Friday, August 14, 2020

SL 20s: The Knee Killer

 So I wrote that due to the wet feet in the Boston 8's that I got a pair of SL20s which were more breathable. Indeed they were. Instead of soaked feet I had damp feet. As fate would have it, to make up for the lack of soppiness, these sneakers decided to try to kill my knees.

After a few runs I noticed that the inside tendon on my left knee was sore. My left foot is the "bad" foot. I figured it was due to not using my insert (which I haven't needed in the Boston). I put the insert in and continued to run. Same deal except now I ALSO had knee knock. That is, on occasion my knees were meeting. That doesn't happen to me and I don't have knock knees. This meant that my foot was collapsing inward and that was likely the cause of my tendon pain. 

Looking at the bottom of the sneaker I saw that the inner edge of the front of the sneaker was very worn. This is with 70 miles.  Clearly my foot was doing a lot of rolling.

The SL20s have been retired to walk duty...whenever I wear white. Had I paid full freight for these sneakers I would have been very upset. I didn't so I'm only a little upset. Even the Pegs with a similar mileage (I use it for occasional long run speed tests) weren't that worn.

It goes to show that you have to listen to your body and examine your shoes to make sure you're not headed to injury. I did notice that the SLs moved around more than the Bostons. That should have been a clue.

Your mileage may certainly vary but that's the last SL I'll be purchasing. Fortunately the weather will soon be cooling down and I'll be back to thicker sneakers. So I'll have to find a pair of Vomeros. They are heavy but handled cold weather well, heel wear issue aside.

Running To The Crawl: Not Happening

 So I did not register for the Crawling Crab because I suspected that the currant lunacy around COVID (yes it's lunacy and I've written extensively about it elsewhere), would have resulted in a cancelled race and I didn't want to have reservations to cancel and the like. Sure enough the Crawl is cancelled. Actually it's now a "Hermit" race which I suppose means virtual run. 

No thanks. Not the same. A part of racing is seeing the competition. It's seeing the person ahead of you and saying to yourself: I think I can catch them. It's suffering and seeing that mile marker or clock. It's that big ass finish line banner that makes you dig deep and cut 30 seconds off your last mile.

 So for me the 2020 race season is officially cancelled. Thanks China. 

On the plus side, this allows me to continue to heart rate train for another 6 months. I have already seen benefits and look forward to a MAF test when the weather cools into the 60s. I see no point in MAF testing in hot weather knowing the impact that heat has on your body AND the fact that my last MAF test was in cool(er) weather. The results cannot be comparable.