In my tummy

Mizuno Wave Elixer 8s

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Lee | 9 Comments

For the past couple of months, I’ve been running in a pair of Nike Air Pegasuses. Pegasusi? Anyway, I got them at the local running shoe store, but I felt like they weren’t the right shoe for me. When I first wore them, I got blisters. That went away, but I just never felt that they offered the right type of support or something.

So when Mizuno offered to send me some shoes to try out, I was all about it. Atlanta friends, did you know that Mizuno is headquartered in Norcross? I had no idea and I work in Norcross.

What’s cool about their site is that you can take a quick fit test and it’ll tell you which shoe is right for you. There are like five questions, including one about how far you can bend your finger. Apparently if you can bend it far back (which I can), it means it’s hyper-mobile which can cause pronation or ankle issues if your calves aren’t well developed. Fortunately, though I have bendy fingers, I have pretty strong calves.

The fit test recommended the Mizuno Wave Inspire 9s. Unfortunately, they were on back order until July, so they sent me a pair of Mizuno Wave Elixer 8s in the meantime. Two pairs of shoes?! Mizuno is awesome.

The Elixers came a couple of days ago.

Mizuno box

I was sort of surprised when I opened up the box to see that they were bright neon!

Mizuno wave elixer

I’m digging this neon trend going on. They matched my shirt. It’s much more of a neon green than it looks in this picture.

Neon

From what I’ve read about them, the Elixers are basically the closest you can get to a minimalist shoe without actually being a minimalist shoe. Now, I want to preface this by saying that I’ve never tried a true minimalist shoe before, so I have no idea how these compare. That said, I could definitely tell that there wasn’t as much cushioning as my typical shoes (the ill-fitting Nikes or others that have fit better.) They offered good support and they weren’t too wide (which is sometimes an issue for me), but I wasn’t quite sure about the feel when my foot struck the ground…errr treadmill. I kind of missed the cushioning and the balls of my feet sort of hurt, you know, as if I was running without shoes.

It’ll be interesting to see if I grow to like the way these feel or if I decide that a semi-minimalist shoe is not for me. It could go either way.

Have you ever tried a minimalist or close to minimalist shoe?

Disclaimer: Mizuno provided me these shoes free of charge. All opinions are my own.

→ 9 Comments

Posted in Product Review, Running

Tagged product review, running

Silent Three

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Lee | 15 Comments

It’s been a long winter. Maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration because it’s not exactly cold out, but we just haven’t had the shorts and flip-flops weather that’s normal for mid May in Atlanta. Looking at the weather forecast, it’s supposed to arrive later this week (fortunate, because I’m going to TWO concerts this weekend!), but today was still on the chilly side. When I got up, I think it was in the 40s and it maybe got up into the 60s this afternoon.

I swear I have a point here and am not dedicating an entire blog post to talking about the weather. My point is that while it was unseasonably chilly for May, it was perfect running weather.

I’m an evening worker-outer. It’s not so much that I’m not a morning person, because I tend to get up on the early side on the weekends (the early side being anywhere from 6:30-8:30), but I value my sleep during the week and less than 7.5 – 8 hours makes me cranky. Because Jason wakes up around ten to go to work, it’s very hard for me to go to sleep before then and it ends up being disruptive to both of our schedules when I do.

So, I work out after work. I guess you figured that from the long-winded paragraph above. Though I don’t mind it at all, I’m definitely not itching to run the second the clock turns six. If I’m itching to do anything, it’d be to sit on the couch. Or eat. Can you be itching to eat? I’m pretty good at making myself exercise when I don’t want to though, whether that’s driving to the gym or driving home and immediately running outside.

Since the weather was nice, I went with the latter. Only problem was, my headphones, which I usually leave in my car, were nowhere to be found. I probably left them at work but I’m not sure. I’m really picky about headphones. I use the old-school over the ear type because I cannot find ear buds that don’t hurt my ears. I think I have really little ear holes or something. While I could have borrowed a pair of Jason’s [hurting] ear buds, I just decided to run without music.

I know that running without music is the norm for some people. I am not those people. I have to have my music when I run and it has to be specific songs that I deem run worthy. But today, I didn’t have any of that. I ran three miles. A mile and a half out and then a mile and a half back. For the first mile, Raspberry Beret was in my head. It was almost like I had an iPod on repeat with that song, but only the chorus. Where it came from, I have no idea. So, after my Prince jam was over, I mostly started thinking about work and also the weekend and the three miles without music went by relatively quickly, which was surprising.

3 miles

Then I got home, took a dorky iPhone picture about my three miles and made a casserole.

→ 15 Comments

Posted in Running

Tagged running

Greenville’s Artisphere

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Lee | 5 Comments

Jason’s parents live about two hours away in Seneca, South Carolina, and that’s where we spent the weekend. On Saturday, his parents had some home improvement stuff that they were working on, so Jason and I decided to drive to Greenville, about 40 minutes away. It just so happened that a big art festival, Artistphere, was going on this weekend and we all know how much I love my festivals.

The first order of business, before any festival-going, was to get lunch. Jason suggested Mediterranean food and I looked for something on Yelp and came up with The Lazy Goat. It was right on the river, near the festival.

We started out with the Harissa whipped hummus, which was served with veggies and warm pita.

Harissa hummus lazy goat

It wasn’t bad, but I thought it was on the bland side and definitely didn’t taste of harissa, which is supposed to be spicy. We decided to split two entrees – the Grilled Veggie Wrap and the Lazy Plate with chimmichurri shrimp.

Veggie sandwich lazy goat

Shrimp kabob lazy goat

Though they both sounded good, they just weren’t. The veggie wrap wasn’t bad, but it was oily. The shrimp was overcooked and charred and it just wasn’t a lot of food for the $15 price tag. (The veggie wrap was a good deal though.) The meal wasn’t bad, it was just one of those mediocre meals where you wish you’d gone elsewhere.

Disappointing meal aside, we had a fun time at the Artisphere.

Artisphere1

We walked around looking at the different booths. It wasn’t much different than the many art festivals we have here in Atlanta, but it was still fun to browse and I felt like they had different artists that I hadn’t seen before, though many were from Georgia.

Artisphere

In addition to art for sale, there were a lot of artists at work and interactive activities which were fun to see.

Sidewalk artists

Before i die

I want to

Before i die closeup

(I liked that one, as you can tell! I don’t know what I would write on it. Hmm.)

Art

It had been threatening to rain all morning and as soon as we felt the first few drops, we ran for cover. Cover just happened to be a wine tasting tent. Convenient, no?

Wine and cheese

Wines

Though I have no idea if it’s considered a good wine or not, I liked that Bonterra Saugivnon Blanc and oddly enough, also really liked the Seven Daughters Moscato. (I say “oddly enough” because I’m not normally a fan of sweet wines, but this one tasted like cream soda!)

This was the cheese and accoutrements plate if you were wondering.

Accoutrements

The rain let up pretty quickly and we enjoyed the festival a little more.

Violinist

We also explored some of the shops on Main Street and I got a pretty necklace. It was a really nice day. Greenville is a cute little city. It’s too small for me to want to live there, but it’s really nice for a day trip.

Greenville