I no longer love my Saucony Kinvara's

You may remember that in early November I purchased a new pair of running shoes - the Saucony Kinvara's. I had done my research and was excited to run in the shoe that is the top ranked shoe by many minimalist runners. The first two months (and about 50 miles) went well and I felt like I was running on my mid-foot more. The shoes were comfortable and although they had a tighter toe-box than my Nike Free's, my feet seemed to be fine. My legs felt great and I thought I had successfully transitioned to running in minimalist shoes.

At the beginning of 2011 I started my Half Marathon training and used the Saucony's for the majority of my miles (I still used my Nike Free's for about 2 of every 6 runs). All of a sudden, after only 4 or 5 days of training, it felt like one of my toes (the second smallest toe on my right foot) was hitting the front of toe box. After comparing the toe boxes on the Nike Free's and on the Saucony's, I noticed that the Saucony was tighter around the area that had been hurting me. I ran for a few days with a band-aid over the offending toe and the skin healed. Maybe the tighter toe-box wasn't for me after all.

As the next couple of weeks went by and I put more and more miles on my Saucony's, I began to notice that my feet had started to ache and that my calves were taking longer to recover from each hard run. I also noticed that when I switched and ran in my Nike Free's that for the first couple of miles the area in front of my arch on both feet ached. It was as if a bone was out of alignment. The pain was gone by the end of each Nike Free run, but I was confused as I never felt the pain in the Saucony's.

I paid more attention to my foot strike over the next couple of Saucony runs, and noticed that I was landing on my mid-foot but with the initial contact being slightly off to the lateral (outside) side of my foot. It wasn't a huge amount, but it was noticeable that the outside of my foot made contact first. After some research, I determined that it isn't uncommon for runners with a mid-foot strike to land initially on the lateral side of the foot and then roll in to the middle, so, I took a look at the wear pattern on the Saucony's and discovered the problem!

Areas of most wear

The black triangles are the harder, durable material that comes in contact with the ground and the yellow areas are a softer material which forms the rest of the sole of the shoe.

I noticed that the black triangles in the highlighted area had nearly completely worn down to the yellow softer material and that on the lateral side of the shoe, the yellow material was already been worn down - this after running just over 150 miles!

I am fully aware that I run most of my miles on the asphalt of the greenway or the concrete/asphalt sidewalks and that those surfaces are hard on shoes, but I'd expected to get more than 150 miles out of a pair of shoes that were built for road running. I am also aware that I am not landing completely flat on the black triangles and that it is most likely this that is causing the pain I have been feeling.

So, given that the toe box is too tight and that the black triangle design doesn't fit my running form, I have decided that I have run my last mile in the Saucony Kinvara's.

Half Marathon Training - Days 41-50

I started this cycle with a few rest days and avoided the hard workout to allow my legs and back some time to recover from the fatigue I had been feeling in the previous cycle. When I was ready to return to running, I was in Chicago for work and had no choice but to use the Treadmill. I ran in my Nike Free's as I had decided that I was done with my Saucony's (more on that decision in another post) and had no issues or fatigue. When I returned home from my trip I ran 5 miles at a faster than normal Easy pace (again in my Nike Free's).

On Saturday I ran for the first time in my new New Balance Minimus Trail shoes on the Trails in Durant Nature Park. It was nice to run off road again and although I took a few wrong turns, the trails were in good condition and my new shoes felt great! I'd like to run two of my four 'easy runs' on the trails if the weather permits. I think it would be good for my legs and feet to run on a more forgiving surface and the trails certainly are more fun!

Cycle 2
-------
1: Tempo Workout (25 minutes): Rest
2: Rest/Cross-Train - Rest
3: 5 miles Easy - 3 miles Easy (Treadmill)
4: Speedwork (12 x 400) - Rest
5: Cross-Train -Yoga
6: 5 miles Easy - 5 miles Easy (Treadmill)
7: 5 miles Easy - 5 miles Easy (Treadmill)
8: Long Run (10-12 miles) -5 miles Easy
9: Rest - Rest
10: 5 miles Easy -5 miles Easy (Trail)

Half Marathon Training - Days 31-40

This cycle went gradually downhill and finally ended with me deciding to take a few days off to let my aches and pains go away. My Saucony's had started hurting my feet and calves during the last cycle and they were very painful after the speedwork session. My calves and hamstring were tight and tender and my lower back had started to ache as well, so I decided to take a few days off and rest.

