Adventures in shoe shopping: NB RC1400

Who reviews a shoe after they've already put 200km on it and used it for a marathon? I do. Sorry guys, it's been an epic few weeks.

I've already talked about how much I like my local running shop. They're like the fancy wine shop of running shops, except much less snooty. They know about shoes that I didn't even know existed, because these are arcane shoe models that are nowhere to be found in the blogiverse. It is less of a pain to go there and dither than to buy the wrong cheap size of a shoe model that doesn't work for me, online.

Their incredible shop assistant once helped me try on eight pairs of shoes.

They have shop doggies. (I am a sucker for smart doggies.)

And they have a rainbow of compression sleeves.

you sexy thing, you. all shop pics from TRG Facebook page.

What more can I ask?

Anyway, the New Balance RC1400.

I walked in one day and said, "I've been running in the Saucony Fastwitch, but I need something a little more cushioned for the full marathon I'll be doing in two months. Oh, and I like being able to feel the ground."

The owner thought for a bit, measured my feet and brought out three or four pairs; after about 20 minutes of dithering I settled on these.

obviously too pristine to be my shoes now

These are great shoes - light but cushioned enough for long distances (minimalists be warned, you can definitely feel a bit of a heel drop - it took me some time to get used to). I still prefer my Minimus and Fastwitch for speed work, but these served me well on long runs once I got used to feeling a bit more heel drop. They are incredibly soft and comfortable (did I mention I ran 42km in them with no blisters or chafing or...basically, I barely noticed I was wearing things on my feet, and I immensely dislike having things on my feet). I could run sockless in them, tri-style.

I am not one to bother about what my shoes *look like*, so long as they *work for me*. But these are good-lookin' trainers. As you can see.

Only one quibble - I don't know if it's ordinary wear and tear and humidity, or my bad habit of running on wet trails/ in the rain, but the plasticky overlays on the upper are starting to peel off. Well, as long as they still work...
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Speaking of rain, I went to London for work last week. Like I said, it's been an epic two weeks - first I went to Australia to run a marathon with Holly, or more accurately a long, long way behind her; then I came back to work for a week; then I went to London for a work trip/ conference. More on that trip later, but my sister and I had a somewhat more exciting run on Hampstead Heath than planned.

When we started it was cool and a little overcast. We then proceeded to get completely lost. Whereupon it started to rain. Of course the moment we were done the sun came out and the birds started singing.

did not look nearly half as cocky afterwards

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And now it's time to hurl myself into emergency tri-training mode.

COLD STORAGE INTERNATIONAL TRI: SEPTEMBER 28!!! 

Tri training is so hard. Mentally. As in, I have to decide whether to swim, bike or run on any given day, instead of doing what I always do: roll out of bed and go for a run.

But I don't want to be the resident Metasport embarrassment - the one who hasn't improved on a tri in two years, the one who has to breaststroke half the swim, the one who falls off her bike while doing a U-turn... you see what I mean? I have my work cut out for me. I'll try not to be such a gumby this time round.
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Customer feedback

Dear Runner's Gait,

I am writing in somewhat belatedly to thank one of your staff members - I think his name is James.

A couple of months ago I wandered randomly into your store for a new pair of trainers, and James very patiently helped me try on eight pairs. Eight. EIGHT!!! (It's lucky, right?) I felt like Goldilocks (too hard, too soft, too...erm... too tippy, too high, too hard, too soft, just right) or Cinderella ('if the shoe fits...').

Finally I settled on this pair of Saucony Fastwitch 5. (They're red - that should do for Chinese New Year shopping. I did wear them for the first run of the Chinese New Year. Which did not appease my mother at all.)

As we already know, I like being able to feel the ground (check), and I am the Switzerland of neutral runners (check).

It turns out Saucony apparently thinks these are a racing flat. I don't. They're not flat. But then I'm not fast either...

(Funny story. I just bought a new running shirt. It's black and says 'FAST' on the front in an alarming shade of pink. I don't think I deserve to wear it yet, so it's sitting in my closet gathering dust.)

I had a few niggling doubts about this pair of shoes at first. Not as low to the ground as my Minimuses/minimi/ minimodes. Not as plush and cushiony as my Nikes. A little hard and bouncy. But after Sunday's triathlon I think James made the right call - I think they're finally broken in. On the run leg, my shoes and I managed to pass - I think - every woman in my category who was a passable distance in front of me. (That's about five women over 5 km. Also some men who were walking - what were you doing?!?!?!?)

