Crenn1e's Running Blog

It’s been a while since I blogged, the holidays knocked me off the horse but I am back in the saddle.

Things of interest to me today:

1. Got new shoes

2. Ditched Nike  +

I should start with NIKE+ since it relates directly to the shoe change.  I have been using Nike+ for the past year and a half, and as a result I have been selecting from the NIKE line of shoe before others.. just for simplicity.  I KNOW this is their entire ploy, but the shoes were pretty good for the most part and VERY light.

But 2 weeks ago I had my 3rd Nike+ pedometer go dead, and decided to give RunKeeper for iPhone a try instead.  It’s relatively free, and it uses actual GPS instead of estimated pedometer readings from a 19$ pod. (that dies every 6 months for me) Run keeper also have solutions for treadmill running.  You can enter your treadmill distance etc. directly into the app and then it uploads the results to their website instantly. (no need to sync your pod or iphone) So far so good as far as that goes.

7 days later my Nike shoes start falling apart…

I looked down at my Nike Lunars yesterday and they were pulling apart at the “seems”.  They don’t have stitching but instead they fuse them and boom it is blowing out. These shoes are only at 2/3’s milage, I should have at least 100 miles left in them but there they are falling apart at the seems. Since I am no longer using Nike+ I no longer feel compelled to shop for Nike’s for the integrated Nike+ holder in the sole.

So I did some shoe research and found that the New Brooks Glycerine 8’s for men are getting rave reviews.  I had wanted to try Brooks before as I heard they are great at preventing shin splints. Anyway I had never bought them simply because they were not available near me and I didn’t have any clue what my size would be.

Apparently these Brooks have a new gel in them that acts like that old water+cornstarch, science project where slow movement penetrates the gel but if you impact it forcefully it stiffens up. (if you step into equal parts of water and cornstarch you will sink. If you run across a pool of it, the impact makes it act like a solid and you can safely walk/run right across it)

So I ordered them on Amazon and took delivery today.  They are nice. They are stiffer then the Nike Lunars but I actually like it. They are super comfy to walk around in  but the sole is more molded, and the forefoot has a pronounced upward bend which really makes my foot glide rather then flop when I run.

Ran with em, Like em. Today’s run was identical to yesterday’s in the Nike’s… that is pretty good for me and brand new shoes.

RunKeeper stats of my run

Distance 2.00 mi | Duration 0:28:45 | Calories Burned 277

Average Pace 14:23 / mi | Average Speed 4.17 mph