New Shoes! Also, My Stroller Sucks Balls.

I was really excited today to take M.T. out on a trail run so I could try out my new Mizuno Enigma’s.  Seriously, fewer things give me more giddyup to get a run in than new workout gear. Right?  So, I drove us to the trail head, got M.T. loaded into the Baby Trend jogging stroller and ready to go and together, we took off down the trail.  About a mile into it, the front wheel popped right off of the stroller.  Followed by the left rear wheel.  Shit.  And of course, this was right when my E&E (Energy & Endurance – preworkout drink) decided to kick in.  Perfect.  Nothing makes you handle a disaster ‘better’ than a bunch of caffeine and nitric oxide in your body.

Packed up the piece of crap stroller (after hurling it angrily across the parking lot – once M.T. was out of it and in the car, that is) and drove very angrily to 24 Hour Fitness.  Behind some of the slowest drivers in the world.  I wanted to kill all of them.

Finally got to the gym, made an ass out of myself by cutting in line at the Kids Club (daycare) and yelling at everyone about it (I was seriously on a roll today) and finally got my hopped up ass on the treadmill.  Which was incredibly boring.  I got in three miles on the treadmill with 20 second sprint intervals mixed in (2 minutes of regular paced running, 20 seconds of sprints) to keep it at least slightly interesting.  Seriously, fewer things make the miles go by more slowly than running on a treadmill.  I tried putting my jacket over the timer and over the mileage, then realized that I couldn’t really do intervals too well without keeping track of time.  After about a mile of grumpy running, however, I finally decided I needed to check my attitude because it was ruining my entire workout and instead, I started to focus on how my shoes were making my feet and legs feel.

The Enigma’s are awesome.

I’m pretty loyal to Mizuno.  I love their shoes.  For a while now, my favorite shoes to run in have been the Mizuno Wave Ronin’s.  They’re a light weight neutral running shoe that is fantastic for racing because they’re so light.  Compared to my picture of the Enigmas, check out the Wave Ronins:

There’s enough cushion in the heel to feel supported and there is enough grip on the bottom that you can take the Ronin’s off the pavement and onto the trails without too much issue.

But because they are such a lightweight shoe, it means the material of the shoe is very thin so there isn’t a lot of tongue to protect the top of your foot from the laces.  If you have lopsided feet like I do and one of your arches is higher, it can mean that you will need to get creative with your lacing technique so that you don’t suffer a fracture from having your laces too tight.

My right foot can get away with just a gap but for the left, I need to use the straight across lacing – that’s the foot with the high arch.  There is enough support in these backs of these shoes, even with the straight across lacing, that I can get away with this lacing technique without having my heel slip or having to do a heel lock.  With the Enigma’s, I’ve been able so far to get away with regular lacing on both shoes, but I have to have a heel lock.  Despite the support of these shoes, my heels do slip a little.

I do really like how buffed up the bottom of the shoe is and during the brief period today spent running on a gravel/dirt trail, I definitely noticed that the rocks weren’t bothering me at all.

Seriously, check out the heels on these bad boys:

I’m excited to use the Enigma’s as my training shoes.  I will be doing my actual races, however, in the Wave Ronin’s.  The Wave Ronin’s are fantastic for racing and you really do feel like you’re not even wearing shoes, they’re so light weight.    If you’re a Mizuno fan and can wear a neutral running shoe comfortably, I totally recommend giving the Enigma’s a shot and – just so you know – I’m not getting paid or anything to say this. I just love my Mizuno’s.  I do not, however, recommend the Baby Trend jogging stroller.

Runners: I know we’re all different in the feet department, but I’m still curious! What is your favorite shoe to run in?

Tagged as: running, shoes