Fountain of Youth: Need for Speed

 BOOM, BOOM, POW....Now that I got your attention I am going to recap the month of June in terms of training, racing and life's obstacles/choices that I have encountered.  Sometimes I like to think of myself as a creative writer, a person who looks at life slightly differently than others from time to time. My training is no different as of late, I have held my focus away from running more than I ever have over the last 7 years so and fortunately have been able to still have some minor success along my journey.

   As the first week of May hit, I decided that it would be a great time to jump back into my training regimen but under a totally new perspective and approach. After The Cooper River 10k and my unset of pain from my shins, I shifted my focus away from all forms of cardio to solely strength building. I was hitting the weight room 3x a week pretty hard core and noticed some solid gains in a 5-6 week process. No I did not come out looking like I was hopped up on the roids BUT I felt 10x stronger, more powerful and confident than ever. For the first time ever I felt that taking a few steps back and looking ahead into the long term, this change of focus would be hugely beneficial. Building strength with muscles that are weak or very seldom used, it could only increase my chances of staying injury free as well as being able to lift a couch effortlessly if a friend ever needed my assistance.

   Despite being very reluctant I began incorporating lunges, squats and the leg press into my "off season" routine, it brought along some pretty stellar soreness but I enjoyed the change.  This new routine was a massive "HELLO" to my body as it truly put a shock to my system which allowed me to actually trim down while building muscle at the same time. After jumping in the Twilight 5k from 5 straight weeks off from running I decided it was time to start back. I began with 2-3 days of running and would increase to 4 days a week by the beginning of June. I found a training plan online through googling a few key words like "getting fast quick", "a fast mile" and etc then bam, I FOUND IT!

Murderous Mile; UK style

   After reading through and article and looking over this plan, I knew I had a short amount of time to find some turnover in my legs as I had recently signed up for the Ultimate Runner, a race I first completed in 2001 and had always listed as one of the few races I really wanted to win one day. Plus I wanted to see if a sub 4:30 mile was possible again, as the sub 15minute 5000m race has seemingly slipped out of my traps this year. As this plans shows, it is all about intensity and lots of it! As a disclaimer I want to say that I have never been a person who did more than one workout a week at times, adding a 2nd workout as I was building up for a race increasing the anaerobic speed as well as threshold workouts. This could ultimately lead to injury in a very quick way, but I just wanted to try something like this to see what results would follow. Through the 1st week I was falling to pieces and needed someone to scrape me up off of the ground to say the least.

4th Week when Bert wrecked me

  As time progressed my body adapted to these workouts and I began embracing the faith that I could in-fact challenge Mr. Bert Rodriguez in the championship mile at the end of June. Week after week I made the trip out to the track series and made my best effort to do nearly every event possible in order to stress my body, building strength and speed. The most beneficial component of doing so many events is not being able to recover and forcing your body to handle the tightness throughout your body as you gasp for air. In week two I witnessed Bert run away from everyone in an stellar 4:23 mile which blew my mind. "There goes beating Bert, I thought maybe a 4:25-26 could do it but he ran 4:23 in the 2nd week OUCH!". Week after week I kept my trainers or flats on for the most part at the series, hiding away my Nike Matumbo spikes that would lead me to greatness.

   It's D-day, I arrive to the track early in order to get in a solid warm-up and dynamic exercise before the Championship Mile. While doing some drills at the AG track my truck key falls out of my pocket without notice as I am listening to MGK's single "Wild Boy" pumping through my yurbuds. As I reach Myers park I realized I don't have my key which opens my truck which ultimately holds my spikes! I rush back to the track thankfully to have Clint point out my key and rush back to my truck. I feel so light on my feet as I toss on my Nike Matumbo spikes, someone says, "oh sorry man, Bert is here!", I reply back, "Good, it's going to be a fun day". We all line up and I am thinking to myself, "Stick with Bert, if he goes out to slow then just go for it, you better at least break 4:30". Pow!!!! We are off and Bert takes the first lane and I immediately go around him and began pushing the pace. This is not my typical style but this is not going to be a sit and kick, the both of us are going to earn this race.

