Gear Review: Mizuno Wave Ronin 4

You know that boy (or girl, substitute if you wish) who keeps trying to get your attention and keeps failing? He asks you out, and you accept to be polite, and then he brings you to a Chinese place, except Chinese food makes you sick. Then a few years later, he tries again, now armed with the knowledge that you like Italian, and he brings you to Fazoli's, which is okay, but not exactly your Italian restaurant of choice. Then the morning of your goal race, there's a knock on the hotel room door, and there he is, holding a bagel, a jar of peanut butter, a Powerbar, an apple, a Sugar-Free Red Bull, and a Powerade Zero. And nevermind that you normally drink a Monster Lo-Carb instead of a Red Bull, because it's so close to perfect that you just melt. (And yes, I eat a lot before races. DON'T JUDGE ME). That's Mizuno for me. The first shoe I was put in was the Alchemy, way back in my senior year of high school, which was just wrong for my biomechanics. The second shoe was the Rider, which wasn't terrible, but not really what I wanted. Well, with the Mizuno Wave Ronin 4, Mizuno has finally won my heart.

Shoe Responsiveness, Defined

It's come to my attention that everyone seems to define "responsiveness" in shoes differently. I throw that term around a lot in my reviews, so it would probably do us all a lot of good if I explained what, exactly, "responsiveness" means to me, so that you would at least know what I'm talking about in my reviews.

Internet Memes

I posted this on Facebook on Wednesday, which was kind of late. By that point, the joke was already pretty old and people were getting pretty sick of it (only in the digital age does a joke get old after two days). So now I'm really late. And I think Flotrack or someone beat me to it. But oh well, I liked mine better. If you can't read it, click for full-size.

All of the pictures came from Google search and none of them are mine. Bottom left is from Running Times, bottom right is from LetsRun, and I don't remember where the other three came from, sorry. If they're yours and you want credit and/or me to take it down, just email me and yell at me.

Gear Review: Brooks Pure Flow

As some of you may know, I've been wearing the Brooks Launch as my daily trainer (with the Brooks PureConnect mixed in there sometimes). Unfortunately, some bad timing on my part had me at the National Running Center needing shoes on the spot with no time to actually ask them to order anything. No Launch in stock in my size meant I had to grab something else. Seeing as I had wanted to try the Brooks PureFlow for a while, I decided to take this opportunity to give them a spin.

Before we start, just to get you up to date, information on the Brooks PureProject can be found here.

Gear Review: The Ultimate Beginner's Running Guide: The Key to Running Inspired

For people new to the sport, running can be somewhat intimidating. As nice as the idea of telling them to "just go run," might be, the truth is people want more information, as evidenced by the growing number of books and websites devoted to beginner runners. The question, of course, becomes which of these books and websites are worth reading, and which are not? When author Ryan Robert contacted me about his book The Ultimate Beginner's Running Guide: The Key to Running Inspired, I admit that I was skeptical. I had no idea who Ryan Robert was, and I was a little worried his book would be yet another beginner book that rehashed all the same tired information that was in every single other beginner book. However, upon reading the book, I was pleasantly surprised.

Random Update

Apparently I've been neglecting this blog lately. The semester has started and I'm back above 70 miles per week, so I'll use that as my excuse. Finally started doubling again this week (thank God!), so we'll see how that goes. Doubling makes hitting bigger volume a lot easier, and generally once my body gets used to it, it helps me recover faster, but the first couple weeks are rough. I didn't want to start until I was averaging about 10 a day in singles though, so that's why I waited until now. My "low mileage" recovery week was 65, so I figured it was time. It's pretty easy for me to add an extra 20-30 miles a week by doubling (not this week though...20 mile jump all at once is more than I want, so I figure I'll only double about three days this week, for about an extra 12). I've gotten lazy about lifting though, so I need to get back on that train at some point. Probably not until after my body re-adapts to double workouts though. I'm just over 25 weeks post-op now (for those of you following along, that was to fix actual injury that lasted longer than like two weeks #2...kind of a doozy, but training is walking that fine line between ideal training and overtraining/injury, and it's inevitable that if you're pushing the limits, you'll probably screw up and push too hard and cross the line at some point...or at least I will hah). For now, everything is still easy mileage, but I really want to get my volume up and be hitting triple digit mileage comfortably before I add in any speedwork. I did start with some short speed workouts a couple weeks ago, but thought better of it and took it out for now.

Other than that, I'm in the process of working out something pretty sweet. (Actually, one of my friends is, and I'm just along to help). Details to come...stay tuned.

2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Trials

Got this picture from my friend Aimee's Facebook page. I'm assuming it's her picture?

Thanks for the inspiration. Now go get 'em in London!

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