New Shoes for the Real Triathlete

Today I felt like a real triathlete; I swam, bike, and ran all in one day!  It was in the reverse order, but it's a start.  My day began at 26.2 Running Company in Provo to get some new shoes.  I had been rocking some 80's era, construction-orange Saucony kicks that I found at DI, but it was time to move on.  They're very stiff which makes it hard to feel the nuances of the terrain, and the heel drop made it tricky to land on the mid-foot. I will still keep them because they look totally rad, but for training I wanted something lighter.

Enter my new shoes, the New Balance Minimus MT10!

 

These were by far the most comfortable pair of shoes I tried on; rather then gripping your feet all around, these only feel like they are strapped on on the top- like a sandal. They are wide in the toe box, but my feet are wide too so it was a good fit. They are a trail shoe, so they have some protection on the soles and good traction.  And boy are they light (7.5 oz!)  I'm excited to try them out on trails and roads and see how they handle.

Later in the afternoon I rode my bike down to Mad Dog Cycles to get it tuned up.  Those guys could not be nicer-today it was really busy but the guy working took my bike to the back and worked on it right there with me, giving me a chance to ride it after each iteration of adjustments.  I had a complete overhaul done a couple weeks ago and in the interim the rear derailleur cable had gotten loose so I couldn't shift into gear eight.  Apparently you have to break in new parts, because the weight of the rider stretches and loosens all of the joints.

On my way home from the bike shop I stopped at the school to go swimming, and I learned something about rest weeks: don't rest TOO much.  I inadvertently did almost no serious workouts this week, and I felt it today in the pool.  My back was hurting on Monday so I skipped my swim class, and when I came to class on Wednesday, we just did some dry-land conditioning then spent the rest of the class playing inner-tube water polo in the diving pool.  (Way fun, by the way, if you ever get the chance I highly recommend it.)  I had a good bike ride last night, but other than my back exercises that was about it for the week.  So I definitely felt rusty today in the pool.  That's alright, though, I will be well-rested to hit the next training block starting Monday.