  Pulling the pack felt great as we passed through the 1st lap with a nice home crowd of CRC folks cheering us on. Bert eventually pulled just ahead of me before 800m and I could hear so many people screaming "Come on Chris, Come on Lamperski, stay with him stay with him!!!". I was PUMPED, this is where I needed to be in the moment and for a change I was, trailing as he began lifting the pace faster and faster as he did the previous week leaving my in the dust over the last 400m. "Surge, Surge, stop being a baby, this is your time" I am telling myself, by the time we hit the bell, I can tell all of my friends are going crazy because they are in disbelief that I am still with Bert. With the last 300m looming we both give it our best efforts heading for home. Fatigue setting in, gasping for air I look up with about 70m to go and see the clock.."4:10, 4:11..."....<pause> "HOLY SH*T" I am close to breaking 4:20 not 4:30! I push through the clock as it turns over 4:20 and scream in joy!
Link to race results for Championship Mile

  Never in my wildest dream would I imagine that I would run a 4:20 mile at 30 years of age, none of my workouts ever indicated that, partially because I never chose to wear a watch after the very 1st workout bomb. This goes to show you that sometimes going in with blind faith can really lead you to the promise land. Now I think I will go down in history as the HAPPIEST 2nd place finisher but I will take that any day. One of the things I take pride in is doing my own training and believing in myself, but most importantly understanding that at the end of the day everyone in the race is in it for the same exact thing; to conquer fears. After all we are a bit scared for having success at times, think about one time you went out too fast and were running with someone who was "faster than you". Maybe you should have not thought about it but just kept racing, did that thought hold you back, did it hamper your entire run?

Bring it back, Bring it back

  One of the first things I have to do is give a shout out to my 4 loyal followers whom remind me that I have the least consistent blog (much like my training) in the world. So I am taking baby steps to getting back into the groove with something to write home to mom about. Since my last post in March a few obstacles were placed in my path on my effort to break 15 in a 5000m race, mainly a stress reaction in my shin which halted my training completely just after the Cooper River Bridge run. I will provide quick recaps on the few races i have competed in and what I have been up to over these past 3 months if you care to read any further, I promise I will throw in some pictures!

  Cooper River 10k: I Was fortunate enough to get a seeded entry into the elite corral and as well as housing for two nights at the new Crowne Plaza Hotel in North Charleston which was amazing. Let's just say after the race it was a bit embarrassing to have a seeded entry with the way things panned out, I was kind of dodging the elite coordinators the best I could after the race to avoid any communication as to why I had such a bad day.  In short, this was the 1st time in the history of the Bridge run that it was delayed by 1hr due to over registration/busing conflicts. We all stood around on the start line for an hour as the sun rose higher and higher making it hotter and hotter.
   I was fortunate enough to start next to national champion Janet-Cherobon Bawcom who said it best, "You know, at least everyone is dealing with the same thing. The elites are dealing with the heat and fatigue and so are the walkers. We may not run as fast but I am happy just to be out here". She had some kind words that really calmed my nerves and gave me hope for a stellar race, but after the gun sounded the hope ended as I crossed the start line. Ending up 44th overall somehow I was very disappointed but knew that it would be my last race for awhile as my shin was just not right.

Palmetto 200 Relay: This was kind of a "take it for the team" race for TrySports as we had been talking about this relay for months. Bill Shires put numerous hours preparing for this race and I just felt that I needed to show my appreciation despite the fact that I hadn't ran for 2 weeks due to injury. Overall this was a lot of fun, I ran myself into the ground in typical relay fashion as this was my 6th 200+ mile relay. Our team was amazing, we had such a good time but yet again with fatigue and lack of sleep the Hulk came out a few times. I managed to mouth off a bit to some teammates, through some late night/early morning hours, my sincere apologies again. As a disclaimer I always state before the relay starts, that I am bound to loose it with someone, so please do not take it personal! 1 month would pass before I would run again after this relay. We finished 2nd overall with a mixed team which is CRAZY! Go TrySports!

  Twilight 5k: This race was more than sporadic as Scott Greenapple posted online that he had a few entries for the nights race and it spiked my interest. I thought, " You have only ran 2 times in 39 days but just go out slow and try to pick up the pace who knows that could happen, maybe sub 17:45 if I run smart." As a total surprise to myself I ended up running much faster as I took my time through the mile and began weaving my way through traffic. The 2nd mile was the killer for me as I ended up running 5:08 in order to catch and pass Alana Hadley who ended up being my main motivation for the race. She is one hard working talented runner and as the race went along I just could not let myself accept the fact that she may beat me so I pushed on. Thanks Alana! 16:35 for a top 10 I believe, congrats to her on breaking 17minutes for the 1st time ever (incredible for a teenage girl!)

