Gear Review and Quick Training Update

The relationship between me and saucony started by chance. In October of last year I bought my Garmin Forerunner 410 full price. About 2 weeks later, I saw my sparkling new device in the running room magazine, for about 100 dollars cheaper. So I ran back to the running room, showed the manager the magazine, and he gave me a 100$ credit to be used in the store. Now at this point I was in kind of a limbo with my shoes. Coming off the 2012 Scotiabank Marathon my training shoes were making their slow transition into retirement, and I had actually started to use my adidas adios 2.0 racing flats for the bulk of my training, I was even throwing in my brooks launch into the mix. I knew I would use the money to buy new shoes, however I don't really like the style of shoes sold at the running room - too many nimbus', kayanos' (my least fav - useless technology with all that gel), etc.

I did see that the store sold saucony kinvara 3s. The lightweight trainer which can be used for racing as well, and it seemed like the perfect shoe to buy. However, the only reason I hadn't bought the shoes before was because reviews showed the durability on the shoes to be questionable at best. But no other shoe caught my eye so I thought why not give them a try - it's "free" money anyways. Well, 3 pairs of saucony kinvara 3 now retired, you can say I like the shoes alot. For me they last about 600 kilometers (which is pretty good considering their weight). April came along and I had seen on Saucony's site that on May 1st the Kinvara 4s would come out in Canada. So I got my money ready, and planned out my Kinvara 3s 3rd generation to last exactly to that date. Unfortunately, May 18 came along and still no stores in Canada sold the shoes. The next day at work, I checked just for kicks the running room site and finally the shoes were there. I went to the store after work bought them, and went for a 30 kilometer long run. Over 270 kilometers of running later the shoes feel great. They feel a little less springy than the 3s, but they seem to offer alot more structure while actually being lighter, all thanks to the new powergrid base. They really help promote that midfoot strike, and the fit is like a sock. The flexfilm provides a great fit, and the tongue/lace portion feels light and breathable.

You can see the lowered heel and the new PowerGrid. 

 Also some much needed adjustments that saucony made was lowering the heel to counter irritation to the achilles tendon that the 3s caused, and moved some of the flexfilm which caused irritation near the pinky toe. Thanks to the new foam, the durability seems to have improved (won't know for sure yet) since the sole seems to be relatively intact still - keep in mind in the sizzling hot summer that I can feel approaching the shoes will simply not last as long compared to the spring or winter (running on top of snow). Overall, love the shoes. 

My shins feel great, knee are good, achilles is good, and im ready to take on the Barrie half. Tues, and Thurs are my really big training days where I will bike to york for my 1.5 hour aqua fitness class, bike back home, go on a 25k or so interval style run, and immediately after go for a 65+ kilometer bike ride, then do some honest ab work. Today, I pushed myself harder than ever and pushed my body's limits thanks to the heat - feeling like 37 w/ the humidex. I don't like to carry water on my runs, and today I could have used it. When I came back in from the run I was 8lbs lighter. Not to worry thanks to litres and litres of water I'm okay. With the amount of water I gulped down right after I legitimately started to worry about hypoatremia - if you down know what that is it is basically when you drink water in excess of your kidney's filtering capacity (about 10L) which throws off your serum sodium levels and can be fatal. Anyways, love to hear some comments about your favorite shoes, or even how you stay hydrated on big training days. OO ya, and one more thing Ryan Hall is back to racing. He ran the Bay to Breakers 12km finishing second with a time of 35:40! He then ran the Gatorade Half Marathon in Costa Rica a week later and won by more than four minutes over second place with a time of 1:04:09. Ya sure, it's not quite the 59:43 he ran in Houston in 2007, but keep in mind the weak field therefore there was no one really there to push him. Plus he showed some rust by going out too fast (set a PR of 7:54 over the first 3k) and faded on the back stretch because of it. But still, good to see him back, and I can't wait to see which fall full marathon he chooses - maybe NYC?