Deepwater Point 7.5km

Two weeks since my last post - I was struck down by a Norovirus gastro last weekend - missed out on the Penninsula run and wasn't back to full training until Wednesday

Deepwater Point today, note from my Strands account:

For the second time in 2 months I braved the journey South of the River. As usual I was surprised how normal people are down there. Sure they may be missing a few teeth and have an extra finger here and there, but they seem nice and the Banjo music is soothing.

I wasn’t too sure what to expect, it was a bit windy but in the end I don’t think it affected my performance much.

Started out fairly fast to avoid congestion, and was overtaken by Clown and B’Man within a km. Over the next couple of k they moved out to about 50m ahead of me. Luckily for me, Biscuitman stayed in sight and I had some sort of motivation to keep pushing. It seemed I was going to stay the 50m behind, but quite suddenly it seemed in the 5th km I was suddenly upon him, and managed to sneak ahead over the bridge.

In the process I went through 5k in 18:23 on the Garmin, so a new PB. I was expecting to have a nice tailwind for the last 1.5k but it was more across me, and I resorted to counting breaths to make it through the distance.

On the plus side my last 3.5km were very evenly paced at 3:45s and the 28:02 is pretty much on a par with predictions given my recent 10k time.

The Zoots felt pretty good, a little slappy on the footstrike when I was getting fatigued (again as a midfoot striking shoe they dont work too well if you fall back on your heels). I’ll try the fasttwitches this week.

Clown cruised at a pretty consistent 5sec/km faster than me for a great race for a man with only 9 functioning toes, whilst after looking very comfortable at Clown’s pace for the first couple of km, B’man slipped back a bit over the last 3km.

Looking at the elevation chart from Garmin, it appears I dove 40m below sea level at 3k (Mt Henry Bridge)! Had I stayedat sea level I might have won the race:)

The referene to the Zoots is one of my 3 new pairs of shoes. Dad went to the US last week so I got him to bring back some shoes - Mizuno Wave Elixir, and Saucon Fasttwitch. $80 each, hard not to get given the current exchange rate. My cousin, who is a triathlete, ad a spare pair of Zoot shoes (one of his sponsors) that he wasn;t wearing, so I got them too.

The Zoots are a midfoot striking type shoe, in a triathlon style with elastic laces/slip on and an inbuilt sock. I have really enjoyed them on my 2 outing so far, although with little heel rubber they are only good for faster stuff.

The Mizunos were a decision after seeing Sugar running in them, and my recent experience with Mizuno Idaten racers (now discontinued I think). They are a lightweight trainer with some support for pronation. They felt good but quite firm ( I likened them to running with a bathroom tile strapped to your foot). I'll need to gie them some more time. On the upside they fit quite well and have a good heel-forefoot transition.

I'm yet to wear the Sauconys but everyone who's anyone is wearing them right now. What happened to the days of everyone weaing Asics?

These new shoes mean I've run in pretty much all brands now. I've never had much success with Brooks - always seems to have poor transition leaving my feet slapping the ground. Nikes have had a narrow toebox although I'd like to give the Lunar series another shot. Adidas - good. Asics - very good. New Balance - yet to find a model I like - too clunky generally. I've nt run in Reeboks - maybe my next speculative buy.