40 mins/36:44 (3½ miles)

The weather in Portland is unseasonably warm at the moment. The forecast for today puts the high at 27°C, which is pretty warm for April. Sunglasses were definitely necessary, and there was no question of them steaming up!

I decided for this week's training runs to use different shoes, a pair of Adidas Supernova Cushions from last year rather than the Brooks Dyads I've been wearing the last few weeks. I have two pairs of the Supernoavas, and the others are quite beaten down, but the less worn pair can't have done more than 70 miles ("59" is written on the heel; can't remember how many unrecorded runs have been done since I stopped writing). It was quite nice wearing them again; they have a familiar feel.

The run itself was perhaps shorter than it might have been, but the latter part was surprisingly tough once we got out of the trees and began running in unshaded sun again. I put this down at first solely to the heat, but the different shoes were probably a big factor too. I'm exercising different combinations of muscles because of the variations in shoe shape, I am sure.

In any case, I am glad I swapped shoes over so that my legs would get a different work out. Again, the short stride made all the difference to how I felt at the end of the run compared with a few weeks ago. I am hoping that running in the Brooks shoes again on Saturday will be a good experience after the Adidas shoes all week.

I need a hat, though.

Posted by Dunx at April 26, 2004 02:57 PM