Okay first confessions I am a little jealous that hubby's new shoes are blingier than mine. Also today when doing our little 3 mile test drive he had a color coordinated outfit and I am pretty sure he was cuter than me, which is a no no. He is sick with a cold, so I guess I will let him have this one. Anyway, so how were the shoes? My shoes are at the top of the picture, Merrell Bare Access ARC (I guess they would be 1's since now they have released a 2 with a full Vibram Sole). These still have the softer lighter weight sole. The Specs can be found here. Suffice it to say it is zero drop, with a little more cushion than my favorite New Balance MR00. About me so you can compare for yourself. I run between 20-30 miles a week, I am 5'2" about 115 lbs, I have exceptionally small feet both short and narrow. I wear a size 5 dress shoe (really 4 1/2) but no one makes those. I wear a size 6 running shoe. For any who make work at a running store, yes I am really a size 6 running shoe. I am not trying to sound petite, or anything cute. Believe me I would give anything to be a size 8 or 9 and live in the world of walking into any shoe store and buying off the rack. I have a pretty high arch, I have a mid to forefoot foot strike, and my cadence is around 198 on average.
So yesterday I did a little treadmill work out. I did one mile of increasing incline and one mile of speed intervals in the new shoes. They felt great on the treadmill. For me that is a good sign because a lot of shoes have too much bounce on the TM. I have chronic bad knees and bouncing shoes on the TM always mean an evening of Icy Hot and Aleve. These felt great. I had enough energy return but the minimal firm cushion kept the impact from shooting back up my knee. Today we did a road test. I took them out on my usual route around my neighborhood. The thing I love about my minimal shoes is after a mile or so they disappear. This happened with these too. I love that. They are so light less than 5 oz. so they don't weigh you down. Because they flare at the toe box I have plenty of room for natural foot movement, but they taper in at the arch, so for my little foot, they had a lot of stability. Sometimes in a wider shoe, like my New Balance 730's, I feel like I am slip sliding away. They are not a showy shoe. In fact of all my shoes they are probably the most sedate. They feel good and I had a lot of road feel, but definitely more cushion that the my MR00's where I can feel every pebble and rock.
For me the biggest test is how they feel going up hill. In my NB MR00's I feel like I can fly because they are so light. These performed well on the hills today. Hubby even let me go in front of him, since he wasn't feeling well and he knew I wanted to test them out. Besides looking like doll shoes, which my husband says they do, being so small. I thought they had a good ride. I am excited to take them out on a long run next weekend. The weather here has sucked this weekend so I did not get as much running in as usual. Based on today's run I think these will do really well on long runs. I was really looking for a zero drop shoe for my longer runs. I may have found one.
Hubby and I with our new shoes. Pablo is helping to break them in for my husband. See I did not lie about my small foot or frealishly pale Irish Skin!
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