I'm still a slowpoke but I'll be doing nearly all of my marathon training (except for the longest weekend runs - need a bit more cushion for that) in these.

See you on the trails,

G.C

PS please give James a promotion.
PPS or at least a medal for persistence. But watch out: I'll be back for new shoes. He might want to hide.

Workouts this week. Marathon training week 1: upping the mileage a little.
Sunday: TRI day. 750m swim (terrible), 20km bike ride (terrible), and 5km run (29:23), dawdling through transition, going the wrong way to run out and turning around to run out another way. Pro-tip: Do not train for a tri by spending 3 months chickening out of swim training, cycling only twice, and doing no bricks ever.
Monday: 7.5km recovery run
Tuesday: Speedwork: 2km at 2:15, 1.6km at 2:10-2:12, 1.2km at 2:05, 400m (1:57). Total incl warm-up 6km.
Wednesday: easy day. 9.5km/ 59:15

double feature: 'fast shoes' & 'undertrained'

ladies and gentlemen - I present to you a special weekend double feature!

'the fast shoes'

When I was a kid we would run all over the place, light and fast like little kids are, in canvas sneakers with a thin rubber sole, or even barefoot. (There was the one time with my two boy cousins - this was after the 1992 Barcelona Olympics when we all watched the UK's Linford Christie and US' Gail Devers win the men's and women's 100m - when we had sprint races around the estate and I ran till I nearly puked. I beat one of them, though.)

At home we walk around barefoot ('what, shoes in the house? that's just barbaric'). And to this day I can't stand having anything on my feet - not even the coldest of New England winters could induce me to ever sleep with socks on.

Which is why I also like to feel the ground when I run. So I really like my pink New Balance Minimus trail shoes - I got them in July or August 2012 and I think they're the original Minimus Zero Trail. They don't have much of a difference between heel and toe, they're super lightweight and have very sticky soles. (The difference between the heel height and the toe height is called the heel drop - just like a platform heel can be 4 inches at the heel and 1 at the toe.)

I definitely remember getting these last year and immediately going out gleefully to run quite a lot of the local trails in them. Like 16km worth of trail. (Don't try this at home, kids.) I've not been injured doing this, but if you're anyone else I strongly recommend starting slow!

If you look closely I am wearing the Minimus during the Green Corridor Run. That is probably how the rips happened...

These days I think of the pink shoes as my 'fast' shoes, even though the tread has completely worn off and I am not fast. There is a 1.5-inch rip in the little-toe side of each shoe, just from wear and tear. I might be replacing these sometime this year.

So that's three pairs of shoes in my current rotation: a normal 'cushiony' kind, the Nike Lunarglide 3; a lower-drop kind, the Saucony Fastwitch 5 (review later...it's very firm but still bulky/ hefty enough that I don't feel fast, and I don't like it as much as either of my other pairs...but they were on sale at the local running store); and my go-to trail shoes, the Minimus Trail Zero.

As a talentless, genetically challenged, non-elite mere mortal who has never won anything in her life, not even an age-group plaque, never mind hundreds of dollars worth of shoes, I can't afford/ don't deserve to have more pairs than that! (I wonder what other people do when they come to the realisation that they'll never win anything in their entire lives. Do you get fed up and stop running? Do you keep running, like I do, because it's really for your sanity and mental health? If I ever did run fast enough to place I would probably die of shock.)

&
'undertrained' - a run350 race report 

This morning I wore the 'fast shoes' to run the Run350 10K. The weather was incredible (for running - if you had wanted to go to the beach, different story), the route was wide open and well marked, the volunteers were both helpful and plentiful...

My so-called 'race strategy' was to paint my nails purple and try to stick with my faster friend Hilary! I got as far as the purple nails. While threading my way through the crowd (late) I got stuck behind a clump of people and then the starting horn went off, so I never did find Hilary. Which is a good thing because she finished in a very healthy 49:45. This is at least six minutes faster than I can run a 10K.