Days 31-40 (Cycle 1)
-------
1: Tempo Workout (20 minutes) - 5 miles with tempo miles of 7:28, 7:26, 7:22
2: Rest/Cross-Train - Rest
3: 5 miles Easy - 5 miles @ 8:24
4: Speedwork (3 x 800) - 3 x 800m: 2:54, 3:04, 3:08
5: Cross-Train - Yoga
6: 5 miles Easy - 5 miles @ 8:17
7: 5 miles Easy - 5 miles @ 8:56
8: Long Run (6-8 miles) - Rest
9: Rest - Rest
10: 5 miles Easy - Rest

Weird Track

Last night I went and ran on the local track for the first time and noticed something weird - it was a strange shape.

I ran the half a mile or so from the house to the track and set off on a couple of warm up laps. As I rounded the first corner I thought to myself that the distance seemed short and the turn was tighter than I remembered. I brushed it off as I haven't been on a track in months and I was just jogging at this stage. I completed my first warm up lap and couldn't get it out of my head that the track just seemed short. I decided to check the distance of the track - surely they wouldn't make a Middle School track that wasn't 400m would they?

I finished my second warm up lap and my Garmin measured the distance to be 0.24 or 0.25 miles - so it wasn't short after all. I was now warm and ready to go, so when I passed the finish line I set off on the first of my three 800m repeats. I rounded the first turn and it just felt wrong, it was much to tight. Before I knew it, I was in to the back straight. I looked for the relay boxes and couldn't find them, so I had no idea what my first 100m split was (not that I could see my watch with the glare of the sun and my sunglasses!). I passed 200m and in to the other turn, again it just felt weird... what was wrong with this track?

I completed my first 800m repeat in 2:54. I had been distracted by the strange track and not being able to see my splits and had gone much to fast. I jogged my recovery lap and set off on another 800m repeat. By 400m, I wasn't surprised to find I was out of energy. That first 800m had been too fast, and I was going to pay for it. My second 800m was 3:04 and the third 3:08 - consistently inconsistent, and very frustrating.

I jogged home but couldn't get the shape of the track off of my mind. Today, I pulled up Google Maps and looked at the track that I used to run on last year (near the old house) and the track that I ran on yesterday. There doesn't appear to be a huge difference, but there is a slight difference - the weird track has slightly longer straights and slightly tighter turns. I have tried to illustrate the differences below, but even that isn't easy!

This is the 'weird' track

This is the 'regular shape' track

After writing this blog entry, I am fairly certain I am not making all of this up and that the track really is a different shape - and that was what I wanted to achieve!

I have no problem using this strange track - it is better than no track at all for sure! Hopefully the next time I run on it I will be thinking about my pace instead of the shape of the track and I'll have a better workout.

Half Marathon Training - Days 21-30

The cycle with the most miles didn't quite go according to plan. I wasn't able to complete the 12 mile long run that I had scheduled due to a stomach ache and I dropped a 5 mile easy run to give myself enough recovery time from the NHL All Star 5K (that I did instead of the 3 x 1600m intervals session).

1: Tempo Workout (35 minutes): 6 miles with tempo miles of 7:20, 7:20, 7:16, 7:24
2: Rest/Cross-Train: Rest
3: 5 miles Easy: 5 miles easy
4: Speedwork (3 x 1600): NHL All Star 5K
5: Cross-Train: Yoga
6: 5 miles Easy: 5 miles easy
7: 5 miles Easy: 5 miles easy
8: Long Run (12-15 miles): 9 miles @ 8:59
9: Rest: Rest
10: 5 miles Easy: None

NHL All Star 5K

As I mentioned in my 2011 goals post, I don't plan on running many races this year in an attempt to stay healthy until the Marine Corps. Marathon at the end of October. So, when the NHL All Star 5K was announced, I wasn't sure whether to run or not. It was only when I ran three tempo miles around 7:00/mile and 12 x 400m a couple of weeks ago that I began to think that I was already in good shape and that I might be able to set a new PR.

I took a look at my Raleigh Rocks Training plan and noticed that I had a 3 x 1600m workout planned for the same week as the 5K. Given that the 5K would only be slightly more effort than the 3 x 1600m workout, I felt comfortable dropping the track session and replacing it with the 5K. I signed up for the race and moved my workouts around so that I had two days of rest before the 5K and a day off afterward.

I took a look at the course map to see what changes had been made since the Canes' run that I did in 2009. I remembered that the first mile was mostly downhill and then the second was a steady incline followed by some rolling hills in to the finish. The course had changed slightly, but overall the profile was similar to the 2009 race. I set myself the following goals (my existing PR was 21:25):
Goal A: < 21:00 (6:45/mile)
Goal B: < 21:25 (6:52/mile)

I felt that 6:45/mile was possible as I had run a number of tempo miles recently at around 7:00/mile pace without really pushing myself - I didn't know whether I'd be able to hold it for 3.1 miles, but I felt it was worth a try. If I wasn't able to hold 6:45/mile, I'd have 6:52 as my backup goal, which would still give me a new PR.

