Newton's vs. Mizuno

Who says you can't buy speed!  Ha!  A couple years ago before IMAZ 2010 Craig ordered me a pair of Newton running shoes to surprise me.  These aren't the fully lugged ones, but kind of an intermediate step. I wore them once or twice but was really "afraid" of them.  First of all I read somewhere not to use them on a treadmill and I do a lot of running on a treadmill and I read they would make different muscles hurt since they were changing how you run.  All in all I didn't want to wear them with the St. George Marathon and IMAZ 2010 looming.

My Newton's several years old, I'm not sure what model they are, lets just call them "Boughten Speed"

Fast forward two years, I just got a new pair of my trusty Mizuno Wave Riders and decided to dust off the old, almost new Newton's and do a little comparison, no doubt about it, the Newton's are faster.
Here are my two Newton runs:
59:56
1:00:03
My two Mizuno Wave Riders:
1:08:36
1:06:21
These are both on the exact same course, same two water fountain stops.
That is a huge difference for  a slow runner, I have gathered courage and decided to wear them in the Utah Valley Marathon, then if I hate them in a marathon I will know before St. George and IMAZ 2012.

Training 2/6

This was a good training week:

6 days of running, long run 8.2

2 spin classes

1 ride (meant to get another ride in on Saturday but it got cold!)

2 yoga classes

2 weight training days (yep putting it back in, darn dexascan)

Reasons running doesn't suck as much as you think

Picking and choosing a few of my favorites from hellogiggles.com  (thank you Kim)

You can lose weight by drinking nothing but hot water with lemon. Or you can run for an hour, treat yourself to a cookie and still fit into your skinny jeans. One of these options makes you witchy; the other makes you rad.


When your boss, your melodramatic friend and your nagging to-do list won’t leave you alone, calmly put on your running shoes and head out the door. They won’t follow you. 


Running is the last place you have to “be a lady.” Sweat, snot and sneaking behind a bush to pee is not only liberating it’s fun, in that giggly-childish-naughty kind of way.


Girls are lucky; there’s an entire industry committed to making us look awesome while getting our sweat on. 
Workout clothes come in all sorts of cool colors and designs. Jockstraps, on the other hand, will always be ugly with questionable stains.


Non-runners will sit on the couch and call you crazy. Those folks, sadly, will never learn what their bodies are capable of. You, on the other hand, will die knowing you completely, totally, unabashedly used up the body that was loaned to you. That’s not crazy. That’s freakin’ awesome.

Run-Yoga-Bike

Hurray, back on the bike yesterday and today!!!  

Good yoga class and 11 mile run. Run-Yoga-Bike makes a tri, I'm pretty sure!

St. George Half Marathon

Seriously I must re-examine the Wright family Budget!  I paid to do the Runners Series, paid to do the Snow Canyon Half, paid to do the St. George Half all for the privilege of registering and paying for the St. George Marathon!!!  That's true devotion for a guaranteed marathon entry.  I really do love the St. George Marathon though, so I'm in for sure!  Now to use the rest of the year to do some speed work.  My goal this year is just to cruise, pushing my pace but not getting beat up, it will be my last long run for IMAZ.  As for my St. George Half race report:
Craig and I got into St. George on Friday, picked up our packets at the Dixie Center, I bought this cool magnetic pocket that will hold a cell phone, key, credit card, etc.  I really like it (RooSports) since I always run in compression shorts with no pockets.  Neither of us slept well that night, when we woke up I had a head ache and it was raining!  A little Advil solved the head ache, as for the rain....well it must have been the torrent of prayers from all the runners, the rain stopped as the race was starting.  I have to admit I was kicking myself for not doing the 5K, think how fast that could have been over with!  Started off with no HRM just the resolve to go out and get it done, at mile 2 I really started to feel good and just cruised, I lost the 2:15 pace group, which was unrealistic for me anyway but when the 2:20 group caught up to me I resolved to hang with them.  I did pretty well until the last two miles and they got out of my sight, I was ok with that since my goal was 2:30 and knew I would make it.  When I came into the finish chute and could see the clock It was 2:20 something......I ran as hard as I could so the clock wouldn't say 2:21.  Here are my official results:

22    Melinda Wright                    Redlands  CA         5094   54     1103      2:19:55.6   2:20:43.4      0:47.8     10:40/M

I was happy to see 2:19 on the chip, which means  the pacers were a little on the  fast side...thank you pacers.  (Sorry about the font change, I don't know how to  change it since I copied and pasted) It did start raining the last mile which only     made me more anxious to be done.  So that's it--I package of Cliff Shots, 2      Vanilla bean Gu's was just about right.  Next project is to calibrate my foot pod, it showed I ran a 10:04 average    pace instead of 10:40, darn, I wish the foot pod was right!

Run Grandma Run

Yesterday was my long run, only 8.3, but I think I'm seeing the benefits of my 30 min/day no walking runs.  I ran without walking, my favorite route, top of Sunset to the Temple, best time I've done, averaged about a 10:40 pace, yay!!  Next week is the St. George Half, I would like to do less than 2:30, it's a flat course as opposed to downhill like yesterday.

2012 off to a great start--

2012 is off to a good training start after some Christmas and New Years time off.  We had a wonderful Christmas at home and then gathered all the kids, grandkids and Grammy and Papa for a cabin trip.  What a great time.  The weather was fairly mild, no snow :( we had to go to Brianhead to ski, so you might think I got my runs in...well not.  But I'm back on track, I haven't done any make up runs yet, but I'm still logging 1/2 hour a day on my Slowtwitch log.  I am doing a base plan until Be Iron Fit starts in April and I'm really enjoying it.

Craig and I are on for the St. George half marathon on Jan 21 (?) somewhere around that date--I decided to do the half which is crazy because I  haven't done any long runs, but, that Saturday I will have a long run.  This will make my second Runners Series race woohoo guaranteed admission to the St. George Marathon.  Did I also mention that Craig and I are registered for the Utah Valley Marathon in June? Looks like I'll have three marathons this year.  My best time is 5:05--goal--beat 5:05.  Time to start ramping up the long runs and getting some "speed" work in.