Running gear – February 2020

Running is one of my favorite conditioning activities since 2015. It’s no coincidence that’s also the year I met Tanya. We originally met in April for a coffee date (thank you POF!). I’d been running about 4 miles in my workouts and felt pretty good about the distance. During our discussion she casually mentioned how she was running 6 miles regularly and had run half marathons. I thought “I need to pick up my game!”, and so that’s how I discovered the mental and physical joys of distance running. I’ll never match her distances although, secretly, I like to think I can (but know I can’t, so goes the argument in my head). I’ll never match friends of mine, like Don Sims, but I feel like I have some half marathons and maybe a marathon still in me.

Running shoes are somewhat of a mystery to me. For years I never thought there was a big difference. Running longer distances changed my mind. I’ve been through the various brands, mainly Saucony and Nike. Saucony’s never worked for me as I’d get calf pains as I extended my runs, no matter which heel drop I selected. The Nike Men’s Air Zoom Structure worked great for me for many years. Lately I felt the pounding on my runs was getting to be a bit much. My research online suggested I try Brooks Ghost and those have been working great! The Brooks Ghost gives me a gentler feel during the run. We’ll see if I feel the same way after the shoe has 600 miles on it. So far, I like these shoes better than the Nike’s and the callouses on my feet seem to be fading, although that could be because I’m not running as much…see my post in Fitness.

My Apple Watch 3 is one of my favorite running accessories. I used to have to lug my phone around and use Runkeeper (which is a great app!). Now I run with only my watch and Bluetooth headphones making the whole experience better.

I’ve had the same set of headphones for 5 years and absolutely love them. My Plantronics Backbeat Fit headphones still work without a hitch after having been soaked in sweat, rain, hail and thrown around for years. They’ve been the best workout headphones I’ve ever owned. They aren’t ear buds that fully insert into the ear canal since I prefer to hear ambient noise while running. The model I have isn’t sold anymore. If I had to get new ones, I’d probably go with the BackBeat FIT 3150’s assuming I could find a good price.