New Kicks

Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.
-Buddah

Had a great weekend.  Got over whatever I had done to my chest, though my foot, as of today (8/30 Monday), is still bothering me.  I bruised it much worse than I initially thought.

A special thanks to the GF this weekend.  A while back she had seen my trail shoes, my Brooks ASR5's, and was shocked as to how much wear and tear I've put on them.  Where my small toes have a tendency to rub, not because of poor sizing but because I spread my toes as wide as the toe-box will allow during climbs and descents, there are small holes rubbing out.  I'm on my third, maybe fourth, set of laces as they've all just fallen apart from constant relacing, which is why in the pics they look fairly new in respect to everything else.  The majority of the outsole has worn out, though there is still SOME grip on wet surfaces, rock, mud etc, but I didn't realize just how much I've lost.  Whole chunks of the outsole have been tearing away from itself since the binding holding them together has all been eaten away.  And don't even get me started about the cushioning, that's been gone for as long as I can remember.  The only saving grace about the soles being so worn is that I could feel every change of the terrain.  That was a double edged sword, though, as I felt every rock, exposed root, EVERYTHING.

Now I've honestly had these shoes for the last year and a half and just haven't given them up as I always thought of them as super comfortable and didn't plan on getting anything new until they decided to just disintegrate, I had them worn in to perfection.  The GF had told me more than once that I needed to go get me some new shoes but I just didn't have the heart to give them up yet.  Call it part sentimentality.  Mostly call it stupidity.  I knew I needed some new shoes I was just too damn stubborn.  I'm sure that my current foot problem stemmed from the piss poor state of the shoes I was wearing. 

Saturday it was agreed that I should have a day of rest since I was gunning for a long run Sunday morning.  While we were bumming around town, running errands, almost out of the blue, my GF steered us to REI.  I KNEW why we were going instantly.  Introducing my brand spankin new Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultra's!  I got to break them in royally, the first time I ran in them was for 18 miles on Sunday.  I have to say, for someone who likes to say she's marginally tolerating my addiction, she sure isn't helping.

There's a LOT going on with these shoes.  I took them, as well as my oldies, to the trails Sunday morning.  I ran the first 6 miles in the Salomons, I only got about a quarter of a mile in my old Brooks' until I turned around and took them off for good, they just didn't feel the same.

I'm still getting used to the Salomons, but it's because they have all the things that I was lacking in my old shoes.  Cushion, stability, traction.  Never realized how much I missed those, hell, I forgot they really exhisted.  The shoes actually felt weird.

The lacing system seemed a bit gimmicky at first, but I never had to worry about relacing, not that I really did in my other shoes, but these stayed just as tight on the initial tie down all morning long.

The only thing that really worries me is the toe box.  It seemed a little tighter than I'm used to for my sizing.  I had tried to go a size larger than usual, but then the whole shoe was way too big.  It felt like my foot was dwarfed inside it.  Maybe it was just my imagination, but it must not have been as big an issue as I thought as I didn't walk away with any blisters on my toes.

When I got home, my GF saw the state of my new shoes.  After 18 miles, they were grey with dirt and dust from the trail, and just a bit scuffed, she took one look and exclaimed "What the hell did you do to your brand new shoes?!!?"  Sometimes she's so damn cute.  Too bad all the river crossings I run through were dry, I would have loved to see that reaction if they had been also caked in mud.  The pics are from a quick rub down with a wet cloth, I don't tend to religiously clean my shoes but I do keep them free of debris and somewhat presentable.

My run Sunday ended up lasting about 18.5 miles.  Everything seemed alright, besides the nagging pain in my right foot, it seemed to come and go throughout the morning as I was able to just forget about it from time to time, but as soon as my foot found just the right rock or root, even through the Salomon's, it came right back from out the back of my mind.  I was planning on breaking 20, but I had given a heads up as to when I'd be home and was fixing to surpass what I had said.  My pace was spot on to what I was expecting, but I still didn't hit my goal for the morning.  There's always next weekend.