My New Purchase

..for a mere $175 dollars.

Nope - it's not a new Garmin 305 that I wrote about in the previous post. I decided to throw you guys a little curveball instead. No, what I bought was something I have been equally pining for for some time now, but couldn't get myself to justify the price tag.

Until today. Today, you are looking at the owner of a new pair of Newton running shoes, courtesy of Frontrunners in Brentwood.


Don't know what it was that made me finally take the plunge but my tempo run this morning may have played a part (more on that in a bit).

If you haven't seen or heard of them before, they are shoes specifically designed to promote forefoot running which many argue to be the more 'natural' and 'efficient' way of running. I started prescribing to that theory right around the time I started running a couple of years ago after my coach adjusted my mechanics to that of a more mid-foot strike as opposed to heel-striking.

I'll let the following video do most of the explaining behind the 'science' of the shoe:



Anyway, to today's workout. Today was another double day beginning with a lactate threshold run in the wee hours of the morning. I drove over to Clover Park again with my mind set on running 11 miles with 6 miles of that at tempo pace. Unfortunately, my body had other ideas.

First of all, the tempo paces were hard to come by. I've come to the conclusion that I'm just not that great at running fast in the morning. But, I obviously need to find a way to overcome that since I don't know too many races that run late afternoon to early evening.

Anyway, I was huffing and puffing my way through the tempo miles when my stomach started cramping with about a quarter of a mile left in my 3rd set. Being the wuss that I am, I decided to finish up that mile, use another mile as a cool down before calling it a morning. Only finished with 6 miles total with 3 @ LT pace:

Mile 3 - 7:17
Mile 4 - 7:03
Mile 5 - 7:20 (stomach pain w/ .25 to go)

I don't know what the main impetus was, but on my way home from work this afternoon, I decided that today would be the day that I finally purchased the Newtons. This would be my 2nd time trying them on and I took my sweet time at the shoe store before finally deciding on a pair I liked. I was determined to try them out right away, but because I can initially only put in a few miles at a time (since it takes awhile for the different muscles in the leg to get acclimated to running in them), I made myself put in no more than 3-4 miles tonight.

A few things that I noticed right away. First of all, they are very light (10.4 oz). Secondly, it was very hard to run at my 'true' recovery pace of around 9-9:30 splits. The legs wanted to move and so I ran them a little quicker than I normally would. This is not to say that it required the same amount of effort. No, there was a little more effort involved - but not by much, at least as far as my recovery heart rate was concerned (usually <150 bpm, averaged 150 bpm exactly on this run). My pace for what turned out to be 4 miles total averaged 8:37. Lastly, they really excelled on the small incline of the freeway overpass that I decided to sprint up on my way back home.

Total for the day for both workouts = 10.2 miles.

My review will remain inconclusive for now as it's just one run. I can tell you that it feels like I just completed a set of calf raises, but I'm sure they will adapt over time. I'm primarily planning on using them for speed work and for shorter races since I'm concerned about too much wear on these $175 pair of shoes (gulp). The guy told me a pair would last 300-500 miles, but I'm not exactly considered 'small' for a distance runner at 180 lbs, so I may go through them a little faster.

In the meantime, good people at Newton - if you feel like sponsoring an average, middle-of-the-pack runner like myself at any point, please do not hesitate. Ironman champ Craig Alexander, I'm not. But I promise to love you guys more than he ever could.