Shiny Shoes

Very exciting day, I got new shoes yesterday. This is them.

Very pretty.

I don't usually get that pumped about running shoes but I am actually pretty excited about these. These are me trying something new, these are Mizuno shoes.

I have liked Mizuno as a brand for a while. My interest has been for my usual reason, they strike me as well designed. They seem to go to a lot of effort to keep the weight of their shoes down while still providing the required support. Their wave plate system also seems pretty nifty. They have the feel of a shoe that has had a fair bit of thought put into them.

I have actually tried Mizuno shoes before, but it was just after my stress fracture and I was being super senstive to any niggle and in the end I retreated to the security of my Asics. My legs are in a better state now (I hope) and my physio has been saying for a little while that I probably don't need the level of support that I once did. Hence my venture into a lighter, less supportive (hopefully quicker) shoe.

So what have I gone for? Well the white ones on the left are Wave Inspire 10s and the plan is to use them as a training shoe. The very blue ones on the right are Mushas, which is actually an outgoing model, but they will be replaced by the Sayonara for 2014 I gather. The plan is for the Mushas to be a race shoe.

I usually pass my old running shoes on to my grandfather to become his walking shoes. I am not so sure with these ones. They are not particularly subtle shoes. If I do pass them on to him though one thing is for sure, he will be the funkiest dressed nonagenarian walking the forehore.

So far I have only had a chance to have a brief jog in the new shoes, but everything feels good. I will have a bit of a proper run in the Inspire 10s tomorrow morning and report back how they feel.

In other news I was back at the pool this morning for my first post Christmas Swim Smooth session. It was Swim Smooth's first Wednesday morning back and you could tell that everyone was a bit apprehensive about having a 5km post Christmas session. You could almost smell the fear on the pool deck.

The session certainly slapped me in the face with the fact that I had been racing on the weekend. I felt okay for the first couple of kms, but the later half of the session I was feeling pretty flat. I am not too stressed about it, it was a tough race on Saturday and so I kind of expected to still be feeling it. I certainly wasn't alone in my post race suffering.

My other accomplishment for the day is that I managed to book some accommodation in Geelong for the Geelong 70.3. It is something that I have been meaning to do for a while but not quite getting around too. I realised today that I had probably left it a bit late. I half expected to be left sleeping under a park bench cuddling my P5 for warmth. However, to my surprise I did manage to find something. Not pretty, but adequate. In this case adequate will do.

Final bit of news. Big congratulations to Tim Green, one of my mates up in Darwin who also trains with Daryl. Tim announced the other day that he had just successfullly applied for his professional license. To those who have seen Tim race (or more correctly, blur past) that probably isn't to much of a surprise. But still it is great see. Congrats.