2014 - Asics vs New Balance vs Brooks and more

I ran 500 miles in few months this year and put some miles into some shoes. It's been 3 years since my first examination of Asics vs New Balance and my observations haven't changed. This time I'm adding in Brooks and Merrell Barefoot shoes into the mix.

Asics use gel soles with some of their Blur series using light, supple foam. Uppers are still ample and high quality. 

New Balance uses their Abzorbz Foam technology with light, durable fabrics in their newer and light shoes.

Both still do the job well, both offer a range of supportive to neutral running experiences. When comparing their newer lighter offerings, they become similar in many ways.

Asics still provides subtle gel-cushion, protective shoes with lighter than ever materials while keeping their snug wrap around feel. The latest Asics Kayano 20 are light, supportive, and probably the best rendition of the Kayano I have ever tried and I've been a fan since the Kayano 16s. I have a problem with pronation so after about 120 miles the cushioning became lopsided. I'd recommend these for 150 miles of running. Might last longer for those with less pronation or suppination (landing on the outside of the foot). They are on the higher end of shoe prices but the technology speaks for itself. You can often find last year's models on clearance. They still make the ultra cushioned and supportive Cumulus and Nimbus for those with a need for more cushioning.

New Balance 890s are still a public and triathlete favorite with a generous heel and nice mid-to-forefoot rake. I'm more of fan of the RC1400 and RC1600v2. These are minimally cushioned, flatter, neutral running mates. They do come in a little narrow so you'll need to try them on. I found them to be ultra light, provides just enough cushioning (my best 1/2 marathon of 1:46.43 was in the RC1400), and they are more neutral as they don't have an aggressive heel-to-toe rise. It's subtle and feels natural.

RC1600v2

This year I ran 208 miles in a pair of Brooks Cadence 2. They are into their 3rd version of the shoe and they are cushioned, light, and the integrated tongue is great so it never drifts to one side. These shoes lasted me about 200 miles on pavement before I had to stop wearing them. The tread was still decent but again with my weight bearing on the outside of the foot, it wore it down at about 175 miles into them. Fresh and new, these are a great set of shoes and I can see why people love Brooks.

Brooks Cadence 3

Merrel Road Glove 2

Recently I started running in Merrel Road Glove 2 minimalist shoes. Been loving it, only running about 12 miles a week.

Merrel Trail Glove 2

I also ran the Wild Wild West Marathon/50k (3rd oldest trail marathon in the USA) in a pair of Merrell Trail Glove 2.

New Balance RC1400 Glow

I'll be running next week at the Dumbo Double Dare at Disneyland (10k+1/2 Marathon) in a pair of New Balance RC1400s (the glow in the dark ones).

So go out there, try on some shoes. Have fun and let your feet and body be happy.

Goodbye heel strike! Hello neutral strike and good running form!

I've been hampered by a hamstring strain since October but kept running on it and finally got my gait checked out and been seeing a physical therapist for the past 3 weeks. Since October, I've turned to a high veggie diet, started working on core strength, hip strength, leg strength, and foot strength.

First was watching a video of my bad gait. My right foot obviously landing oddly. Then last week the PT found my left foot is pigeon toed. Foot strengthening and ankle strengthening is supposed to help correct this issue. With the hamstring, increasing hip strength, glute medius and maximus, while increasing core strength is supposed to aid in this new running form I'm trying to adopt.

I'm learning it takes time, lots of practice, and many hours put in running to develop the muscle memory and the muscles in the right places to support a good running form. It's actually more work than I thought which has made me realize how inactive so many other muscles were in my bad running form.

I'm also reading the Cool Impossible by Eric Orton (He coached Christopher McDougal who wrote Born to Run). The book is filled with feet, leg, and core strengthening exercises all aimed at strengthening running. It's been almost 4 weeks, I'm feeling a little stronger, a little better in form, and running isn't painful anymore, just hard work! One my moments of realization was landing each step with the core and starting the knee drive from my feet to my core and hips. So much to work on...

