my way or the highway

as the snow insists on remaining a fixture of the landscape in my part of the province, my mind turns to thoughts of driving.

not instead of running ... just the mechanics and logistics of driving.  for two reasons:

1. i run on the road - this may not be any kind of startling revelation to you, but not all runners run on the road.   many run on trails, and for some great reasons.  i see a lot of runners on the sidewalks (which is a last resort for me, because of the poor surface conditions in the winter and the higher density of concrete vs. asphalt).  still other runners run on the road, but with the flow of traffic.  i have always run against the flow of traffic - yes, on the 'wrong side of the road' to all you driving types - and have even gotten pulled over by the police for it.  the reasons that i run against traffic when on the road is purely for safety (as counter-intuitive as that may sound).  when facing oncoming vehicles, i have the opportunity to make eye contact with drivers and this is always a good idea when occupying the roadspace, whether you're on a bicycle, motorcycle, in a car or truck, or running or walking.  secondly, i can also exercise the option of having enough advance notice to dodge out of the way of a distracted or out of control driver - a luxury not afforded to me if my back is to the flow of traffic.


2. i'm still learning about how to drive properly - just this morning i returned from our CSSE chapter meeting, and our president gave a very effective and enlightening presentation on high risk driving and assessment.  among the many notable things that he shared was the fact that most people (and i confess that i number among this group) do not have their side-view mirrors adjusted properly - and that because they are not set to provide the perspective that they should, the vast majority of drivers must check over-the-shoulder in order to avoid missing vehicles/cyclists/objects/runners in their blindspots.  ever since my learn-to-drive lessons as a 16 year old i was taught to wrench my neck around linda-blair style in order make sure that i was getting a full panoramic view of what was surrounding my car in transit.  but today, after some 25 years of driving i finally discovered that i'd been totally misusing my rear-view mirrors after being shown this video:
   
   
   
   i made the proper adjustments prior to leaving the parking lot after our meeting, and could not believe the difference that it made in becoming aware of all of the other traffic surrounding me on the road.  

yep, that's me ... still playing in traffic after all these years.

my way or the highway

road review - asics gel galaxy 4

i doubt that you will find anyone else writing a serious training review on this shoe. 

although produced by asics, a great athletic company (their name is an acronym for anima sana in corpore sano after all), they are like many other businesses in their industry that produce some mass-market 'lifestyle' type of footwear.  i'd venture to say that the gel galaxy 4 falls into this category.

previously i'd posted that i bought these shoes at the local value village which is a favourite haunt of mine [note:  i am an avowed thrift-store junkie] - and therefore i have no idea what kind of life they lived prior to settling into my running closet.  what i wanted to purchase was a pair of shoes that would (a) have a little more material to them to protect my feet during the heaviest winter weather (we can often see 15-25 cm snowfall accumulation on any given day, and down to -30°C windchill temperatures); and (b) have decent enough traction to cover the tundra-like terrain without the use of additional gripping devices.  and it just so happened that on the day that i dropped into the store, these were on the men's footwear shelf:

they aren't the prettiest things ... so what made me add them to the rotation?  here's just a quick rundown of key features for me:

1. upper construction - this was definitely top criteria in selecting another shoe, especially from the second hand store.  the overlays, the toe bumper, padded tongue/ankle/heel sections - lots of added protection against the elements.  remember, i was looking for something to help me specifically with winter running.
2. outsole design -  it's kinda funky, don't you think?
   
   looks a bit like a fossilized ancient squid or something ... but its precisely that off-kilter pattern and texturing, combined with the transverse forefoot flexlines that made me think that this would work in terms of providing decent traction while allowing a forefoot striker like me to still work the shoe as i needed to.
3. weight - the shoes are essentially clodhoppers for me.  at a little more than 11oz. in size 10.5, they're almost twice the shoe that my merrell road gloves are.  it's almost like having these on your feet:
   
   so why does this work for me?  well, i knew that i would be selecting heavier shoes based on the kind of protection that i wanted ... but i also intended to use this particular pair of shoes for recovery runs (right now mondays and fridays for no more than 12km each outing) - and so it's in part helping me to stick with the discipline of not pushing too much on my easy days while still providing a good workout for my legs.  keeping the turnover rate high while feeling like i've strapped weights to my feet makes me at least believe that i could be running faster.
4. visibility - while i'm not entirely sure that the asics logo design on the side of the shoes is reflective, it does provide sufficient enough contrast over a large enough area that makes the shoes noticeable while running in the early pre-dawn darkness.
5. sizing - beggars can't be choosers, especially when it comes to second-hand shopping.  but these shoes i found in a 10.5 which provided ample enough length and surprisingly decent toebox width - no scrunched pinky toes here.  the fit set these shoes apart from a couple of other pairs of runners i was able to find at the same store.
6. pricepoint - now this isn't fair to be sure, as i purchased them used ... but for asics footwear, i think that these shoes would have be regular retail for about $59.  i managed to pick them up for $12, and they were still in fantastic shape.  their durability has held up for me (through ice, slush and salt), and so i feel like i've gotten excellent value for money.

bottom line?  would i recommend these shoes to another runner in training?  actually, yes.  with the proviso that they should be used in rotation with other shoes.  given that these gel galaxy 4 are probably something like a 12-14mm heel drop shoe, they're obviously not helping me reinforce my barefoot-running style - but they are keeping me alert to my footstrike pattern and working well to keep me safe on the winter roads of south-central ontario.  overall i give them a 3.5 out of 5.

road review - asics gel galaxy 4