Runners have an important decision to make: what to put on their feet.
Sounds simple enough, but it can get confusing.
New shoes are continually bombarding the market. And now, shoe companies such as Reebok and Skechers have new running shoes they claim simulate running in sand, which increases muscle activation and toning.
In theory, these toning shoes sound like a great product. But should consumers be running toward or away from them?
To make it feel as though users are running in sand, the new models from both shoe companies are made softer and slightly less stable than a normal running shoe.
Read the entire article.
Couch to 5K Indoors
When I went to bed, I was expecting to wake up and complete today’s Couch to 5K run in the rain. Until now, I’ve been pretty lucky, the early morning weather around here has been cool and dry. Oh well, a little rain might be refreshing right? Wrong. It wasn’t just raining, it was RAINING. The rain was coming down at a rate of one inch an hour and the lightening was bad too. One thousand lightening strikes an hour.
Fortunately I had a plan B in mind. We have a park district fitness about five minutes away, so I headed off through the rain to the indoor track. Since I didn’t have a membership, I had to pay $2.00 for the privilege of running without get soaked or struck by lightening. It was worth it. Getting in my run free of distractions, cars getting a little too close and dodging debris on the road was very nice…I could get used to this. But the cheapskate in me will only be paying for this on days when it’s storming out.
Week 2 of the Couch to 5K training program is complete. Since I was running on the track and was pacing myself on the previous 90 seconds jogs, I ran at the fastest pace I could to end things with a bang. Next week calls for a three minute jog, that will be the next challenge. I was pretty restless during my two days of rest between weeks 1 and weeks 2 so I plan on doing an upper body workout to maintain my fitness ritual and still give my legs a chance to recover.
The weather for today’s early morning run was close to perfect. Some heavy fog was just about burned away and the temperature was about 70-75 degrees F.
Before the run, I spent a longer time stretching. I was hoping that spending extra time stretching my calves would prevent them from cramping up during my run. It did seem to help, but during the last two jog phases, I was starting to feel some tightness in those muscles.
I still feel like I’m making progress and I’m confident that I’ll be able to handle the 5K at the end of September. So far I’ve been excited about heading out for my C25K workouts and I know if I can stick with it for another week, it will become a habit and I’ll be hooked.
Plainfield Harvest 5K Kids Run
Later today, my son ran a 2K to see how fast he could complete it. There’s a 2K Kid’s Run the same day as our 5K and he’s expressed interest in competing in it. I looked up the times kids his age were finishing last year and he had a goal in mind. I’ve been bugging him that he needs to train for the race and he has assured me that it would be easy and there was no reason to practice. My wife was going to run with him since she was going to workout so they lined up on the sidewalk and I started the timer and my son was off, running at top speed. I warned him he could never keep that pace…crazy kid.
About nine minutes later he was in sight of the finish line. He finished in less than 10 minutes so that would have put him in with the lower third of the pack if he would have run last year. I was impressed. Oh to be young again.
Couch to 5K Week 2, Day 1 calls for a five minute walk, then alternating 90 seconds of jogging with two minutes of walking. That’s an increase of 30 seconds of jogging compared to C25K Week 1. I was anxious to add to the time I spent during the jogging portion so I was looking forward to the day’s workout.
Before I ran, I put on my Omron HR-100C heart rate monitor to determine my heart rate during the walking and running phases of the workout. I use it during my H.I.I.T. bicycle workouts and although inexpensive, the heart rate monitor provides fairly accurate feedback. According to the heart rate monitor, I was in the moderate intensity to heavy intensity range (140-180 bpm) during the running phases.
Like the previous week the jogging on the first half of the out and back route was at a faster pace than the last half. My breathing is becoming less labored so I’m encouraged with the progress in that area. I bike regularly, so I was surprised that I was so winded during the first running workouts. I guess it just took a few days for my body to get to use to the intensity of the running.
Since I’m running for a greater length of time during the jogging portion, I’ve increased the distance I travel during the workout. I now have to cross another busy road, but the scenery is a little different. Overall C25K W2D1 went well, although I’m still having some slight cramps in my calves during the last half of the workout. Anybody have any suggestions on how to get rid of that?
Day three of the easiest of the level of the Couch to 5K program is in the books and I’m already feeling I’m making progress. While I’m still working through some muscle aches in my legs, my breathing has stopped sounding like the gasping of a dying fish when I collapse in a heap at the end of the workout.
I’ve been covering a distance of approximately 2.25 miles and took about a half hour to complete. Now it’s two days of rest and then on to the next level of C25K, alternating 90 minutes of jogging and two minutes of walking for twenty minutes.
I woke up a little later than I wanted to, but after some breakfast, a little coffee, and a lot of water, I headed out the door. I put on my Chicago Bears baseball hat – to cover my major bedhead and turned the brim so that I’d be more aerodynamic 
. I was heading for the door when my son spotted me and took a double take. I asked him what was wrong and he told me that he doesn’t usually see me with my baseball hat on backwards. I asked him if it made me look any younger and he responded, “Kinda.” Well I took that as a yes and with that boost to my ego, I headed out for the day’s workout.
Today’s workout is a repeat of day 1 (see C25K plan), so I knew what to expect. On day one I ran with my wife who is also preparing for the 5K and she mentioned that I was running too fast. On day two I tried to slow it down a little bit, but the first couple of runs were hard not to hit for the fences and run at a very fast pace. The program calls for a jogging type pace, a pace where you could carry on a normal conversation. I knew any conversation I could have at the pace would have been difficult to understand, so I slowed it down the best I could. I typically run a out and back type of route, so the run back home was at a slower pace due to fatigue more than my self-control.
I planned on starting this program after dinner Friday night and was disappointed to see it raining in the afternoon. I thought I was going to have to wait until Saturday, but an hour after dinner, the storm clouds cleared away.
I loaded up the c25K podcast onto my MP3 player and headed out the door. The walk was fine and the first three or four 1 minute jogs were OK, the last three 1 minutes jogs were tough. After the last one minute jog, I was wiped and was gasping for air like a fish out of water.
I can ride a bike for hours, but this running thing is tough. My body, and particularly my knees, are going to have to get used to this.
Well, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, so I’m on my way to my first 5K.