I spent the first 2km of the run still weaving through people. Saw Coach Rosie and Coach Hollie coming the other way from a turnaround in quick succession. Had exactly enough breath and time to yell GO ROSIE and before I could take another breath to yell GO HOLLIE they had vanished. (They eventually made it to the top 4, finishing in something ridiculous like 40 minutes.)  Picked another rabbit, lost her too, picked another rabbit, overtook her eventually (thanks, lady in the blue tank top), and spent the rest of the thing wondering nervously if she was trying to chase me down as well. (Does anyone else do this misattribution of mental states to fellow runners thing, or am I the only loony on the block?)

Finally I saw the 1-hour pacers just ahead of me, going through the finishing chute (pacers! how cute! there were 3 pace groups: 1:00, 1:10, and 1:20! this was ADORABLE), and I sprinted through. I honestly have no clue what time I ran, because the 1-hour pacers started right with the starting gun and I...definitely did not. I never did start my watch or my phone, and it was fabulous.

Afterwards I went off to look for Holly the one-woman cheer squad, found her cheering the half-marathoners in, ran another very scenic couple of km along the river, ran out of water (I DISLIKE being out of water), and took a bus home.

Still, I'm a little disappointed in myself because I haven't really been training terribly hard. I've missed three weekends' worth of long runs (BAD! VERY BAD!) for all sorts of reasons, and it's a miracle if I manage to run thrice a week. (To any coaches reading: I may be determined but unless I quit my job and suddenly have scads of free time, I am at ZERO risk of overtraining...trust me on this.)

Anyway - off to run more next week. The next time I post will probably be from Hong Kong...

update! my eventual time for the run350 10K was 58:04, which is all right for an undertrained, slightly disappointing race.

obligatory running photo. thanks Running Shots! 

Shoes. Let's get some shoes.

Dear Nike,

The last time I owned a pair of your shoes was about, oh, ten years ago. (At the end of JC - what we call high school - I discovered Saucony and Mizuno and never looked back.)

But then a few months ago, strapped for cash and time and fed up with running shoes that were so feature-heavy they were actually heavy, I popped into some random shoe shop at Queensway and found...

this pair of Nike Lunarglide+4s and I am in love.

My shoes are grimy in about a week, and I've had these for 2 months. Who are all those people walking around with pristine sneakers? Where do they run??? 

Now, I'm a neutral runner/ underpronator. I'm like the Switzerland of runners. I once had a really bad experience with some running-store twerp who took one look at my flat feet and said "You're an overpronator". Whereupon I brandished the wear pattern on the soles of my shoes at him. You try telling me I'm an overpronator, sir...

The nice young fellow who helped me out at the shoe shop was not such a know-it-all. In fact I'm not sure he knew that much about the merchandise in terms of actual running, which is not a problem - I think chasing the latest 'evidence' can really do more harm than good. Does the shoe fit? No? Get a different pair. Do you have knee/ foot/ ankle problems from running in those shoes? It might be the shoes or it might be the running. Have you tried strength conditioning?

Anyway, now that I've been running in them for a couple of months,

including one marathon! this was at the end where my body just wanted to FINISH, i look so much happier here than the guy behind me, and i'm pretty sure he was doing the half-marathon. As you can see I also believe in the motivational power of neon.

the Lunarglide+4s are pretty neutral, very comfortable, springily cushioned, and very, very light. The fact that they come in all those candy colours is a nice bonus. (I can't believe I'm saying this. I've never been bothered what colour my running shoes are as long as they are shoes.)

But, dear Nike, would you PLEASE make the next version with a bit more traction?

The Lunarglide+4s work very well - until it is wet. Then they have no traction on wet surfaces whatsoever. I once tried to run hill repeats in a light drizzle*, and ended up slipping and sliding so much that I took off my shoes and ran in my socks. Even my socks had more traction. You'd think for a company based in Oregon, Nike would know what to do with wet surfaces...wet leaves? slick polished concrete? slightly algae-covered asphalt? dear god, granite tiles in building doorways? nope. I live in fear of landing on my ass or breaking something.

* Singapore definition of light drizzle - ie it has been raining all day and is now just coming to the tail end of the rain and also it is 25C -if you are lucky- and the humidity is 90% so nothing dries and there are unexpected puddles everywhere. This happens year-round, but especially in December. In Singapore there are two seasons: hot and wet, and hotter and wetter.

Thanks,

xo,
G.C.

PS For trails, slippery surfaces and just walking around, I also love love love my New Balance Minimus (minimi? minimuses? mini-mes?) But that's a review for another day.