Race day finally arrived and it was a cold (40F, 4C) but sunny day with only a slight breeze. Elizabeth and Jack (at his first race) came to cheer me on and we met up with Tania, Spencer, Ken and Steph' inside the RBC Center before the race. The majority of the runners were local, but I did spot (hear) some French Canadian accents when I was collecting my chip. There were lots of sweaters from other NHL teams, but given the number of transplants that now call the Raleigh area home, that wasn't really surprising.

With 10 minutes to go until the race start we ventured out in to the cold to warm up, I stripped down to the shorts and short sleeved shirt I was going to wear for the race and I set the Virtual Training Partner on my Garmin for 6:45/mile. We finished our stretching with a couple of minutes to go and made our way over to the starting corral to find that it was already jam packed with hundreds of runners! I guess I shouldn't have been surprised as John Forsland (the announcer) had been saying there were 2000 runners (more on that later). I squeezed in with about 250 runners in front of me and decided that it wasn't worth trying to force my way forward.

I bounced around for a couple of minutes and then we were off. I immediately regretted not going further forward in the corral as the crowd slowly made it's way forward and over the timing mats. I had to zig-zag around the slower runners (and amazingly some walkers who decided they needed to start at the front). As the crowd rounded the first corner I glanced at my watch and saw that I was already 10 seconds behind where I needed to be. I moved to the outside and ran around the crowds of slower runners as I finally began to find a rhythm on the downhill. After a quick uphill, downhill section the crowds had thinned out to mostly single file as we ran past Carter Finley stadium and out on to Trinity Road. My watched beeped for a 6:42 first mile and I felt great until we turned the corner and started the steady uphill grind in to the freezing wind.

The uphill section was only a 100ft incline over the space of a mile, but the freezing wind made it feel much harder. I felt my pace dropping and I watched my 3 second advantage turn in to a 17 second deficit by the time I passed the 2 mile marker. I worked hard in the second mile to maintain my form and not panic as I slowed down - I knew there was a nice downhill section coming up and that I should be able to at least run a 6:45 last mile.

We turned the corner from Blue Ridge on to Westchase and the 1/3rd of a mile downhill stretch was right there in front of us. I went as hard as I could down the hill and passed a number of runners who had obviously pushed themselves too hard up the hill. At the bottom of the hill, I glanced at my watch again: 1/2 of a mile to go and a 2 second deficit. I decided to hold back for 1/4 of a mile and then give it everything I had left. We turned the final corner and I pushed as hard as I could. I passed some runners (and my support team - Elizabeth, Jack and Spencer) and then some more as I sprinted to the line and stopped my watch.

Sprinting along the final stretch to the finish line.

Someone removed my chip and I took my first look at my watch, which read 20:42. I did a double and then a triple check. I really did read 20:42. Wow, I had not only broken 21:00, I had smashed it!

I checked my splits: 6:42, 7:04, 6:26, 0:29. I had finally run a 5K the 'correct' way: start hard, consolidate and then finish hard and had been rewarded with a great time. I placed 51/958 overall and 7/60 in my age group.

Here is a link to my Garmin Summary

Overall, I couldn't have asked for a better race. The weather was just how I like it and the course forced me to consolidate in the middle mile and invited a fast final mile with the downhill section before a flat stretch in to the finish. It is a pity that this was a one off race and that the only other time during the year that this course is run is during the heat of the summer.

Today I returned to my scheduled Half Marathon training with a boost in confidence and only 69 more days to go until my next Half Marathon and another PR attempt

Half Marathon Training - Days 11-20

While I managed to complete Cycle 2, I didn't manage to do the workouts on the correct days due to weather and having to travel for work. I made sure that I didn't do the hard sessions on consecutive days, so I don't think changing the order of the workouts matters all that much.

Overall, the cycle went well. My tempo miles and long run both felt good. I had to run two of my workouts (including my Speedwork) on the Treadmill (in a Hotel) as I was traveling for work, and I hate the Treadmill!

Cycle 3 begins today with a 30 minute tempo run.

Cycle 2
-------
1: Tempo Workout (25 minutes): 5 miles with tempo miles of 7:04, 7:10, 6:58 (Day 10 of previous week)
2: Rest/Cross-Train - Rest (Day 1)
3: 5 miles Easy - 5 miles Easy (Day 2)
4: Speedwork (12 x 400) - 6 miles with 12 x 400 on Treadmill (Day 3)
5: Cross-Train - Yoga (Day 7)
6: 5 miles Easy - 5 miles Easy (Day 5)
7: 5 miles Easy - 5 miles Easy (Day 8)
8: Long Run (10-12 miles) - 10 miles @ 8:54 (Day 6)
9: Rest - Rest (Day 9)
10: 5 miles Easy - 5 miles Easy (Day 10)