Thursday, March 12, 2009

I've got the new shoe blues

I purchased a new pair of shoes Tuesday. Ended up going with the Nike Zoom, after trying the Asics 2140. I loved both of my pairs of 2130s, but the updated 2140 just felt a bit too stiff. Not in the typical new shoe way - more like having a part of the shoe I expected to flex, binding my foot instead. The Nike Zoom was light, felt nice & springy, and didn't make me feel like I had my foot strapped to a board.

As comfortable as they were in the store, and loping around the parking lot, I'm not so sure about the Nikes now. I laced them up for an easy run yesterday, on the path at Riverside Park. By a mile or two in, I noticed my left foot was much happier than my right. Everything on the left foot and ankle - great. The toes of my right foot were starting to feel numb, my instep was beginning to ache... not good.

Stopped and relaced at the half way point, to keep my heels in place. (That's one thing I do miss about the Asics - the narrower heel.) The last two miles or so were much more comfortable, but I'd already messed up the right foot for the day. Spent the evening rolling my feet over a tennis ball, and taking an moment to stand with my arches over the top of the wooden door jamb when I'd make the trip out to the laundry room.

Seeing as how great the Zoom is on my left foot, I'm going to pop in the superfeet green arch supports for today's three mile run, to see if it helps. (Added to the 2130s while I was upping mileage last fall) If it doesn't, back to the running store, to find what will. Thankfully, it's a local store, with a fit guarantee.

The Silver Comet 10k is this weekend, and my 2130s will be fine for that distance. It's going to be raining, so wouldn't really want to be in new shoes for the race anyway. That leaves me with two weeks to figure out the shoes, and get them broken in for the ING Half at the end of the month.

Update: With my green superfeet supports in, the shoes were quite comfy for today's run. Will have to see how it goes with a longer run or two next week. If they stay comfy, I'll be ready for the 29th.

3 comments:

Slamdunk said...

Sweet footwear. I have to go with the New Balances for my waffle feet (not that I have needed new running shoes over the last 2 years).

How long do your shoes last?

Oh, and stop with the hero stuff on the bike chain cleaning (looks super). Now my knotted and rusty chained bike is screaming all that much louder to be fixed....

mappchik said...

I had the same pair of New Balance shoes for four years. Bought them when I started walking with the baby girl & toddler boy. If they'd been twins, I might still be in those same shoes, because I'm not sure I'd have recovered the energy needed to run.

At about six months, my first pair of official running shoes dropped to short or rainy day runs and outings with the kids. They lasted another six months or so, and are now going to be my mucking-about-along-the-river-with-the-kids shoes. The old new shoes are now the short run shoes, and the Nikes are going to be taking everything over 5 miles.

BTW, I'm going to keep right on bragging about the bike maintenance. That it was accomplished without property damage or loss of extremities... well, let's just say it could almost be used as proof of guardian angels.

Time for another victory dance around office.

Slamdunk said...

Ok, that is good to hear about the shoes. I'll refrain from commenting further about your mechanical talents...