Shoes revisited...

Yes I have a lot to say about shoes and I didn't say it all the other day.

Minimalist shoes.  Intriguing, no?  Even if you don't think they are for you, it is food for thought.  Has the shoe industry been just trying to sell us ultra padded shoes that won't keep us from injuring ourselves?  Or is this latest fad just a ploy to, um, sell more shoes?

I suppose for me in the end it really doesn't matter which.  I love my Saucony's that feel like I'm running on pillows.  But, I really wanted to see if a pair of minimalist shoes were any good either.  Not necessarily to run in, but walking around in doing normal things.  Hopefully just to strengthen my feet in general.

This led me to the Running Shop where I managed to find myself walking out the door with a pair of brand new shoes. 

First I need to compliment the Brooks company for coming up with such a great box.  You can't help but smile while looking at it.  If I was a hoarder, I'm sure I would keep it front and center in my piles of boxes and such so that people could smile before gasping at my house that would surely look like it could swallow them at any point.  But, since I'm not a hoarder, I am reduced to keeping my box out of public view and hoping that my fellow running blog readers will get the same enjoyment out of this box that I do.

And the shoes?  I went with a pair of Brooks from their Pure Project.  I've worn them a few times now and am very surprised at how sturdy they are.  I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't the snug, secure feeling I got.  Or the cushiness.  And this is coming from a girl who normally runs on fluff.  Yes, they are very lightweight, but you expected that right?

I have yet to run more than across the street in them.  I'm a chicken at heart and don't want to end up hurting myself.  I don't know that my stride is a minimalist stride.  I am tempted to run a mile or so in them just to say that I did.

Minimalist shoes?  What do you think about them?  Fad?  Or something more?  Do you own a pair?  How is that working out for you?

And if you're visiting from Fitness Friday - welcome!  Thanks again to Jill for hosting this blog hop!

Let's talk shoes.

How many pairs of shoes does one person need?  Two?  Six?  Ten?  True confessions time.  I own a lot more shoes than this.  A lot more.  Shoes are a HUGE weakness of mine.  I honestly have never counted how many pairs I have, but am afraid to say that I could probably wear a pair each day of the month and still have shoes to spare.  No.  I am still not going to go count my shoes.

Yeah.  I could probably feed a small nation for a month in the money I have tied up in shoes.

A girl has to have some weakness - right?

Of course, my obsession passion leads into my running shoe life as well. 

You will never believe the great deal on shoes I got at our local REI's garage sale!  (I never said I paid full price for any of my shoes!).

For those of you who have never heard of this, REI has a garage sale a couple of times a year where they sell everything that has been returned to them.  There are no returns and you get what you get.  People line up in droves.  I braved the crowds to go over and made my first pass through the shoe section.  I mostly saw lots of worn out hiking boots.  Sorry.  Not on my radar!  The second pass through I saw these....

Yay!  Brand new shoes?!?  In my size!!!!  I looked at the bottoms... I think they had been worn across a parking lot once... so they couldn't be returned as new.  They still had that brand new running shoe feel... when you first put them on and it feels like you are walking on pillows.  



How might this get better you ask?  They were a whole whopping $40.  I know, my non-running friends might not think this is a deal, but, I am sure the readers of this blog know that my running shoes retail for $130 and this is a screaming deal. 

I think I did cartwheels all the way home.

And then put my brand-used shoes on a went for a "new shoe" run.

I could lie to you and say...

That I've been racking up the miles.  More miles than I can count.  I'm wearing out shoes left and right. 

OK.  So maybe not.

Maybe the truth is that I got a whole 7 miles in last week. 

And watched 14 episodes of....

in the last two weeks.

I am not one to get addicted to TV shows, but this show has caught my attention and I spent about 5 hours on Sunday watching the last 3 episodes before PBS took them off their website (and I would have to spend $20 at iTunes to watch them!).

So, yay.  They are done.  Back to running.  And blogging.

On the fitness side of things, the school district I work for made a (free!) Fitness Center at the high school for all employees to use.  They even have made classes like Boot Camp, Circuit Training, and Zumba.  I've been going to Circuit Training twice a week for the last month.  I love that the trainer looks at what you are capable of and matches up your abilities to what he has assigned and modifies if necessary.  I love the "family" feel of this class... so much better than the gym I had belonged to!

I'm hoping for more core fitness this way as I work to get ready for Chicago.  I know that it's an important part of training that I have never been good at doing or sticking with.  I'm hoping for much better results this time around!