I run exclusively in Altra Running shoes. I began a few years ago with the Intuition 1.5 and have now transitioned to pretty much wearing the Altra One (2 or 2.5) for all of my long runs. Occasionally I throw in some runs in the Intuition 3, but the One has become my go to shoe - it's light, it's neutral, and it works for me. I've run many half marathons and two full marathons in them. I love these shoes so much that I'm an Altra Ambassador. When I went to the Runner's World festival, Altra offered me a new shoe to try. I wanted a shoe that would work on the trail run, but really didn't want a trail shoe (I just have no place to wear them.) Golden Harper, the founder of Altra, suggested I try the Altra Impulse because it … [Read more...]
Runner’s World Half and Festival – Trail Race with Altra
When I was first contacted by Runner's World about joining them for the Runner's World Half and Festival, they mentioned how excited they were about the trail race and that they hoped I would run it. My first thought was "OMG, RW just contacted me!". My second thought was "I'm going to break an ankle." Obviously I did not break an ankle, but I'm going to credit pure luck with that one, rather than any particular skill on my part. Prior to this past weekend, I'd run only a handful of trails ever - a couple of the Mainly Marathon races were on trails and I'd done the North Face Endurance Half (or 14.5 miler, whatever) a few years ago. None of these were particularly technical and I don't even own a pair of trail shoes. Friday … [Read more...]
Altra Running One 2.5 Review
This weekend I'm heading to the Runner's World Half and Festival that is presented by Altra Running. Since I'm an Altra Running ambassador, I'm pretty excited about meeting the founder of Altra Running, Golden Harper. Golden originally created his first pair of Zero Drop™ shoes using an old pair of running shoes and a toaster oven! Rumor has it that we will have the opportunity to be fitted by Altra staff. I look forward to hearing if they think I am running in the correct Altra shoe for me. I've been wearing Altra running shoes for a while now. A few years ago, I transitioned to minimalist running, including running barefoot on my treadmill and using Vibram Five Fingers when I was outside. While I enjoyed that style of running, … [Read more...]
Thinking Out Loud Thursday : Overscheduled
How is it only Thursday? I feel like I've been through two weeks at least in the last two days since school started. I thought I was supposed to have free time once the kids went back to school? Ha! Anyways, it's Thursday and I'm doing a bit of a mind dump AKA Thinking Out Loud with Running with Spoons. Last night was the first running of the Mad Fox Brewpub's Run Club. This has been an idea that we've been tossing around for quite a while since the wife of the owner is also a runner. We had a nice turnout! I ran 3 miles with some lovely ladies, a few other people ran 5, and Beer Geek acted as sherpa and sweeper on his bike. Of course, for me, the best part was the beer and conversation afterwards. Mad Fox will be hosting the run … [Read more...]
Thinking Out Loud Thursday: End of Year Craziness
It seems like every year at this time I feel like I'm hanging on by the tips of my fingernails. All of the end of the year activities, combined with a few unplanned adventures (lightning'd out tryouts, sore throats, exploding milk jugs) leave me feeling like I'm only a second away from one of the many balls in the air landing on my head. Thankfully, we are almost to the finish line and the normal crazy that is my life will return. … [Read more...]
Five brands that make my running life better
I've been running regularly for about 13 years now. I started when my teen was just a baby. When I first started, I only owned a couple of tech t-shirts, some compression shorts, and a random pair of running shoes that was on sale. I ran like that for more than four years. When I ran my first race, I wore a pair of men's running tights because that's all I could find at the last minute for an unexpectedly cold race. I've come a long way since then! In fact, I'm wearing four of the brands I love in this picture! (This post contains affiliate links.) … [Read more...]
Friday Favorites
How is it Friday already? Oh wait, maybe the fact that I had exactly 4 hours this week with both children at school explains why I feel like the week flew and why I'm so incredibly far behind. Our school system closed school for Thursday at 8pm on Wednesday night. This is virtually unheard of - they much prefer to wake me up with a text at stupid early. And I'll admit, I was a bit surprised - it was raining not snowing and it was above freezing. But close they did. So, let's talk about five of my favorite things since that's the topic chosen by Courtney, Mar, and Cynthia for this week's topic. (There are affiliate links below and some items I got for free, but every product here I'd willingly spend my own money on.) 1. Sleeping in. … [Read more...]
Weekend in a nutshell: good, bad, ugly
There was a lot of good in the weekend and thankfully only a little bit bad and ugly. I'm joining Tara over at Running 'n' Reading for my weekend update. So, let me tell you about the good. The biggest good: I've been chosen to be a 2015 Ambassador for Altra Running. I'm pretty excited because I've been sharing the Altra love for a while now. Another good: I ran 10 miles on Friday after running 7 miles on Thursday. Back to back higher mileage for the win. Perhaps it's time to actually decide on my training plan... Saturday was all good. We took the boys to the National Geographic Museum to see the Spinosaurus. It was pretty cool and Jones, my budding paleontologist, was happy we got there. Afterwards, we rode the … [Read more...]