I've also switched to zero drop shoes. I'm feeling a little weakness in my feet but slowly strengthening. I'm running in Brooks PureFlow2 which are cushioned zero drop and RC1400 racing flats. My next purchase may be a pair of Altra which run about a half-size small.

Richard Diaz of Diaz Human Performance giving me a gait and VO2 analysis.

The Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend- 2014 Dopey Challenge - 48.6 Miles COMPLETED!

Last weekend me and my girlfriend completed the Walt Disney World - Dopey Challenge which consists of a 5k, 10k, 1/2 Marathon, and Full Marathon on consecutive days. The total is supposed to be 48.6 miles but with the extra walking to bathrooms, pictures, and side things it came out to about 50 miles on my Garmin.

Firstly the events are fun and if you stay at the Disney World Resort at a Disney Hotel they provide the transportation to the hotel/resort and all the events, including the runDisney Expo. Also if you stay at a Disney World hotel you get to their new MagicBands! This becomes your room key, park tickets, credit card... nearly everything!

Transportation from the airport

Magic Bands!

We arrived Tuesday night, had a nice dinner at The Flying Fish on the boardwalk (took a taxi). Great food, we really liked this restaurant. It was the best fine dining experience we had all weekend.

On Wednesday, took the shuttle to the Disney World ESPN Sports Complex to pick up our runner packets, drop bags, and jersies. We also picked up a Dopey Challenge commemorative pin and a couple other small items. It was all really well run and in the lines were smaller and moved quickly in the other buildings compared to the main expo center. They had a lot of new runDisney themed shoes too. Notice the little Mickey symbols inside the shoe!

Wide World of Sports

runDisney booth

runDisney Expo

runDisney New Balance shoes

We stopped and talked with our friends at Sparkle Athletic where my girlfriend picked up a pair of their Shwings (little wings that attach to your shoe) and also picked up a pair of Altra shoes where they had a nice expo price for them. We had a late lunch appointment at Fulton's Crab House in Downtown Disney and then tickets to Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba that evening so headed down there.

Fulton's Crab House is the boat

La Nouba theater

So... the running events... waking up and going to the 5k was not so bad. We got these cute pluto medals made of rubber. We spent the day at Animal Kingdom and returned to our room early in the evening. We went to bed as usual and made it to the 10k the next morning a little tired. After completing the 10k we headed to Epcot and spent the day there. We made it a point to return to the room early and get to bed by 8PM and wow it worked wonders because we were getting up at 3AM each day for the events.

1/2 Marathon start

We ran the 1/2 Marathon without issue. It went through Epcot and Magic Kingdom, ended early enough and we spend the day napping for a couple hours then headed off back to Epcot for the Pasta Dinner Party, we started walking back around 8:30 (since it opened at 7PM) and it started to pour! Wow! We got drenched and made it back into bed by about 10. Next time we are going to skip the pasta party since we really need the sleep to get up at 3AM each day, so we learned something. Excellent! However after getting our pictures with all the characters, we got back a little a later than intended. We only got about 5 hours of sleep before waking up to go to the full marathon.

Pictures with all the characters each event is themed with

The full marathon was grueling but not as bad as anticipated. We ran through all four parks and I was tight and a little sore from the 1/2 marathon the day before. So I went it at a slow pace but it was great running through some incredibly cool areas of the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. I tried all I could to keep up with the 4:45 group but ended up finishing at 5:11ish.

Walt Disney World Marathon start

Disney Speedway (we got to run around the whole race track and they had lots of cool cars to take pictures with)

Overall we had a great time running the events, it is really well organized and the bling was worthy of every minute running. We got to visit all the parks and even spent time with a friend, all on this trip. Will I ever try the Dopey Challenge ever again? I really don't think so but it was a wonderful experience to run the Inaugural Dopey Challenge and the Inaugural 10k to get those limited edition keepsakes. Thanks runDisney, Disney World, and all volunteers and workers that made this a really cool event!

Epcot during the 5K

Thanks for the magical memories!