Mezamashii Review

Wow, totally did not write this review when I planned to. The last month has been crazy. That can wait for another post (hopefully sometime this week). This post is all about showing Mizuno some love.

Earlier this year I was invited to be a founding member of the Mezamashii Project (#89 of 600). For me, this is a huge honor. I feel that it means Mizuno believes in my running. Mezamashii is the Japanese word for "eye opening" or "brilliant". Mizuno is trying to open the door so that more runners can experience a brilliant run. To do this, they are sending members a pair of shoes and in return they are getting the support of the members via personal promotion to fellow runners.

This post is mostly a review of my Mezamashii Project shoes: Mizuno Wave Ronin 4. I absolutely love these shoes!

(Photo Credit: runningshoesguru.com)

They are lightweight, responsive and well cushioned. Initially I wanted the Ronin to be my marathon shoe. My current marathon shoe is the Nike Lunaracer. Not the original, the 3rd version. After Green River in June, I decided I needed a little more cushion in the forefoot. Any shoe I am going to race a marathon in needs to pass two tests: speed and long run comfort.

My current speedwork shoe is the Nike Lunaracer 2. I chose this shoe since it is lightweight and made me feel fast (it still does). Another aspect of the Nike I like is the level of firmness in the forefoot. The Ronin surpassed it with flying colors. It is a bit heavier but not noticeably. And I felt just as fast in it. A few weeks ago, on one of my own brilliant runs, I was able to crank out 10 miles at 6:30 pace without much effort. The combination of the wave plate and and forefoot construction gives the perfect level of cushion and firmness. It felt like the shoe was just an extension of my foot. Speed test: Passed!

My current long run shoe is the Brooks Pure Flow2 (I am a weartester for Brooks). Since this shoe has not been released, I can not give any details as to how it fits and feels on the run. I can say if you've ran in the Pure Flow, you will absolutely love the Flow2. This past Saturday, I left the Brooks at home threw on my Ronin's for a 20 miler with some friends. The Ronin's felt great the entire run. I had plenty of room in the toebox and enough forefoot cushion to make me favor this shoe over the Lunaracer. For me, that forefoot cushion is a huge factor. In every shoe I've ran long in, I get noticeably sore right on the ball of my foot around mile 18. Did not happen at all in the Ronin. Long run comfort test: Passed!

Looks like I found my new marathon shoe. Here's to hoping the Ronin's carry me to a sub-3 race in November!

The Busy Life

Wow, can't believe its been a month since I last posted. Life has been very busy. On top of training and working two jobs, my wife and I are getting ready to move! As you can imagine, this leaves little time for blogging.

Running has been going well. After the Miles for Meso 5k, I decided to do some actual 5k training and see what I could do. Yesterday I ran the Summerfest 5k. The plan was to go out in ~5:30 and see what I could do. Well....I went out waaaaaaaaaay faster than that, 5:00.4! Paid for it in the second mile, 5:57, and came back a little mile 3, 5:44. I'm very happy with the result. I took first place overall (my 3rd win) in a time of 17:34 (a 56 second PR). While I'm stoked to have finally broken 18, I can't help but wonder what time I could have ran if I went out as planned or even at 5:15. Oh well, its time almost time for my next marathon cycle so that will have to wait for next summer.

Sidetrack: for those keeping score, my mile PR is 4:58. Me thinks I'm going to spike-up and run a mile TT this week. I'm betting I can hit sub-4:50.

Back to this marathon thing (you know, the whole reason I write this blog). I'm actually going to be the RD for a marathon next weekend. Its super small (12 registered as of today). Its basically just an August race for local Marathon Maniacs. If all my volunteers show up, I'll run it too (marathon #4 this year). After that, its a few days rest and then jumping into my cycle for the Ghost of Seattle Marathon in November.

That's all for now, folks! Stay tuned for a full review of my Mezamashii Project shoes (my students have their final this week so I'll have more free time to actually post here).

~Run Strong

Mezamashii Part 2

In my last post I mentioned that I have been invited to Mizuno's Mezamashii project. Mezamashii is a Japanese word meaning "brilliant". Basically Mizuno letting their shoes do their advertising by giving runners a pair of shoes as they search for their brilliant run. Then, runners who receive shoes can let their fellow runners know how great the shoes are. I selected to receive the Wave Ronin. They should be here sometime this week.

Today, I had the first brilliant run I've had in some time. I had initially planned on an easy 10 miler. Then last night a friend says "wanna do 6 tomorrow?" Naturally, I accepted her offer. The park where we were to meet is ~4 miles from my house (ok, I a runner and a math nerd: the park is 4.3 miles away). So, 4.3 there, 6 with Cat, 4.3 home...14.6 miles. Ok, I can do that. Sure, I haven't ran more than 10 since Green River but I can manage 14.6 if I run slow enough.

On my uphill run to the park, I surprised myself. Splits of 7:41, 6:56, 6:54, 6:48 (not sure what pace the last .3 was at)! Towards the end of the 6 miles I was to run with Cat, she decided 7 would be better. Sure, what's another mile when I'm already doing 14? We parted ways and I headed home. After the first mile back, I decided 16 sounded like a much nicer distance than 15.6. Granted the finish was slightly downhill so its easier to go fast, but my last 4 miles were 6:51, 6:58, 6:46, 6:31! One hell of a way to end a run less than a week after my first 5k of the summer (more on that in a bit) and my longest run in over a month! I felt so much stronger at the end of the run than I have in a long time. You can't get much more of a brilliant run than that.

