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many poor choices at this weekends race, here's just one...

morpheusmorpheus
in General Training Discussions

I'll focus on this one thing for now.  Oly.  My run blew up.  Hot/Humid/hills/lifestuff/etc.  But, felt great going into it.  Bummed that run came in at 8 min over my 'expected time'.  58 minutes.  lots of variables, but I want to ask about shoes.

Been running in the Nike Free Run for about 8 months.  3 weeks ago, I picked a pair of the minimalists New Balance Minimus.  Been using them for the shorter runs and for warmups and cooldowns on the longer runs.  For some knucklehead reason, I chose to use these for the tri. 

Not only was my run too slow for my liking (many variables went into this, I know), but my legs are so fookin' sore today that I would have thought I ran a marathon yesterday.  Cramps, yes.  Hilly ride, yes.  But, I have to wonder if some of this residual soreness is coming from doing too much too soon with a minimalist shoe. 

So, now I'm thinking...train with the Minimus and race with some traditional lightweight? Or, just get faster and more accustomed to racing in the Minimus?

 

Know there's no black/white answer to this but any feedback would be welcomed.

Thx,

Chris

Comments

  • Neill MorganNeill Morgan
    All I can add is my n=1 research, but it's consistent with your own experience. I have a pair of Brooks racing flats that I use for my Vdot tests and 5k races. I ran a 10k race in them and felt so sore in my hips, I decided not to do that again. At shorter distances, the light weight is definitely an advantage. But, at 52, I find myself paying too much for speed when I buy it at the expense of my joints. Maybe if you work out in them, building up to a lot of speed work, your body would adjust. Or, it would protest with an injury if you built up too fast. It's a balancing act for sure.
  • morpheusmorpheus
    and I wonder, since I haven't really adjusted to this style of running, maybe it did negatively affect my time (?). I mean, I know the other things (over biking, heat, humidity, etc) played a big role in it, but it was a bad choice to try to race in them. I did 'break' them in. Meaning, got thru the blister phase and didn't have any obvious problems, but, had yet to really test them out over any significant distance, much less at an aggressive pace. They're not too far removed from barefoot running. I wasn't ready.
  • Joseph LombardiJoseph Lombardi
    It really could be a result of the heat/humidity and dehydration...can't see much difference between Nike Free and the Minimum...there ain't much to the Nike Free.
  • morpheusmorpheus
    You're probably right. I'm reaching. Just can't recall being this sore after an Oly since the newbie days, especially coming off of a consistent OS and consistent training up to now.

    Maybe I just need to brush it aside and move forward.
  • Gordon CherwoniakGordon Cherwoniak

    Chris,

    Not much to add as I use a heavier shoe due to my weight but check out the thread started by coach Rich on moving to a ligher weight shoe for IM.  I know it's not Oly's but still some good information in there:

    http://members.endurancenation.us/T...fault.aspx

    Gordon

  • morpheusmorpheus
    Thx, I chimed in over there, too.
  • morpheusmorpheus
    Thx, I chimed in over there, too.
  • Joseph LombardiJoseph Lombardi

    Also...did you taper at all for this? or was this a B/C race that you effectively trained through...and what is your current training load?...I really doubt its a shoe issue...explore the other things around the event/training.

     

  • morpheusmorpheus
    might have overtapered! family vacay at the beach> stayed active, beach cruiser rides (some accels on these), some beach runs, lots of ocean swimming, SUP. but no real structure. You're right, this screwed up taper probably didn't help. And, this was a B race.
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