New shoes. I went a completely different direction. I've mostly warn support shoes with some neutral cushion shoes mixed in. I went with a little less this time. I've been working on my form for that last year or so and as far as I can tell I've improved it a lot. So with better form I thought I would try something a little less. So I went to the shoe store and tried several different cushy minimalist shoes. I'm not a cave man so no non-cushy shoes. Anyway, after trying out the Altras on the treadmill the thought that came to mind is that these shoes didn't get in the way of running form. So they're supposed to work your calves pretty good the first few times you wear them because of the zero drop. They seemed to be doing just that until I realized that I was actually striking on the forefoot instead of midfoot. Is it weird that I had to lengthen my stride slightly to strike on my midfoot? Well it worked. My legs were immediately more relaxed while continuing good posture and increasing speed. It was noticeably easier to run. So my first run in these shoes was AWESOME. I beat my best 7 mile time by 14 seconds per mile. That's almost a full 2 minutes. Average pace 7:55. It wasn't all the shoes. I was feeling pretty good and only ran 10 on Saturday, but all the same, 7:55. My legs feel good now but the last time I ran this hard I was a mess on the next day's run. We'll see. | 