On July 4th, my wife, my in-laws and myself participated in the first Miles for Meso 5k. It was in a nearby town and one of the race organizers is a woman from our church whose husband died from mesothelioma a few years ago. They were able to get stellar funding and donations from sponsors so ALL proceeds went to charity.

My wife had a brilliant run of her own that day. She's training for her first half marathon (I'm finally rubbing off on her). She was able to take 2nd in her age group by running sub-30! She hasn't been able to hit that time in a few years so she was stoked! I couldn't have been more proud of her!

I didn't have it in the last mile so I missed my time goal but I still hit a 28 second PR. I won my age group and place second overall with an 18:30. I'm sure I'll be posting about another brilliant run last this week after I get the Ronin's. For now, ya'll will have to settle for some race pics!

Gearing up for the start. The guy in the blue sleeveless won in 17:03.

My awesome wife crossing the finish line!

Coming into the finish in 2nd place!

Post-race!

Mezamashii

I have been invited to be one of the founding members of the Mezamashii Project. I'll write a more extensive post later when I've got a bit more time (writing an exam for my stats class right now).

Maniac

Well, I never got around to writing that race report. Life has been very busy lately. More on that in a bit.

Vernonia was a fueling problem that I am still working out. I was not getting enough salt during the early stages of the race, leading to slight dehydration/cramps late in the race. Of course, I didn't figure this out until this past weekend when the same thing happened at another marathon.

Three weeks after Vernonia, I paced a friend in the Tacoma City Marathon. I use the term "paced" loosely here because she absolutely killed it the entire race! Her PR was 3:41 and we finished in 3:28:00, including a last mile of 7:01! Granted I was running her race, but I have never felt better after a marathon. I noted how I fueled (hammer gel mixed into my water bottle and powerbar gel's which have more sodium than gu) and used that as a plan for my next marathon.

This past Saturday I ran the Green River Marathon. For those keeping score, thats 3 marathons in less than 3 months. I am now marathon maniac #5511 :) Anyway, back to Green River. It is a very small, local race. There were 198 registered marathoners and 14 registered relay teams. I'm not sure how many showed up though. After Vernonia, this became another goal race. The previous years' winner was back and he ran 3:00 last year. I figured if he was running the same pace, I'd have someone to run with an maybe crack 3 hours. He did show up but was running a slower pace this year.

The race was on paved trail/sidewalks from Kent, WA to Alki Beach in Seattle. My wonderful wife, mom, and two friends came to see me off at the start. The horn sounded and I took off. I didn't see another runner from my start (their was an early start an hour before, most of whom I passed) until several minutes after I finished. I decided against my using my garmin. My best marathon came from not wearing my garmin so I went back to what worked before.

I felt strong through the first half (~1:28). My wife and mom met me here so I could swap for a new water bottle. There were aid stations along the course but I wanted to carry my own water and drink their sports drink at aid stations (another fueling trick I picked up in Tacoma). Around mile 17 I started to feel like I was trying harder. By mile 21 I was run/walking. I was super upset that I was crashing again! I pushed a little, probably not as much as I could have. I didn't want to need medical help after the race and I was in first place so I decided to settle for whatever time I got. Through the whole race, I was lucky enough to have some company from my running club. The lead biker was a one of my clubmates. Its nice to have someone to talk to late in the race when you are running alone. Around mile 23 (I think), I got held up at a stop light (free race=no closed streets). Thinking about it now, that probably cost me my PR. My official time was 3:09:52, 23 seconds short of my PR and 4+ minutes ahead of second place.

After having a few days to reflect on the race, I am happy with it. It brought out the fueling issues I was having in detail so I now know what to fix. It was my best race since I qualified for Boston in October 2010. While I didn't get under 3, I have a hard time complaining about finishing time when I won the whole race! Not to mention it was my 3rd marathon in 48 days.

I'm taking most of the week off from running (6.3-6.8). I haven't taken more than four days off in over a year. I was going to take a full week off but I want to go out with my club on Saturday. I think six days of rest is close enough. Next week, I'll start building up a base again for a few months. That will give me time to lay out a training plan/nutrition plan for my next marathon, Ghost of Seattle in November.

~Run Strong

Boston Repeat

That did not go as planned. I'll post a more extensive race report once I figure out what happened. I had a duplicate of my Boston race last year. Solid first half only to collapse the second half. Finished in 3:25:27, good enough for an age group win and 13th overall.

March/Weekly Stats

March
Distance: 231.8 miles
Pace: 7:53
Run Days/Rest Days: 27/4
YTD: 739.6 @ 8:24

March wasn't quite the distance I was looking for but it was a great month. I ran a new 10k PR and an unofficial 5k PR! It would have been a streak month (i.e. no rest days) if not for the dental procedure I had done on Monday. It put me out of commission for four days. Hence the low totals this week. So far I have 20 miles. Hoping to get out for another 5 tomorrow to give me 25 for the week.

M-Th: Rest days per Dr. orders
F: 7.25 miles @ 8:13
Sa: 13 miles @ 7:45
Su: 5 miles @ ?

Not sure how fast tomorrow's run will be. Probably a little slower, 8:30-9:00. My quads are a little sore after today's run. Hopefully next week is better than this week in terms of running. In terms of work it will be crazy. I'm use to teaching in the morning. Next quarter, which starts Monday, I will be teaching two night courses. MW I'm teaching until 10 and TTH until 7:50. That will take some getting use to. Also, I have 70+ new names to learn. Such is the life of a teacher.