Summer Track Series: Since I love the track and getting a bit uncomfortable, I was excited to go into the month of June with a goal in mind; SUB 4:30 mile at 30 years old by the championship mile. It's no record breaking mark by any means but would be pretty awesome if I could achieve it since I have had some setbacks over this past year. The first week started off great with a 2:07 800m that really surprised me followed up with a sub 11minute two mile. In the 2nd week I came back to race the mile and had a nice battle with Aaron Linz as I knew that if I could stay with him I would be able to run a sub 4:40 mile and came out with a 4:33, followed up with a 55 1/4m and 25.4 200m run. My speed has turned the corner a bit but that really took it's toll on me the following week; I am not as young as I used to be and the spikes aren't as kind to the body. Looks like I have qualified for 4 events in the championship, mile, 800, 400, and 200m somehow but will most likely only be competing in the mile.

Charity Case Mud Run: This was an undercover race that I was hoping that no one else locally would be doing given that it had a big prize purse of $2000 for the overall win. I was training for this race a bit, lifting more weights, doing some more squats and hoped that it would pay off on the day. The morning of the race Karin and I drove up to Davidson and quickly realized the organization was very sub par as one hour before the start, no volunteers or organizers were to be found. After finally catching the shuttle to the start line 5 minutes after the listed start time, I put on my old XC spikes and duct taped them to my feet. Right away myself and Mike Earle separated ourselves from the rest of the field with a quick opening mile. We hurdled hay bails, went through mud pits, went across balance beams, dove through tires, it was a BLAST. Mike unfortunately started to gap be a bit as we climbed back up towards the finish line. 3rd place was closing in fast and I slowed to catch my breath just before the final few hundred meters of the course. After climbing a big wooden wall, I surged hard leading up to the final obstacle of monkey bars. I knew I had 2nd place wrapped up then CRASH...I slipped on the 2nd to last monkey bar which apparently was rotating and I just did not grip the bar enough. The consequence was 10 push ups as the 3rd place (Will) made it through and just nipped me down the last straight away. 

    The biggest fiasco was the awards ceremony, which was non-existent for one and two, they totally screwed us on the prize money. The competitive race showed full online meaning that the prize pool would be the full $2000 - 1st, $1200 - 2nd, $800- 3rd....As we waited and waited the event director inform us that he was giving $200 for 1st, $100 for 2nd and $50 for 3rd a far cry from the stated prize pool. After tempers flared and negotiating in sued, Will's wife managed to beef up the winnings slightly to cool everyone down. 

   All in all, I am the most satisfied I have ever been with my running, even though I am not setting PR's I love the joy I get from heading outdoors to get in a solid run. My training consist of 4 days of running 2 days of lifting and 2 days of cycling, which provides plenty of overall fitness. My stated goal of this blog being "Sub 15minutes for a 5k" has obviously been lost in the mix for those of you who know me. After having injury issues, the two main races that were my targets to optimistically get as close to sub 15 as possible were wiped away leaving no other options essentially as the collegiate season is over. Looking back, if I had known that the CRC would be putting on a 5k during the track series I could have refocused to at least set a new PR in the event but we can't look back and say "I wish I had...".  

   

One person that I really would like to point out as my saving grace with my running is my fiancé' Karin Helmbrecht. If any one that is reading this blog right now knows Karin, they know that she is not a racer or a competitive person, she essentially runs to stay fit and to be healthy with a few random races here and there. Karin has allowed me to kind of refocus my life to different areas and not put near the time into running, which allows me to enjoy other aspects of life that I have been missing out on. I have found that I can still be competitive locally after redefining my training to a format that allows the most bang for the buck so to speak. Looking ahead onto my long term goals for the year, I am going to compete in my first NYC marathon along with Karin and I would really like to run a decent time with soaking up the full personality of the race it self. Some days doing lunges or squats really take the spark out of my legs but I have to think long term and injury free. As life goes along, priorities change and one of my priorities is to grow stronger as a person with her as we take steps towards a better future, which may in fact not involve an extensive amount of running.

