Since August of last year, I have been training and racing in Zoot’s Ultra Race 2.0 running shoes. I have done sprint and olympic distance triathlons in my first pair, and I just completed my first-ever marathon wearing my second pair. I had run in Nike, Saucony, Asics, and Newtons before, and these are totally different. All those other shoes feel like heavily padded moon boots compared to these puppies. These are super light, and super thin. There is no extra material on these. And coming from those other thick shoes, it didn’t feel right at first. I felt like I was wearing a reinforced sock more than a shoe. The sole is very, very thin and there isn’t much padding. The upper is a thin layer of…whatever that stuff is, leathery stuff. You don’t feel like you’re getting much for your money when you pick them up or put them on, and especially not when you look at them, but I can’t speak more highly of how they performed. I’m a 200 lbs guy, so trust me, I was nervous to run in something without a lot of padding on the sole, but I never had any problems I would blame on the shoe (some other problems, but I don’t believe they had anything to do with my shoes).

The real moment of conversion for me came when I tried running in an old pair of my shoes. Since running in the Zoots I had started running on my toes and avoiding heelstriking. When I went back and tried running in a pair of Sauconys, it was hard to not heelstrike because the heel was so big. That’s when I realized I could never go back to a standard shoe that isn’t designed to keep you from heelstriking, and the Zoot shoe is great for making it easy to run on your toes.

Pros

• Super light
• Quick to get on (if you’ve used Yankz, these have the same type of thing built in–you slip the shoe on, pull a string, and your laces tighten instantly without any tying anything).
• Comfortable
• Airy
• Great sockless shoe
• Results–Hey, I trained for and ran my first marathon as a 200 lbs guy in these dogs. What better testimonial could you ask for?

Cons

• Ankle wear – I never had any problem with blisters or wear in these prior to my marathon, but on the marathon the part of the heel you grab to pull the shoe on wore slightly on my Achilles area and wore it raw during the marathon. It would have been easily preventable had I ever had this issue come up on my long training runs, but it never did. Evidently it took a marathon for me to find this out.
• Ugly – Seriously, ugliest shoe ever.
• While they’re airy due to ventilation holes in the sole, that means they’re not the greatest shoe for winter training in snow, slush, or other wetness.

Would I buy a third pair? Yeah, this is definitely the best shoe I’ve run in to date (although I’d like to spend some more time in Newtons), so I’m hesitant to mess with a good thing.

My interest in running in bare feet was piqued more recently when my coach recommended, or commanded, that I start running on my toes. Then my friend posted about the Vibram Five Fingers “shoes” he had gotten, and at a later day he told me he loved them. Then Te Koi told me how much he loves Newtons and sent me this link reviewing Newton shoes. And finally today I read this LA Times article on the merits of running, not with any special shoe that simulates barefoot running, but actually running in bare feet.

Te Koi has loaned me a pair of his old Newton’s, which I’m very excited to try on, although my excitement lacks follow through seeing as how they’ve been in my house for over a week and I haven’t done anything with them. I think that will probably be a good starting point for me. I’m definitely not sold on running barefoot, mostly because I’m afraid of glass, rocks, twigs, nails, roadkill, dog poo, etc. I’m also not sure if I’m ready to jump into the Vibram Five Fingers yet (although if they want to send me a pair to review, I’d love to try them out, but I doubt they need my help as apparently they’re selling like hotcakes already, and you know how hotcakes sell). So trying out the Newtons and the Nike Free will probably be the first step for me (no pun intended, but feel free to enjoy it if you like…or not, whatever).

Anyway, this isn’t much of a review because I can only compare them to one other pair of earbuds, since I’ve only had one pair before. Are they better than the iPod buds? Yep, definitely. Are they better than anything else out there? I have no clue, but they aren’t bad.

Cadence and rpm are used throughout your training plan. How many right (or left) foot strikes are there in 60 seconds? The goal for a triathlete is 90 per minute per foot (or ~22 in 15 seconds = ~90 per minute) on the bike and run. That will feel very weird at first, but will make a huge difference. Only do this high cadence for a few minutes per run, and work on getting up on your toes. But again, only a few minutes at a time on the run to not kill your legs this early.

Now I’m the type of guy who has trouble doing things if I don’t know why I’m doing them, and someone saying it “will make a huge difference” doesn’t quite do it for me. So I sort of…well, ignored this part about running on my toes, and I didn’t quite get the connection between cadence and being on my toes. That is, until I tried it.

