When I left work today, the weather had suddenly turned a bit nasty on me. It looked a little rainy and misty, but I decided that unless it was actual rain, that I was going to walk outside. The thought of going to the gym today, for some reason, was just more than I could bare.
I drove up to the house and saw Melissa finishing her 5K. She was so excited to get her 5K in the bag that she couldn’t wait for me. No, not really. She needed to finish earlier because she wanted to cook dinner and be ready to pick up our daughter from school. She finished breathless as I dashed inside to change. I was on my way before I saw her again.
My 5K was a bit different today. I walked my old 4 mile route that includes hills. The hills made my calves hurt. My shin splints have subsided–thank goodness. But my calves–oh my goodness, they were tight and hurting a bit because of the hills. One small hill in particular is difficult because it’s very steep and then there’s yet another uphill climb right after it. Melissa used to refer to those two as tortuous (paraphrasing).
I jogged a bit and kept my times reasonable. I finished in just over 42 minutes today, which works for me.
A few days ago, I told you about some socks that I bought Melissa and wrote that they were $5.00 socks. Well, I looked at the actual retail price, when we were picking up our Four Seasons Race medal–I had a moment of “Oh, yeah, I remember the sticker shock of $12.00 socks now.”
Yes, $12.00 for a single pair of socks. Of course, Melissa swears by them. They are Injinji socks that have individual toe spaces in them. Are they worth $12.00? I can’t tell you for sure, because I buy the cheap socks from Sam’s Club for myself. I also buy myself the inexpensive ($39.99) Asics running shoes from Academy, while she buys $100.00 Hokas from where ever she buys them.
She’s had almost every brand. Her sister recommended Saucony running shoes a couple of years ago, but she didn’t really like them.
I feel like shoe design has kind of gone off the deep end–kind of like beer overhopping. These shoes that have all this science wrapped up in them really don’t perform any better than my $40 kicks from Academy. Academy has the pricey ones too, but I don’t buy them. If a handful of hops makes a beer tasty, let’s dump in a whole bucketful and see what they think. They’ll love it, because we’ll tell them it’s good. The shoes are better because they’re expensive. Uh, no.
Sure good shoes are important, but do you really have to buy $100+ shoes every three months to stay at your peak performance? I don’t think so. Good socks are important, but $12.00 socks might be pushing it a bit.
It’s kind of like buying a $9.00 beer. You have to finish it, because it cost you $9.00, but was it really $9.00 good? Nah, probably not. I’m not sure why beer is so pricey at brewpubs and bars, since the cost is roughly five to ten cents a pint to make, including all the damn hops they add.
So, I digress.
Buy good shoes and good socks. Do you have to spend more than $100 on shoes? No. Do you have to spend $10 or more on socks? No.
What shoe and sock brands do you wear when you walk or run? Let us know.
#5KaDay2017
5K a Day 2017 