Regalia: Saucony

I can feel it coming. It's creeping into my mornings, causing the sun to poor into my window earlier than usual.  It's slithering into my car, making the seats hot and the stale air hotter. I think I need to turn on the AC. Most of all, it's jeopardizing my mid-day runs causing me to lose 15 pounds in pure sweat alone. I can feel summer coming, and I'm scared. I love Arizona, I really do, and I am a big fat wimp when it comes to anything below 55 degrees Fahrenheit, but I'm just not ready for triple digit weather. I still have time, plenty of time, but still, I'm anxiously dreading summer's arrival.

It's 80 degrees out, which is beautiful, but it made my run a bit more intense. Actually, I kind of like getting extremely sweaty when I work out. It makes me feel like a real athlete, and it reminds me of summers playing softball. However, post-run, when I slowly wobbled into my bathroom, dripping sweat, and gazed into the mirror, it literally looked like I had changed ethnicity. It looked like my face had darkened three shades. I forgot how easily I tan. Time to buy some sunblock!!


Before I go into the work out summary I'd like to give you a little Running Regalia Review. As I try out new products, I feel it will be fun to share with you what I am getting out of them, how I feel about them, etc. Next time, the review will be in its own separate post. So here it is:


Running Regalia Review


About a week ago I made my first visit to Road Runner Sports. It was heaven. I've waited to share with you my experience there because I wanted to make sure that I was happy with the chosen shoe. I sure am. The Road Runner personnel first put me through their Shoe Dog technology. I walked on and over a exta-special, scientific gate analyzer which took an imprint of my footstep and presented it on the screen. Apparently I pronate inward. Now that I think about it, that makes sense, and that could definitely be contributing to my constant ankle pain. Then, I step on a tread mill and start running. It's confirmed: I DO inwardly pronate. My handy helper Mr. Frank then tests what size shoe I am (my right foot is bigger than my left), and takes me over to the insole area. To make a long story short we went through a series of testing, talking and running until I found a shoe and insole that gave me the perfect (almost) gait.


I finally ended up with the Saucony ProGrid Ride 2 (pictured above). You know you're a runner when you buy the dorkiest looking shoe on the shelf because it fits the best. After a week with my new shoes, I have to say my joints feel a lot better. My ankles don't feel like they are going to cave in the second I start running, and even my overall gait feels faster and smoother. Honestly, I contemplate never taking them off. Every other shoe now feels like it's killing me slowly. But for now I'm still too shallow to stick with running shoes as my daily foot attire.


Saucony is not as well known as may other brands because the company is solely (no pun intended) catering to runners. Their shoes seem a little bit stiffer than the others, but I think that the stiffness makes me run smoother overall. Plus I can already feel them morphing to my feet. I give Saucony three out of three first pumps, and I give Road Runner Sports a spot on my top five favorite stores list. Ya, I know, I tend to get a little too enthusiastic. But hey, the gear is a part of the game (or race)!


Work Out Summary:
Run: 11 minute warm up, 10 minute fartlek, 9 min easy pace.
Drills: Five minutes (I was soo hot by then!)
Strenght: Crunches, pushups, lunges, triceps resistance, calves