This past week, I’ve ran over 3 miles a day with an average speed of about 5mph. And for the first time, I was able to run 1 mile with a sustained speed of 6mph (but with a heart rate of 170bpm). Just to be clear, I’ve never been a runner… and the last time I really had to run consistently was when I was in my early 20’s when I worked out with Seal Team PT in Richmond, VA.
Recently, Annie has been developing some shin and mild knee pains from working out over the last few months. I suspected that it could be her shoes, so we went by Road Runner to get fitted for some new running shoes. I went to Road Runner about 15-20 years ago to get fitted because I was developing shin splins, heal spurs, knee and hip pain from working out with the Seal Team PT fitness group. At that time, the Road Runner employees advised me to get a proper running shoe… and I was excited to upgrade to something new and high tech. But on the contrary, they only recommended a really boring ASICS for $120. And then they had the odasity to tell me that I needed to buy shoes every 4-6 months—I thought it was some kind of scam, but all the runners at Seal Team PT told me the same thing. Lo and behold, they were all right. After about two weeks running on the new shoes, all the pain an ailments went away. And I ended up buying new shoes ever 6 months… until I stopped Seal Team PT and started a new hobby.
So Annie and I swung by a new Road Runner store this weekend and ended up buying some shoes. For Annie, this was her first time but she landed on a shoe and custom soles that should hopefully help her with the workouts and ailments. She ended up with the Brooks Glycerine GTS 19, which provided proper support for her foot pronation.
And when I tried out shoes, they brought out some of the most boring looking shoes… reminicent of the old ASICS I wore nearly two decades ago. I was hoping to get something with new technology… but they were just a pair of boring looking running shoes. All that being said, I put them on and they were familiar, predicatable, and felt they would be able to soak up the miles. The new shoes are Brooks Ghost 13.
Here’s a comparison of my new shoes versus my old ones.
From another view—you wouldn’t be able to tell that my shoes on the left had a couple hundred miles on them.
I’m not sure if my goal is to become a runner (since I’m naturally so slow), but for now this seems to be working for me. Hopefully, we’ll continue to make more progress. On a sidenote, I’m weighing about 169lbs now. Sometimes it’s hard to notice progress unless you zoom out a little. I’ll be at 165lbs in a few weeks.