Tour des Chaussures

The Stats 7/8/12 - 7/15/12
7/10/12 (Cycle): 15.25 mi; 57'35"; avg. pace -15.9 mph
7/11/12: 1.5 mi; 11'17"; 7'07" avg. pace

To mix up the cardio, and because it's Tour de France month, I took the road bike for a spin on Tuesday. I kept to the flats and left the hills for a day when I'm feeling a bit more like Tommy Voeckler. The change up was a welcome relief to my knee. I can foresee sticking with cycling years after my joints cry out for mercy from all the road running. But while I still have the motivation and ability to run, I"m going to try to lessen the impact on those joints. That is part of the reasoning behind experimenting with a variety of shoe styles. In my desire to get the  most minimal feel, without looking weird, I picked up a pair of Merrell Barefoot Shoes (pictured below):

Calf killers

These are the puppies I took for a test drive on Wednesday. They have a soft mesh upper and some rubber tread. There is no padding in the back or the heel, which is meant to encourage that more even foot fall that everyone is raving about. I intentionally tried to keep from heel striking for the first mile of the run. Unlike on most runs, I could feel my calves getting sore as I progressed. Near the end of the run, I resorted to heel striking to take the pressure off those muscles. Yes, it was pain free peace for the joints, but these shoes will tear your calf muscles to shreds if you run full force in them the first time out. Six days later I could still feel the residual soreness. Lesson learned: ease into minimalist running shoes. Not taking that advice basically had me couch bound for the rest of the week. That's not a bad place to be during Tour month though. The tv coverage has plenty of chateaux, countryside, and cows. Oh yeah, and cycling.