I normally run a 10-minute mile. I can run faster for 2-3 miles, but that’s about as far as I can run if I’m going faster, whereas I can do 13 miles and average 10-minute miles and that just barely pushes the limits. That is, I can still carry on a conversation while doing a 10-minute mile, but only with some difficulty. But the other day, I really tried running on my toes and made a real effort to get my cadence up to where my coach wanted it. And wow, what a difference.  All of a sudden I jumped from doing 10-minute miles to 9-minute miles, and at the same time my heart rate was lower (about 140 bpm vs. 150 bpm). In other words, I was running 10% faster and it took less effort.

The strange part, the the part that made it difficult initially and which still makes it difficult if I don’t concentrate on my cadence and form, is that even though I was running quite a bit faster, it felt slower. I felt as though I were running in place. And yet I was looking down at my Garmin and the numbers don’t lie–I really was running quite a bit faster.

As my coach pointed out, it’s hard on the muscles and knees to do this at first. I do feel it in certain muscles, but I especially felt it in my knees. Not that it feels as though I’m doing any damage, but I can feel that I need to build up to doing this all the time.

That said, on my last run I tried to stay on my toes and keep the cadence up for the entire 30 minutes, and my muscles did just fine, although I could feel it a little in my knees. But as soon as I stopped running I didn’t feel it in my knees and haven’t felt a trace of it since. My next run is 45 minutes, and I plan on doing it on my toes all over again, and I suspect my knees and muscles will hold up pretty well.

Again, it’s hard to switch from touching your heel on every stride to taking short, mincing, girly steps, but trust me, it makes a huge difference.

A brick, in triathlon termage, is when you do two disciplines in your training, back to back. In other words, you ride your bike, then you jump off and do a run immediately afterward. That’s a brick. If you jump out of the swimming pool and onto your bike, then that would also be a brick workout. But most commonly, when someone says they are doing a brick they mean they’re going to do a bike-run combo workout.

Generally when you do a brick you want to transition as quickly as possible from your bike to your run, because that’s what you’re be doing in the real event, and we’re trying to simulate that. I bike out of my garage, and so I’ll leave my running shoes where I park my bike in the garage so that I can quickly take off my bike-specific gear, put my running shoes on, and be back outside running with minimal downtime. If you take 10 minutes to transition from your bike to your run then you’re missing out on the immensely pleasurable feeling of taking off running while your legs are still hurting and wobbly from the bike ride. I used to leave my running shoes outside so I could just dump my bike on the lawn and be off running real quick, but since getting my new carbon frame bike I don’t think I’ll be “dumping” my bike anywhere, especially not anywhere outside.

Why is it called a brick?

Shawn Hardy says it’s because your legs feel like bricks when you start running right after the bike workout. Rhonda Cohen says the same thing, so I think that means it’s a fact. Good enough fact checking for the New York Times, anyway, right?

It’s true, when you get off that bike and get to running, your legs will feel like lead, jelly, bricks, or whatever other metaphor you want to come up with. Suffice it to say they won’t feel like moving. But don’t worry, that feeling usually goes away after a minute or two of running, and then you’ll feel fine. Unless you overdid it on the bike, in which case it will just get worse and worse until you vomit, everything turns black, and you wake up with an IV in your arm and somebody telling you you’re out of the race. Ok, that probably won’t happen during your training. If this happens while you’re training then you’ll just lie on the side of the road until you wake up with somebody fiddling in your pockets looking for your wallet.

Today was the Salt Lake City Marathon, which also included half-marathon and 5K events. As you can see from the above photo, I did pretty well, finishing just a few steps behind the 1st place finisher of the marathon. He came up so fast I didn’t notice him, otherwise I could have sprinted and perhaps beat him. Of course I was running the half-marathon and he was running the full.

My total time was 2:10:50, or 9:59 per mile. Yeah, I was working hard to make sure I got under 10-minute miles. Considering the last time I ran a half-marathon, as part of a half-Ironman a full year ago, my miles were about 13 minutes apiece, I think this was a distinct improvement. And yes, that means the 1st place guy I finished just behind was running 5 minute miles for 26.2 miles and finished in just over 2 hours. My wife also ran the half and we ran together the entire way. That wasn’t planned, because we thought we had different paces (we never train together), but it worked out that way.

