I just needed to pound out more miles hopefully enough to come between 40 and 50K (24.8 and 31.1mi. if you're trying to convert) for the day. Not because I had a training plan that said so, but as all of my training goes, it was the formidable yet attainable goal I had developed for myself today. Instead of splitting it into a true Three-a-Day, I decided to bridge my second and third runs around the New Balance event in the University City area. Unfortunately, I sat around the crib with Christi this afternoon, tightening up a lot more than expected. When i took off down the Toby Creek extension, I couldn't shake the groin pain. I had to stop and stretch a lot. I managed to get in about 5 miles out & back then met up with what turned out to be the USAFit and maybe Run For You groups from RFYL-University.
A little surprised, I decided to make the most of a discouraging situation. Kara Pettie Vincent introduced me to her new husband, Adam, as well as the New Balance rep -- a chick named Jess who's in serious Tri-training but based out of Durham. I got "fitted" on the fly for the
NB1260's. I asked Jess how many miles I was allowed to put on them tonight, and she said as many as I wanted, but I had to return them in an hour. I took this as a challenge. I didn't see anyone that looked like they were going to push a -9:00 pace at this point, but I didn't have a choice but to do 7:30's if I wanted to give the 1260's a nice test and get in my mileage for the evening. I bounded off back down Toby Creek and the Mallard Creek Greenway to David Taylor and back.
Turns out I was the last one back and my time estimations may have been a few minutes off but I'm glad I gave the shoes a fair assessment. In short, I was reminded why I haven't purchased New Balance for trainers in a very long time. The fact that these were the high-end lightweight support let me know I probably would not be going back to New Balance anytime soon even for a tempo shoe. The shoe was as light as I could hope, a lot more cushioning than I want -- two factors that I could do without if I chose a different shoe from the company, but what I could not get around was the lacing system that seemed reminiscent of department store sneakers and the wide spacious toe box all too typical for New Balance. I know that one benefit of New Balance has always been it's available Widths, but really now I'm looking for an easy go-to-shoe where I know the Width available is always going to work for me if I ask for that shoe in general. I hope that makes sense. Regardless, I think I can fairly, and not too harshly say, the New Balance (at the least the 1260) does not agree with me.
The swift seven plus miles were spent working out every twinge of pain I could imagine in my legs. The wheels really fell off today, and I think it is largely in part due to stiffening up over the afternoon. I was glad to get through the pain, but I had to call it a day at 25.09mi. My weekly mileage will still come slightly lower than I wanted, but still higher than it should be for my recovery week from Blue Ridge Relay and wrapping up a week before Hinson Lake 24.