   Thank you to anyone who took the time to read my blog, even after a 3 month hiatus. I have no plans for racing past the Ultimate runner in Winston Salem on June 30th and look forward to just seeing where the wind takes me. As I have been doing nearly every Sunday, I will be enjoying a longish trail run with no watches, no goals, no pace, just running to be free. One of the key aspects that I fail to do within my blog is to give a "shout out" to those who have helped me out along the way and I plan to change that as my blog will be evoking despite the title.

  Karin Helmbrecht, thank you for helping me take a step back to take a step forward in life, Scott Greenapple, thanks for always being a supportive/ healing person I can talk to about my athletic pursuits, Jamey Yon, thanks for giving the basic insight to achieving goals that could almost seem unattainable, Mary Jane Lamperski, thank you for always being around and pushing me towards success. and to TrySports for being a great outlet to the world of endurance. 

Yes, I'm still alive...

WOOOO I'M BACK!

  So it has been nearly 2 months since my last blog post and surely all six of my followers are just dying to see what's going on in Lamperski land (sarcasm). Luckily my blog is in part a reflection for me as I look into my past one day, showing my child that yes, I was not always fat. I was on a hiatus from running of sorts, I wasn't racing and I was logging my workout specifications to kind of stay off of the grid. After 4-5 weeks of solid fitness gains, I hit a hump in the road and have been in a pretty bad slump since as this blog will recap.

  "Over 30 and Under 15" what a ballsy statement for someone who has an inconsistent history and about 25 seconds to trim off of my personal record, meaning 8+ seconds per mile FASTER than I have ever gone before. In fact its pretty funny to think about now, but sometimes you just have to throw goals out there to hold you attainable. I am not one who is super regimented in attaining goals over long stretches and I have realized that stating my goals via social networking tends to keep me on track without looking like a fool (at least I think so?). After the CRC 8k and sub 27 clocking, my fitness was moving in the right direction and I was excited at the thought of getting in speed workouts. "Take the Lead"  was the source of my training plan yet again and I began segmenting workouts to increase distance and speed as each week went by.

Running Attire
 pre Blog phase

   An example of a workout would be 5 x 400m (75-76sec) with 1min rest on a Wednesday, then the following Wednesday I would do 6 x 400m (75sec) with 1min recovery and so forth. I would routinely switch up the segments to 800's, 1000's and eventually mile repeats. I knew right away that I had the legs but not the lungs/cardio for fast racing. Tempo's traditionally were my weak point year ago so I spent a lot of time working on that aspect and got away from the quick turnover needed for anything 10k or below in my opinion. Essentially I wanted to focus on the short distance to obviously set new personal records but to also not dedicate so much time to training since the distance was short enabling the training to be the same. When I was running up to 70 miles a week I was in great shape but I felt like that's all I did and was a priority, so the 40-50 mile range is what I was looking for with a lot of quality work.

   MEXICO! Yes Mexico, that's what happened, but it was O so good! Karin and I traveled to Riviera Maya, Mexico for a week long holiday of basking in the sun by the pool bar. It was simply amazing and the food was even more mouth watering for a Mexican cuisine lover. Unfortunately the running was not that great there, it was in the upper 80's and humid and I was on vacation after all. Fortunately I used the treadmill a couple times in the fancy spa and managed to burn out one of them while rocking out my sub 5min fartlek intervals! Too much food and too many mixed drinks managed to weaken my immune system and as we arrived back into Charlotte through our various connecting flights I was sick. Week after week went by and it would not go away, Mucinex, Zicam, DayQuil, NyQuil, and finally Amoxicillin. I did not feel like myself until about March 15th, dating back to February 24th being the 1st onset of sickness.

My Good Friend Katrina "Coco Loco"

The extent of my training in Mexico, Jumping over little girls in the pool

   Being that I was sick and fighting this seemingly deathly virus I managed to compete in a 5k in Wilmington (only because my friend Greg planned his weekend around this race) and take the W. The time was nothing to write home about but at least I was able to run and Greg won the 10k going away! I was on the 1 day on 3 days off running track for those 3-4 weeks and assumed that my fitness was very depleted. As the week rolled by the prescription drugs were kicking in and I was beginning to feel better.

