks Ad. GTS, Mizuno Wave Inspire, had some Zoots on the side, then K-swiss. I'm thinking I might need to look at these Asics :-)