Michael: The Other Foot

The fingertip of
God was a rainbow reaching
Out to touch the earth.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

The conundrum of training for an utlra trail race in the highlands of Panama is that the trails, while beautiful, are not very runnable. Therefore, to get a long continuous run in I’ve turned to the roads.

 Last year I was running on the streets for short periods to get in speedwork and a tempo run every week using the Asics GT 2000s. My plan was to use them for my long endurance runs this year and switch over to the lighter Topo Fly Lites I picked up on sale for Christmas for my shorter jaunts, but I’ve been so happy with the Fly Lites I decided to give them a go for the endurance runs as well.

Yesterday I took the Fly Lites on the longest road run I’ve ever done - 18 miles and they were very comfortable. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with the GT 2000s. They’re a great shoe. But if I’m choosing between a comfortable shoe that weighs 9 oz. and one that weighs closer to 12 oz., I’m choosing the lighter shoe.

My only concern with the Fly Lites is the same issue I’m having with Topo’s trail shoe, the MT2s. There’s a slight seperation of material where the out sole is glued to the upper on the ball of the foot near the big toe. I’ll keep an eye on it, and hope it doesn’t get worse because I’m really enjoying running in both the Fly Lites and the MT2s.

In fact the Fly Lites are so light and comfortable they’ve ironically spurred me to purchase two non Topo shoes. I was going to use the Fly Lites for the few road races I’ll do this year, but then I thought, if I prefer the Fly Lites over the Asics because of their lightness, why not go all out in my road races with a racing flat? So I have pair of DS Gel Racers waiting in the states to test drive in a 5k in February.

Waiting with the racing flats, is a pair of Inov8 TrailRoc 235s. I’ve always wanted to give 0 drop shoes a try and figured one day I’d look into trying out a pair of Altra Lone Peaks. This year I’ve sworn to only purchase 4 pair of shoes barring my mom winning the Powerball Lottery. So I’m giving the Inov8s a go first because they’re substantially lighter than the Altras. And if they’re lighter and comfortable, as the Fly Lites have demonstrated, that’s the way to go.