My last 3 weeks

 Adam Mayes told me about the "Angels of 97 5k" in Huntersville weeks back and it was tempting, especially since everyone was racing Tobacco Road or the Shamrock 4-miler. One day I emailed Allan Strickland after seeing that he was 5th overall in last year results but in an unusually slow time for him, thankfully he was gracious enough to share with me his recap HERE. I planned on Friday night to tentatively do this race but I found that I was struggling to get out of bed lacking motivation. I had no indicator as too what my fitness level was but I figured, why not take a stab at winning $100, it would actually help me pay to have the A/C serviced in my truck so I am not sitting in a sweat box as I was last summer.
  
    After running behind and driving a bit too quickly to the race, I made it, signed up and caught up with Adam Mayes who told me that Mike Beigay, Brad Popple and himself were racing. For some reason instead of getting nervous, I thought to myself, "great. people to run with and push for a faster time!". Adam and I did a 2 mile warm-up, I changed into my flats and did 1 stride, "Let's do it!". Eventually we were allowed to make our way to the start line and Dennis yelled out "On your mark, get set, GO!". Brad and I took off together for the 1st 1/2 mile or so and I felt very relaxed, in fact I looked at my garmin and made myself slow down. I pulled away a bit just before the mile and decided to keep pushing hard until the 2 mile at least and see what happens. As I passed the mile my garmin didn't beep and I thought, I may actually run a race that doesn't end up being 3.2 miles! 5:07 on my garmin, about 5:03-4 on the race counter I would guess and I attacked the steep hill. Let's keep this going, I maintained the same effort and felt pretty solid with my form up until the 2 mile which I hit in 5:08 on my garmin, so 10:15 at 2 miles.

   The last mile wasn't too bad until I hit the North Mecklenburg campus and had to run uphill to the finish. Knowing the distance to the finish from the street when my Garmin hit 3 miles, I knew right then it was not going to be 0.1. I eased up a bit as I turned the corner and saw Popple a clip back but I was still hurting. I crossed the line as it ticked over 16:28...29 and had to put my hands in the air they actually had a finishing tape, which was pretty cool. After reflecting on the race, I ran 5:07, 5:08 and 5:12 through my mile splits and averaged 5:19 per mile, adds up right? Ha I guess I was walking that last straight away or the course was a bit long as my watch indicated 3.19 for me( i would include my garminconnect data but I can't find my ANT stick to link up!).

Cooper River 2007

 Overall I was pumped with this run because after all of the set backs, I still think I could do fairly well at Cooper River. I have 2 weeks to get my Sh*t together and compete again, not with the Kenyan men but the Kenyan women. I am so thankful that I was able to run again and hopefully continue to, barring no injuries or illness. To my surprise Karin my fiance' set a big personal record in her 5miler race in her hometown of Rochester, NY. She also set a 5k PR in route to this 5 mile PR, I think I was happier to find that out than I was by running well at my own race, GREAT WORK KARIN, I LOVE YOU GIRL! More too come, next update will most likely be after the Cooper River Bridge 10k on march 30th, wish me luck, I really need it!

Mud Run + a Kick in the Butt

   It's time for a shining new update on the 5k training regimen that I have commenced since January 1st towards my goal and well it has had some up and downs. After starting out very consistently over the 1st 2 weeks of my training with incorporating attainable speed workouts and mileage I was feeling pretty confident that in 90 days I would have a pretty solid level of fitness to at least break my 15:26 PR on the track, then running started to take a back seat to some big events in life.

Karin is on the left of course

  For those who may not know, I am now engaged to my lovely fiance Karin, and this is the big event in life that I am referring to. In short, most may not know but while away living in Australia, Karin and I kept in communication with a few skype sessions every week and nearly daily emailing, accompanied with a 2 week visit by her, so we were really able to establish a relationship while most had no clue we were even talking. OK, back to the running, while sneaking around trying to make the final arrangements for the ring running seemed to fall on the back burner but for good reason of course. There last 2 weeks have been pretty crazy with what seems like a constant stream of events over our engagement and our b-days, that's my excuse anyways.