My legs and back were just fine. My left foot was fine at first, but started hurting a bit after a few miles. I tried running on the left side of the road, so that the curve of the road would ease the pressure off the outside of my foot, and that did seem to help. The pain never got too bad, although it did worry me for a bit. I think I just never let the injury fully heal, which is why I’m still feeling it a bit. Around mile 10 or 11 the pain completely disappeared and I felt great all the way to the end.

The other interesting thing is that around mile 12 I started running a little faster and the faster I ran the easier it seemed to get. Maybe I should have been running the entire thing faster…

There was some controversy regarding the Salt Lake Marathon. Apparently last year some vendors didn’t get paid by the organizer, and some prize winners have still not been paid, or something like that. Overall the event did seem to be fairly well organized, except for some traffic control at the beginning and picking up gear bags at the end. At the first turn of the event people were running across a street in between cars. Yes, in between cars. Individual cars were surrounded by runners and couldn’t move without hitting someone. I’m guessing they were stuck there for 15-20 minutes. A couple of cones could have solved the problem. There were some cops there but they didn’t seem to be doing anything. And then the gear bags, ugh. C’mon people, it’s not that hard to come up with an efficient system. That part seemed to be completely disorganized. I was also a bit surprised that they were so stingy with the Creamies popsicles. Hey, I paid $80 for this race and you don’t want to give me two popsicles? Are things really that desperate? There should be enough popsicles that everybody could have a box, let alone two or three of them. Sorry, but I’m kind of partial to Creamies. They’re really good. Other than the short supply of popsicles and the gear bag organization I don’t have any complaints. Oh wait, one more. How about providing gels, energy bars, and fruit at aid stations in addition to water and Gatorade? I have to admit the aid stations at my half-Ironman had a much better selection, or that is, a selection.

The shirts are just fine. Nylon (why did my half-Ironman hand out cotton t-shirts?), and the size was right for me, and the design is ok (the design on my half-Ironman tee is pretty lame). The medallions were just fine. I don’t really care about those too much. So all in all I’d say I’m pretty happy with everything. Oh, and the weather was perfect. You couldn’t ask for better weather. Cool, but not cold, and good cloud cover to keep you from getting sunburned.

Other than that, the ones that look good to me are the Deseret News marathon (also in Salt Lake City) on July 24th (my family would be in town to watch, so that might be nice), Park City marathon on August 22nd, Top of Utah September 19th, and then St. George October 3rd, except I hear it’s pretty tough to get into that one, and I wouldn’t want to miss doing one this year.

My wife will be running it with me. That is, we’ll be starting together, then I’ll take off going faster, will get tired and start walking, she’ll pass me, then I’ll start running again, pass her, get tired and walk, she’ll pass me, etc. Well, maybe, I guess we’ll see. But I appear to be doing more walking in my training than she is, although my overall miles are still faster.

I’m doing a three-day-per-week training plan. Two shorter runs, then the long run at the end of the week. This week it was seven miles on Tuesday, five on Thursday, and tomorrow I’ll do nine. Next week I’ll do 7-5-10, then 7-5-11, etc. I’m not sure if it’s the best plan or not, but it will work given the limited time I had between my injury and starting training again. I’m going to be a little more scientific about it when it comes to training for the full marathon.

I went running this week for the first time in a month, and then ran a second time two days later (yesterday). Each run was just 1.8 miles, just to take it easy and see how my nerve would react. It didn’t hurt at all unless I tried to take a longer stride. There did seem to be a little flare up afterwards and for the next day, but it was very minor and seemed to be limited to certain parts of the nerve, while other parts seemed to have improved after the running. Overall it seemed like things got better, and today I feel much, much better.

If this were a month ago, I’d have no qualms about starting my 18-week marathon training program on December 15th. However, given that it’s January 9th and not December 9th, I’m trying to figure out what to do. If there is any conceivable way that I can train for a marathon in 14 weeks instead of 18 after coming off of a hamstring injury and not having run at all for the previous month, then I’m up for it and willing to do whatever it takes (as far as effort is concerned–I’m not about to pay somebody $10,000 if that’s what it takes). If this is a bad idea, then perhaps I should postpone and run a race later in the year. But I really don’t want to postpone this if at all possible. So I’ll be researching 14-week marathon training plans to see what I can come up with.