Say Good Bye to my Little Friend!

C25K W6D2 was put to bed this morning. It's the last run that includes any walking intervals in the C25K plan. Yikes. As fellow C25K blogger, Gary said "I'm going to miss my little buddies."

Oh well, that's progress I guess. As I ran today I felt I was very close to being able to run without the break, and naturally did so in the final day of Week 5 as well. So the coming weeks I am sure aren't insurmountable, just a bit of a stretch on previous days, as is this entire wonderful running plan. 6 short weeks ago running 1 minute at a time was a challenge, and now we're up to 25.

I ran for the first time today in the new Nike's I mentioned in the earlier post. I'd been developing some knee pain, swelling and stiffness and decided to try the new shoe approach. I've been icing the knee and taking some ibuprofen, but rather than a simple overuse issue I thought I might have a slight pronation problem.

I went to my local Running Room Store and had the staff take a look. I'm always a bit suspicious whether the staff at a local store can effectively diagnose this with a quick look. Twice before the people at Running Room had a look and said I had a mild pronation problem which required a stability shoe. (My existin shoes were fairly new at that point so I hesitate to buy.)

This time, one person said it was a significant pronation problem and would require a mobility shoe. She wasn't entirely sure of herself however, and had a more experienced person look. This person disagreed with the other and said a stability shoe would do the trick. So effectively I've had 3 of 4 say a stability shoe, and that's good enough for me.

I settled on Nike Zoom Air Structure Triax II. How's that for a name! I'm sure Nike has a theory on advanced shoe pricing and the main component of the pricing structure is to charge $6 per letter in the shoe's name.

Anyway, I ran in the today, and I must say they feel quite a bit different than my previous Saucony Grids.

These are an all round firmer more structured shoe, with a higher arch and a significantly firmer (almost hard) insole. I thought they were a bit more comfortable and certainly a more stable shoe. Although to the touch, they don't feel very cushioned, in use I didn't detect a problem with the feel. My knee definitely didn't seem to feel as sore as I ran, although the test here will be how it feels a few hours after I run. I certain the inflammation will still take some time to dissipate but maybe this shoe change will prevent it from getting worse. I report back on it over the next couple of week, but, so far, so good.