   My 1st true test of fitness would come at the US national white water center in the 9-mile trail race which could have been labeled "Muddy Buddy 9 miler" as it rained all weekend and the course was pretty damn sloppy. Fortunately I did not fall once and came out unscathed from the race and even recorded a W. The goal was to run with Kevin Lisska as long as I could to establish who was in the 9-mile race and then just after half way drop a very hard surge to hopefully break open the race and it went off without a hitch. On the hardest mile of the course I took off and "went for it" luckily enough to outdistance 2nd place, whom was actually on my high school soccer team and has taken to running success very quickly. Karin finished up the race with a smile as well, only muddy and never have fallen, I think that made me just as happy.  9-mile results


   In the days proceeding the trail race I didn't feel any soreness which was a pleasant surprise and I attacked my track workouts. Running faster than my goal splits once again, I was thinking that the upcoming CRC trail 8k could be a pretty solid event for me. Finally, 2 nights before the race I signed up and it was official, I was racing. While evaluating my fitness level, I knew for sure I was in sub 27 shape but wasn't sure if that meant 26:30 or 26:59, so I decided to just stick with the leaders and to see how 3:15-3:20 per K felt. Basically from the Gun, a small lead pack formed passing 1k in 3:16 and dropping it down to 3:14 on the 2nd K to break open the field. We maintained around 3:20 the rest of the way while changing positions a few times, but I could tell the 1st hill worked my aerobic system a bit too much and by the 2nd pass of it i felt pretty unmotivated.

Compton, Matena, Paul and myself taking it out

   At that point the goal was to keep Dan in my sights as Paul surged past us and John was smooth sailing up ahead. While relaxing and feeling sad for myself I managed to let Dan keep floating further and further ahead. This is still one area I need to work on, when I don't make these races my "goal" race I tend to back down a bit too much. I finished with a decent 3:14 last K for 26:55 and 4th overall. Immediately after the race I could identify my downfalls in training, mileage which in turn increases the aerobic system. My legs felt great the entire race but I just had some extreme difficulty breathing and everything I tried to surge I felt like I was in middle school and having another mini asthma attack. Looking back over the month of January, Bill Shires posted the CRC Mileage results and I had a pretty discouraging #, 184 miles for the entire month of January~ wow that's about 46 miles per week, which isn't horrible but there was a time when I was hitting about 100 miles more per month and I was in amazing fitness.

   The race proved to be a big wake up call for me and has helped me go back to the drawing board and to push through with increasing my mileage. I will never be where I need to be for a collegiate meet if I don't start putting in some long work, I am putting in the hard intervals but I need to additional mileage to allow my body to accept these workouts properly. At this point my next race is still the Charlotte 49er Classic on March 16th. under the lights. Hopefully I can get a few other local faces to jump in and try for a quick time. All in all I am happy that I am still able to get out of the door to run but I really need to kick it in overdrive before the 16th as well as taking my running to the Cooper River Bridge 10k, hopeful to beak my PR of 32:48. Thank you to the CRC for keeping my motivated, TrySports for keeping my healthy and Cody Angell for keeping me focused.

9 Shoes I choose in review

Shoes, shoes and more shoes!

    Recently I realized how many pairs of training shoes that I rotated through on fairly consistent basis and thought it would be pertinent to give my personal review on the shoes that I wear. As a note to the 3 people who may actually read this, I have received these shoes through various channels which I truly appreciate. I have won a couple pair of shoes from races, received a couple pair from the TrySports ambassador team/ TrySports Run Club through coaching, and through Saucony racing.
 

   Listed below are the series of shoes that I have in my current rotation and below will be a short synopsis of my thoughts on each shoe and how I prefer to use them.

Trainers:

Asics Neo33

Saucony Mirage & Mirage 2

Mizuno Wave Elixir 7 x 2

Brooks Launch

Brooks Cascadia – trail

Kswiss – Blade Light run

Mizuno Wave Inspire LE Osaka

Racing shoes:

Brooks T7 racer

Saucony Fastwitch 5

Asics Neo33 - I recently added this shoe into my rotation as I wanted to see how Asics compared to other brands in a supportive yet "natural" shoe which is similar to minimalism. This shoe has been good to me but from my experience I think I will stick to recovery runs with this shoe. I have done one long run and one tempo in this shoe and I had some adverse conflicts with them. On my long run, my PF started to flare up a couple miles in and I had to tie a stranger hold on my foot to prevent any slippage and pressure on the wrong area of my arch. During my Tempo, I once again felt my PF flare up but most importantly I felt towards the end of my tempo the shoes felt incredibly heavy from what I am accustomed. 

 Saucony Mirage - This was my main training shoe while living in Australia and only because it was the cheapest shoe I could get while Down Under. It ended up working very well for me as it is a light weight trainer with some minimal features. I prefer to use a shoe like this on tempo's as they are flexible and lightweight, creating the fast feel I sometimes need during tough mental workouts.

