My New Running Shoes - Brooks Ravenna

Its been a while since my last entry. Things had been crazy at work. Good thing though is that i had been back on my training routines, now more focus than ever. Sadly my Nike Racers wasnt able to take the wear and tear that I have been giving her and decided to bail out on me. My last run with it was in the VeteRUN race - the impact i was getting in my knees from the repeated shock of the ground was unbearable that i had to stop before I get any major injuries. After examining the shoes, i found tear on both of them so this i guess is its way of saying I've had enough.

Now I know this is unthinkable, much to close to the Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon, but i did bought a new pair of shoes that I will most prolly use in the race date. My worry is.. would there be enough time to break in to this new shoes.

The same day, Pao and I went to Runnr to buy me a new pair. After having done the gait test we proceed to choose my new running shoes. Pao wanted me to try Brooks but I of course being a Nike girl insisted on the oh so handsome Nike Eclipse. I decided to listen to him anyway and I tried the Brooks Ravenna, surprisingly the knees that were hurting so bad just earlier that day didnt bother me at all. Second, I put on the Nike Eclipse and then tried running on the thread mill to test the shoes but my knees were far too achy to run properly so i had to put that one aside. After that  I tried the Zoot - I forgot the model but it was blue (hehe) and tried running with it as well. With the Zoot, the knees doesn't hurt as much but there was this pinching feeling in my arches that i kept telling the sales person assisting me, "kuya may tumutusok ata sa feet ko.." I was also suppose to try the Newtons like the pink ones BullRunner have but they were only in size 6 and I am size 8 1/2 so i passed. Lastly I asked the sales guy to let me try the Ravenna once more, I thought maybe it was because I was just off from rest thats why the knees doesnt seem to hurt. I gave it another go and boy was it consistent! No hurting feeling. Clearly I've made my choice. I bought the Brooks Ravenna. Hopefully this would help fix my heel striking habit as well. :)

THE BROOKS RAVENNA

Im not a fan of the Sun Orange - but the feeling was amazing and it was the only available color

Along with that I also bought a new CWX compression tights and some senzu beans (sports beans)

Christmas came early for me. :)

HAPPY EASTER

HAPPY EASTER!

along with the celebration of easter - i also finished my 1st 100 KM today.

yey for me! :)

Nike LunaRacer+ 2

yey! another item review! :)

Because I like to spoil myself, you will often see gadget or item reviews in my blog. This time I'm going to review the new racing flats released by Nike - the lunarlite racer 2.

Ok so let's start!


I've been running for some months now, and i have been training with my trusty but heavy Nike Airmax 90 Trainers all this time. So far, the longest distance I've ran in those shoes is 5km. I am very happy with that cross trainer shoes that even when my feet hurts i still refuse to buy new ones. However while reading 'round the Internet, i stumbled upon an article that says i have greater risks of having injuries running on wrong shoes. So after a morning run at veteran's i head to the store to buy new ones.

I was suppose to buy a new balance shoes because the Unilab run offered 30% discount to all new balance items. That would mean that i could buy one for around 3k -ish, and save some for socks and other stuff i would have to buy. However by some stroke of fate, i entered the Nike store first.

What happened between lunarlite racer 2 and myself is simply magical. If there's such a thing as love at first run, then that's exactly how i would describe my racer 2 experience. The first glance at this shoe and i already knew that i wanted it. It featured the shocking pink color in the net but what i saw in the store styles the livestrong color of yellow and black. It was perfect. I fitted it and it was perfect. I was jumping around the store.. running around the store and it was perfect. I was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning. I wanted it. I just found my perfect shoes.



The following morning I took the shoes for a test run. It was very light and cool on my feet. I think its one of the lightest shoe on the market right now. I ran 3km.. my feet are still fine. 5km passed... my feet are barely aching. Now on 7km.. i dont feel tired at all. 10km.. ok i should stop now, before i hurt myself from the sudden increase in milleage. The cool thing is i actually didn't feel tired at all, my feet was cool and my heels felt no pain from the run - to think that was my first 10km run. hehehe They're weren't kidding when they said that this shoes would make you feel like you could run forever. :)

The surprising thing in this story is not the fact that i was able to finish the distance, but how fast i was able to finish it. This is the data from micoach:



being the "Snail Runner" that i am, it was quite a surprise that i was able to finish at 1:11:45 on my first 10k run. I was AMAZED!

Here's what i could say about it:

Stability - same as the previous lunarlite models, lunaracer2 featured the same high-tech foam that Nike is so proud of. I found the lunaracer 2 to be very stable and comfortable on the heel with a 5k-10k run.
Cushion - This shoes also provides great cushion and though i've only tested it on a 10k run i feel like it would also do well on high millage runs.
Comfort - because of its soft interior, my feet didn't feel like it was trapped in a crowded MRT on rush hour. It was able to breathe quite well which i think allowed my feet to not get tired as quickly.
Weight: women's 157 g/5.6 oz, men's 187 g/6.5 oz
Price: P5600

I'm sure you've guess by now what my rating is.

Its 5 Paws for this shoes. Im truly inlove with it :)

The Beginning...

I have been an asthmatic all my life and frankly speaking the only sports I've ever participated are those in the comfort of my wii console. I love to eat, (the luxury of not gaining weight much) and when stressed i eat double of what i normally can. I love desserts, chocolates and ice cream and cakes and everything in between. So there, i guess you could safely say that though i am not fat i am definitely not fit. I used to go to the gym quite often before but with the new induced stress of my work and the change of lifestyle i embraced as i got older, i started to lunge deeper and deeper into the couch potato syndrome.

My lifestyle was sluggish and in the hopes of getting fit and having my waist a bit trimmer, i enrolled to the gym and started doing cardio workouts. The poison of choice was taebo, then turbo jam then pilates.

After a while, i noticed that my friends in the office were turning a hype about running a race sponsored by one of our local presidential candidates. I wasn't interested, mainly because i am barely surviving the taebo, to let alone put myself into an excruciating run. I passed on the challenge because i just plainly thought i can't. A month later, my office friends were having a mumble again about joining the condura half mary which of course i didn't join, because well, i am not yet capable to run 3k so how on earth will i be able to run a 21k? Another race passed but i continue to do my gym workouts.

During those months i also heard about the continuous ads airing on TV about the century tuna superbods run. I thought to myself, "maybe i could do this..." (and maybe i could have my picture taken with derek as well hehehe) so i told my dad that i wanted to join the race, and he told me I'm not in the condition to run. However being the hard headed girl that i am, i went against his advice and registered anyway.

I downloaded an iphone application called c25k - couch to 5k. It's a 9 week program designed to help me train from being a couch potato to running 5k races. I said, "hey this could be cool" and tried it in my next gym workout.

I was barely running on the 1st week, walking 1 min running 1 min but it was ok. It went on like that for couple of days and gradually increased as time went by. I was doing great, slow but great. I couldn't run fast, my heart was buzzing like a humming bird whenever i try to step up the pace, so i decided to just stick to my walking program. Only problem is... i only have 4 weeks to go before the century tuna Run.

How did i do on my 1st 3k race? find out on my next blog. :)