Shoes etc.

Had to go to Oxford Circus today for work so stopped by Nike Town. Got a pair of the new Free 5.0. I wore the 2009 model in Luton 2009 and Edinburgh 2010 (yellow for Luton, grey for Edinburgh), and Edinburgh was by far my best ever marathon, so I have a good history with these shoes. Having brought these home today, I threw out my old grey 5.0's in which I had been continuing to run. They served me well but I'm happy to see them go, they'd grown a bit distended and ugly (they weren't very good looking to begin with, the new model looks much better). I think I will wear the new ones in Abingdon 2014.

Below is a photo of the new 5.0's with the St Albans t shirt I like so much and the new shorts I also got today at Nike Town. The outfit is laid out because I'm wearing it to work tomorrow -- I joined the Brunel gym today, and will start my five mile run from there tomorrow morning so afterwards I can lift some weights. Haven't lifted weights in years (used to do so regularly though) and am looking forward to it.

So I have a good shoe plan, eight pair of minimalist designs that I can alternate to keep my body guessing, to avoid overuse of any particular set of muscles/joints/tendons and thus better avoid injury. I have two pair of zero-drop shoes (Mizuno Wave Evo Ferus Trail [which I especially love]; Puma Faas Zero), two racing-flat-style 4mm drop (Mizuno Wave Universe 3 and 4), two more padded 4mm drop (2012 and 2013 Nike Free 3.0), and two relatively padded approximately 8mm drop (New Balance MT101 and the new Free 5.0).

Next race on the horizon is the Wycombe Half Marathon, which I plan to run for the fourth time on 20 July.