Shoes, shoes, shoes

I have a lot of shoes now, and I've been running in most of them. I used to be a die-hard Brooks PureFlow fan, but I don't care for the update on the 3s. My 3s have 130 miles on them, somehow, and I also scored a pair of the 2s, which used to be my favorite shoe. Those have 115 miles on them.

They're not my favorite shoes anymore. My favorites are my Saucony Kinvara 5s and Newton Distance IIIs (I like the looser fit), but I thought I might need more cushion for the higher mileage. I got a pair of Adidas Glide Boosts, and they feel pretty good.

But I think they're hurting me.

I'm used to 4mm drops, and the Glide is 10mm. A weekly run in them is probably okay, but putting more miles on them seems to hurt my calves and, thus, my Achilles. It's very disappointing because I was hoping to use them to lengthen the life of my Kinvaras. I think I might want to run the marathon in them, but I wonder if I shouldn't try something with a little more cushion.

But I love the Kinvaras. I should probably stick with them for this training cycle. I think I know too much about shoes, and it's clouding my judgment, if that's possible. I'm sure I'm overthinking things (no surprise there). So I'll wear the Kinvaras for the River Run.

And I do have a plan for the River Run/18-miler.

Miles 1-5: very, very easy warmup (10:30s or slower, hopefully)
Miles 1-8 of the race: controlled and comfortably hard, around 9:10 pace
Miles 9-13.1 of the race: go for it and start dropping the pace, hopefully end with sub-8 miles

Cross your fingers! I'm taking today and tomorrow off, and I'll run/walk with the 5k group for its 3.5 miles Saturday morning. I should be well-rested and ready to go for Sunday, right?!