Finding my way to Briones

I determined that this morning, I'd find out how to get to Briones on the Briones Mt Diablo Trail. I did manage to find it, but it was a bit farther than I thought, and I had to turn around once I found the trailhead. On the way, I did manage to get better pictures of the cows and calves than before. And of course I took a picture at the trailhead into Briones Park.

Pictures from this morning's run up the hill

It was a beautiful morning, the full moon was out in force and the weather was perfect. I tried to get the moon over the hill in the first picture, but my camera just wasn't quite up to it. By the time I got to the top of the ridge, the moon had escaped completely, so I didn't get a second chance. I did see two calves, but I didn't think about a picture until I had passed them, so the pictures are kinda far away. But the run was great, and I totally understand now why trail runners love minimal shoes... They're absolutely perfect for trail running.

BTW, the relevant dailymile post is here.

Asics Hyper Speed 4 rock my little world

I figured I owe a follow up here on my previous shoe post. I went running in the shoes on Wednesday, and I concluded that while they were awesome, the size 12 were about half a size too small. Happily, I am not stuck with them, because Running Warehouse is awesome and let me return them anyways. So now I have size 12.5 and they fit great. I went for a run in them tonight, with good results. I really don't think I'll ever go back to more conventional shoes, these feel so much better. But I also don't think I'll be running anything more than a 10k any time soon, as I'm definitely feeling that my body needs some time to fully get used to having less support.

Interesting article on the biomechanics of efficient running form

The simple question of how do you run is largely unanswered in the running community. You have a bunch of pseudo-guru styles like Pose or Chi, but the key to running correctly to maximize performance is a topic that is largely left to elite coaches or biomechanics experts. As Pete Larson pointed out in his blog, elite coaches like Alberto Salazar extol the benefits of working on running form, but no one has told the masses how. In the following article, it's my goal to unmask the "secrets" and provide the answers. The bulk of this article comes from information gleaned mostly from working with world class track coaches like Tom Tellez and a great High School coach in Gerald Stewert. Throw in some biomechanics classes in undergrad and graduate school and the picture is a little more complete.
via scienceofrunning.com

I don't know if I can put it better than that. It's worth a read.

I'm going to try running in more minimal shoes today

My trusty Mizuno Wave Riders are seriously at the end of their life, so I needed to buy new shoes. It also seems like an opportune time to try some minimal shoes. I tried on the Saucony Kinvara (way too narrow) and the Nike Free Run+ (good feel, but also narrow, and with way too much height to be actually minimal) at Fleet Feet, but that was all they had in the category. After calling around with not much luck, I did more research online, and decided to order a few shoes from runningwarehouse.com (btw, runblogger.com has a 10% off coupon for Running Warehouse).

I decided on trying the Mizuno Ronin (I've been pretty happy with my Mizunos, and the Ronin is supposed to be a step more towards minimal than the Rider), the Asics Gel Hyperspeed 4, and the Inov-8 F-Lite 230. The Hyperspeed was recommended by folks on the Chirunning forums: people with wider feet seemed to like it, and it stil has some cushioning, so it was mentioned as a good shoe for transitioning to minimal. The Inov-8 was mention on runblogger.com in the minimal shoe roundup, and since I enjoy trail running more than road running, I figured it might be a good choice.

The shoes arrived yesterday, and the Mizuno almost immediatle disqualified itself. Unlike the nice flexibility of the Wave Rider, the Ronin has a much stiffer sole, which is something I just can't abide by. It was a much closer match between the F-Lite 230 and the Hyperspeed. Both have a good amount of flexibility and feel good. However, the F-Lite 230 was a little large, and I had ordered the last one that Running Warehouse had in stock. Also, while I fancy myself a trail runner, right now I tend to run more on pavement, and the softer sole in the Hyperspeed seems much more suited to that. Lastly, the Hyperspeed is $60, and the F-Lite 230 is $95. That pretty much closed the argument.

So I'm going to do my lunch run today in the Hyperspeed 4's and see how things go. 

Update: Somehow I think this post got caught by Posterous's spam filters, and I must have missed the email that told me that I needed to tell posterous that yes, I was the one that posted it. But now that I've noticed that, I've posted it. Yay.

Trail: 1, Left Ankle: 0

I ran the Rocky Ridge Trail 10k instead of the half marathon, since I hadn't been running as much as I would have liked on account of twisting my left ankle a month ago, and my right ankle about 2 weeks ago. The trail was great, and the views were beautiful from the top of the ridge. However, on the way down, I stepped wrong and twisted my left ankle pretty badly. Amazingly enough, after walking the last 2 miles, I managed to finish in 25th. And I did get to meet Caballo Blanco, which was neat.

After twisting my ankle this many times, I've come to the conclusion that I need to try switching to some lower profile shoes, maybe something like the New Balance MT100s. Sadly, given that I can't really walk right now, that's going to have to wait a bit. (My personal OT tells me that I've got to take something like 3 months for this one... =/)

I survived the Bear Creek Trail Half Marathon, despite the sun's best efforts

It was a hard and HOT run. 13.2 miles with an average temperature in the high 80s, a couple large hills, and only occasional shade was... painful. It's the first run where I actually got to many points where I couldn't run and had to walk. What amazes me is that even with that, I managed to come in 21st out of the 81 half marathon runners.

 There was one spot in the middle, after the first two large hills where we ran across an open field, no shade, nothing. I could only think of the desert levels in Super Mario Brothers: the ones with the evil sun that tries to kill you.

 So yeah, I survived, and amazingly enough everyone that started the run finished it. Yesterday, I wasn't sure if I was going to do their third run in the series, but now I'm tempted to do so. It should be cooler, and obviously I must like pain. ;-)