 Saucony Mirage 2 - This shoe is just appearing in stores come February but I was lucky enough to get a hold of the new 2012 fall edition just this week. While looking over the shoe, not much has changed if any on the platform but Saucony used a new material to keep the upper nice and fitting. Taking away the standard leather style overlays, they incorporated a newer lightweight synthetic material most similar to what could be found on a racing spike. Haven't ran in these enough to comment on any differences, but I like this shoe so far!
Check out the review here - Saucony Mirage 2 review

 Mizuno Wave Elixir 7 -   This shoe has been a favorite of mine for the past 3 years and I have been pretty loyal to this shoe as I have been through about 10 pairs of this awesome lightweight trainer. Some of my friends have had some problems with PF from these shoes after a few small changes but I really haven't had too many issues. I think when I have had problems with PF it relates to my mileage and workouts, so I have been careful to monitor and treat PF as it flares up. Overall this shoe is great, The only run I don't like doing with these shoes are ones that are 17+ miles as it appears the flexibility pulls on my calf a bit too much over that length of time.

 

 Brooks Launch - After starting to experience some pains in my shin and knee's I decided I needed something that had a bit more padding under neath the forefoot and inquired with Jinnie Austin about her recommendation and she immediately recommended the Launch. I was a bit hesitant at first, partially because I like flashy shoes and well these were black and white. Soon after I slipped them on I really felt at home so to speak. The bounce was amazing in this shoe, especially compared to the Elixir and Mirage, so I took them. I think of all of the shoes I have used over the past 3 months this was my most reliable shoe without having any injuries flare up. Unfortunately I left these shoes in New York while visiting over Christmas, but hope to get a new pair soon. 

 Brooks Cascadia 6 - This shoe was kind of a hand me down as it did not suit a friend to well and I gave it a shot. I have only ran in these shoes twice and after the first time I truly HATED this shoe. I just felt bad running in this shoe, I can't really put a science to it but it just did not feel right, not cushy, just awkward. This is to be slightly expected when you wear a trail shoe on the sidewalks and roads when it is meant for trails. This past weekend after winning a free entry into a local trail race set for January 21st I hit the trails at the US national whitewater center. The 1st day I knocked out 11 miles with my Mizuno Elixir's, they did OK, but I certainly had a few close calls with slips in the dirt as did everyone else running. The very next day, I laced up my cascadia's and decided, "why not give them one more chance on their territory?". Wow, I was amazing, I felt like I went from a bald tire in the rain to a high performance racing tire with incredible traction. The grip was so good, I started pushing the limits and never once did I slip, this will be my trail racing shoe without a doubt!
Cascadia Review

K-Swiss Blade Run - this shoe has been my casual shoe for the most part, I have used this a couple times on run and for a fartlek it seemed to do a decent job. The shoe is very vented as it is designed for the triathlete, so on cold winter days this shoe is not the best choice. Looks like I will be saving it up as a spring/summer tempo runner. 

Mizuno Wave Inspire LE Osaka - I noticed this shoe in the 2012 Mizuno Catalog while doing some ordering and just thought I needed something cool just to kick around in. Eventually I buckled and took these babies on a couple of easy morning runs. Nothing remarkable but they are a solid shoe for sure. Trying to keep em clean as my work/gym shoe, until the ol shin start hurting.

 Saucony Fastwitch 5 - Picked this model up in Australia and used it for my Half Ironman and have never once had any issues with this shoe. I must say going forward I will use this shoe for every marathon I participate in unless I stumble upon something else. Even during the marathon in Savannah I never once had any PF issues but of course I had some fatigue setting in. Great supportive racing flat which has good road grip, solid overlay system and flexibility.

Brooks Racer T7 - This was my 1st shoe purchase once I got back into the states, to attempt racing well at Greekfest. Well that goes to show you that super light shoes only get you a mile, fitness matters. Anyways, these shoes are SWEET but I have quickly realized that i cannot race above 10k in these shoes. They are so light and flexible, it beats up my body much more than I than I like once I get over 3 miles, so 6 is pushing it. I never would have thought that I could wear this shoe but I am sure glad I gave it a shot, hope it takes me to some PR's this year.

