It took around 3 hours of self-convincing, but in the end I made it outside for my daily run in the pouring rain. Thank good for Tiësto and his Parade of the Athletes album. If not for that, I wouldn’t have made it through!

What is your favourite album to run to?

Get the album now if you want to run faster! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parade_of_the_Athletes

Even though yesterday was pretty wet with rain for the most part of 20 hours I felt like going for a trail run in the local Mercer County Park, so I put on my Speedcross and went out the door.

At the park conditions were pretty mixed at some spots there was 4-8 inches of water on the trail so those areas were pretty much un-runable. Some of the other areas that were a little higher were fine. So the run was a 70%-30% split between trail and asphalt but still very nice.

Again – the Speedcross are really good at these conditions. The wetter and more slippery the better!

Its a pretty nice kit that Omega Pharma-Quick Step revealed yesterday. Color-wise it looks a bit inspired by the Leopard kit.

Its just a shame that the very blue Quick Step logo totally sticks out of the rest of the design.

Just found this new Asics shoe – the Asics Gel-Fuji Racer. A lightweight (not totally minimalistic though) trail shoe for neutral runners. It sports a forefoot rock plate and an outersole that is only a little rougher than its road siblings the Hyperspeed and DS racer.

And of course a really cool purple/yellow color combo!

Maybe this is the all-purpose road/trail shoe that I have been looking for?

I ordered a new pair of Salomon Crossmax shoes the other day eager to try them out as my new “lets run from home to the trail, around the trail and back again” shoe. I had heard nothing but good things about the shoe and its dual capabilities on trail and road.

But when the shoes arrived I was really disappointed with the weight of the shoe. My usual go to trail shoe the Salomon Speedcross 2 is around 340 pr shoe, but this was closer to 410 grams pr shoe – More than my Nimbus 12!

That was simply too much for my liking.

So instead of getting to test it out and writing about it on the blog, the shoe was sent back to www.runningwarehouse.com (BTW: Great site and service)

Now I am looking for a new road/trail shoe. Any ideas?

When I started my winter training schedule a few weeks ago I had a few goals:

1: Get my core and upper body into shape doing my P90X program
2: Take a break from from activities that could get me injured such as running.

I am still on track with the first goal. The P90X is quickly whipping my arm,back, abs, shoulders etc into shape.

But the second goal toke a punch to the stomach this week.

After my half marathon in October I haven’t really been running that much. I have taken a few quick runs on my treadmill, but not more than 20-30 mins in a slow tempo. But Thursday the nice weather took me outside for a quick 10 mile run with my buddy, Nicolaj. At mile 7 (after a steep 2 mile ascent) me knee started to hurt and swell and I had to stop. Luckily Nicolaj volunteered to run back for the car and pick me up. The pain wasn’t too strong but it kept me limping a bit on Saturday as well

Then Sunday during my regular P90X workout, I get a light sprain on my ankle (Damn those monster tire jumps) and I had to wear my ankle bracelet the rest of the day and Monday morning.

But today my knee and ankle felt a lot better and with the weather being 21 degrees and sunny I couldn’t help myself from going on a slooowww 5k run. And what do you know: No problems with neither knee or ankle!

Now it is off to Denmark. I have packed my running shoes along with my P90X sessions (I tried to fit my bike into the suitcase, but couldn’t get it in my hand luggage) so we will see what the following days bring.

Have a nice and injury free day!

I just picked up the new edition of Running Times and felt really depressed about my age when I read an article about the future American runners.

On the list of runners were among other the 14 year old Alana Hadley who ran a half marathon in 1:17:15 and the 10 year old!!! Faith Roth who ran the same distance in 1:41:53… Those are some amazing times for a 14 and 10 year old kid.

It takes me back to this summer when I had to battle out the final sprint of the New Jersey State Triathlon with a 14 year old girl. I won – only to find that she had actually beaten my by 5 min because she started in the start wave after me…

I just hope I won’t be at the same start line as them soon so I can feel even more depressed

Note to self: Stop landing on your heel!

P.S: The time on the board in NOT my half marathon time. Please deduct 8 hours and 4.12 min

P.P.S. I didn’t land like this all the time:

So I have finally had a few more miles on the Adidas Adizero Feather (That is a loooong name) and can update my review that I did a few weeks back.

Feel:

After my initial few runs I did feel that the sole of shoe was a bit stiff, but that had definitely changed for the better after 30 miles in it. It is still quite springy and stiff, but it no longer feels like a hindrance when you run. It will be interesting to see if the show will become even mushier during its life or if this is the feel that will last.

I did my half marathon in these shoes and was a bit worried about running 13 miles in them but my legs and feet felt fine – the shoes didn’t feel too hard and had a nice airy feel due to them being very lightweight (250 grams in my size 13) – a feature that was very to have during the last 2 miles

I have also done a few intervals and 5k runs in these shoes and this is where the shoes really are excellent. Doing 400-800m intervals are a blast in these shoes and you hardly feel that you are wearing shoes at all (in a positive sense). When doing 5k runs the shoes make your pace feel effortless and you come home from the run with fresher legs and faster times that you expected.

Upper part:

I must admit that I was quite skeptical about the upper mesh on this shoe when I got it. It looks and feels VERY thin, but so far it has held up. No signs of giving up yet.

An annoying thing though is that the laces a very hard to tighten. On other shoes I have worn, you can pull the laces at one set of holes and the surrounding holes would tighten a bit too. This doesn’t work with the Feather. You have to tighten each set of holes individually in order for the shoe to be laced correctly and still the laces will be quite hard to pull through the holes.

Outer sole:

The sole is starting to show a bit of wear on the heel after 30 miles but nothing that is worrying. The large gap in the sole has already caught a few acorns and rocks but they are pretty easy to remove. However, I wouldn’t recommend using these shoes on anything else than smooth tarmac or perhaps at the track.

Verdict:

* Excellent for intervals and fast paced training, but can also do half marathons where the lightweight helps you
* Badly designed laces