Tag Archives: Athletic

A First Run: Kinvara

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Saucony

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Wow, the Saucony Kinvara feels amazing.  It feels almost like a slipper when you put it on.  The mesh upper is quite comfortable, felt snug, but also felt like there was still support.  I think the sole is solid – firm but not overly stiff or with too much extra padding.

On my 3 mile run, I was able to experience a few different surfaces – concrete, asphalt, dirt, and gravel. I didn’t feel any rocks poke through the soles, like you might expect from a minimalist shoe.  The neutral shoe felt really good through most of the run.  I say most, because at around 2.5 miles my right leg started hurting a little bit.  Now on any given run a random pain could show up, so I’m not gonna blame the Kinvara’s for that on this run (but I’ve not had any pain on my right leg before or since). Other than that it was like going for a run in my older shoes.

I really liked the fit and feel of the Kinvara.  I was focused more on how the shoe felt than on my footstrike.  I ran a new route but my time was several minutes faster than a 3 mile run in the past week and one of my faster runs in the past month.  Again, I don’t want to give too much credit to the shoes specifically for that, because a lot of factors could play into running faster on any given day.  But several minutes is fairly substantial without any noticeable difference in effort.

Overall my first run in the Kinvara actually went better than my first run in a new pair of ASICS – GT 2150 which is a stability shoe of the same ilk as I’d been wearing. My feet didn’t hurt, the didn’t seem to mind the lack of support found in the stability shoe.

The biggest problem, which I expected, was later in the day and the next day my ankles hurt on the sides of the achilles tendon.  I’ve had this problem before with Saucony.   I ran in Saucony a lot and bought a trail shoe to use for running and hiking for a summer in Yellowstone. Part way through the summer I strained my achilles and I’ve never been able to run in Saucony since.  I actually traded my Saucony’s that summer with my roommate.  Oddly, I was able to race in a Saucony flat, but never a trainer.  Needless to say, this made me a little nervous about trying the Kinvara’s out and I wasn’t surprised when the sides of my achilles hurt.  Fortunately, the pain went away by the end of the 2nd day.

Final Thoughts: I plan to give the Kinvara at least one more shot.  I know to truly have an opinion about a shoe I need to give them a few tries, but that will all depend on the achilles. I will test them out on another short run and see how things go.  I’m not sure if the achilles pain is something that will get strengthened over time or not.  But I think that if I just add the Kinvara into my shoe rotation that I might be fine.

Just a reminder that I received my Kinvara’s free for the purposes of reviewing.

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Got IT Pain?

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A tight IT Band is not a good sign.  It needs to be stretched out and loosened up or it could turn into the dreaded IT Band Syndrome.

I was told my a massuse last year that my IT Band was extremely tight.  So I started stretching it on a regular basis.  I did some research and found this excellent information sheet about the IT Band.  By a trained physical therapist it lists some of the who, what, when, where, why, and how questions of the IT Band.

I think most of us are most concerned about not having problems with it and could care less about some of the anatomy that surrounds it.  She lists five keys to preventing ITBS – but they are actually almost identical steps to preventing any injury!

The list is:

– Changing running shoes every 300-400 miles and alternating between shoes with every run.  I’ve occasionally talked about my shoes and shoe preferences.

– Slowly increasing mileage (no more than 10% a week or on any run), including adding hill workouts gradually.  Downhills can add a lot of strain to the ITB.

– Avoid uneven surfaces.  More likely always running on the same side of a cambered or cantered surface like a road.  One leg can become predisposed to ITB because of the extra pressure placed on it.

– Keep the knees warm. Seems like if you are predisposed this might be helpful.  She said below 60 – but above 40 I’m wanting to wear shorts.

– Cool down and stretch after a run.  Ice if needed.

The article continues on and offers some stretches and strength training ideas specific to the ITB.  For now you’ll just have to go read up on it.

[tags] IT Band, ITBS, iliotibial band [/tags]

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USATF-MN Team/Championship Schedule

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The 2009 USATF-MN Team Circuit and Championship Race Schedule was voted on awhile back.  Here is the schedule:

I recognize at least two races are missing from the schedule which is good! Last year I ran the 5000m championship on the track and that wasn’t very exciting. The Earth Day Half Marathon was also on last year’s circuit.  It was the weekend before Boston last year and I imagine that is why it got left out of the schedule this year. It is a little odd that there isn’t a half-marathon on the schedule at all though.

Here is an interview with USATF Minnesota Long Distance Running Competition Chairman Ed Whetham from Down the Backstretch about the 2009 circuit.

[tags] USATF-MN, USATF, Championship [/tags]

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