Take a look below at Olympian Alan Culpepper's take on light weight trainers, my personal favorite training shoe.

Lightweight Training Shoe

    This is my almighty summary of the shoes that have worked for me and that are currently in my rotation. This weekend I am looking forward to using the Brooks Cascadia trail shoe to hopefully grip the dirt and to burn the paths up! Any further recommendations on training shoes would be appreciated as well as feedback on the shoes that I am currently using. Hit me up, give me your pros and cons of these shoes, mileage goals with each shoe and so forth. One of the things I have learned about my body is that I just run in my shoes until my knees/shins and ankle start to feel that certain way; the way my body feels when its about to cross the line of completely breaking apart, fun times.

2012: Another Year of progress - "Goal setting"

  So after a fun, frustrating, incredible, death defying 2011, I have decided to kick off 2012 with a new blog, that will track the conquering, bone crushing, plantar hurting, side cramping, lactic pumping, rise and fall of my athletic goals. At this point in time, due to my wrist/arm surgery I am still not to a point where I can ride a bike comfortably so I am solely focusing on my running specific ambitions.

   It has been a year of ups and downs for me with my running, but all in all, I managed to set personal records in the 3k, 5k, and marathon, despite my triathlon periodization and motorcycle crash. Have to look at the positive side of things to keep my mind and my feet going forward of course. There have been numerous occasions when some of my closest friends have inspired me to really test my limits out in my 30th year. Cody broke out of no where with a 15:12/8:56 5k/3k while I was in Australia, big Adam ripped off a 2:37 in Melbourne, Billy dropped a 2:38 at Thunder Road, John Compton busted a 1:08+ half at Savannah, and Alana Hadley keeps consistently improving with her 1:16:58 HM (Footlocker Finalist as well). So these people keep pushing me to really strive for more from myself, to keep pecking away at those times.

   While in Australia, my close friend Cody Angell challenged myself and our friends to breaking the 15minute barrier in a 5000m race on the track. He kept pushing himself day in and day out and has crept closer and closer to his goals. With a stunning cast of runners at his running disposal, he intends to again break that barrier in the Australian summer track season which is now. After finishing the Savannah Rock N Roll marathon in November, I decided that I would focus solely on the shorter stuff again in 2012. That being said, I do have one BIG goal of 2012 and that is to run 14:59 in a 5000m track race this spring/summer. Choosing the track is an accurate way to create a PR, as opposed to road course which measure slightly different every time.

5000m - race length

14:59 - race time

4:49 - per mile pace

3:00 - per kilometer pace

   To some, this might be a mark that they have hit numerous times, while others may not even be able to comprehend the time. After looking at the McMillan Pace Calculator and seeing the equivalent times across the board it is quite frightening to think that this could be a possibility. 4:49 per mile, wow, that in itself would be hard for me to run solo right now I feel. Thankfully I have a good crew of people who support me in the community. TrySports supports my ambitions fully and the CRC has been a great outlet for me to use while getting back into marathon shape so quickly this year.

   Sometimes we all need a fire lit under us to really get us motivated. I often lack the motivation to get out the door on some of those early cold mornings, but hopefully some of you out there can help hold me accountable. I will need to really step up the mileage and actually plan in weekly speed sessions into my routine. It may seem and BE a long shot, but why not shoot high? It's NOT going to win me an Olympic medal even in the women's race by a long shot but hey its a barrier and I would like to say I broke it at 30 years old, a MASTER in track terms believe it or not.


   So to all of you haters out there, I know that you may think this to be a silly dream given that I need to trim off nearly 30 seconds from a PR I set over a year ago almost, thank you. You are the one's that fuel my fire and allow me to push through the hard days when I would certainly like to be laying on a coach or the bed relaxing. In order for this to happen, I am certain that I will need the guidance of a sports dietician as well as a coach to hold me accountable for my progress. To achieve this goal I will set up a series of open/collegiate running events most likely at UNCC, Duke, Raleigh Relays and Wake Forest.

   The next few weeks I will be taking things very slowly as I have just begun incorporating strength work into my routine, to become stronger all around. It is a slow process as my arm still hurts as I am barely holding myself up while attempting push ups, but it will soon come around. So here is to 2012 and goals, we all need to keep going forward with our passions despite what people think of it or even if it seems nearly impossible but you miss 100% of the shots you never take right?