Racing flats? Aren’t those only for the elite athletes who care about seconds coming off their time and fight for a win? Why would someone like me, a beginner runner who was seriously obese a mere 5 months ago, want to run in racing flats designed for the top performance athletes? Why? Because I am actually pretty close to the top of my class, I finished in the top 4% at my last race, as amazing and impossible as it might sound. Plus I wanted to be sure that there is nothing for me to blame other than myself if I get an abysmal result.

First, I started looking at various racing flats on-line from different manufacturers and I had to conclude that there are about a dozen or so perfectly fine racing flats out there but most of them are made with not only very little cushioning, they are racing flats after all, but they also lack support which would be an issue for a mild overpronator such as myself.

Pronation is the process where your ankle buckles inward upon impact, aka heel strike. To offset this buckling shoe manufacturers make the inside part of the midsole from a harder material, called the medial post, than the outside so it presents more resistances and forces the feet to stay level as they roll forward to the ball of the feet for push off. With the exception of a select few, running flats lack this heavier material on the inside of the midsole.

After research and some recommendations from on-line message boards I have found three shoes that were going to fit the bill:

• Asics GEL-DS Racer 8
• Saucony Grid Fastwitch 4
• Brooks Racer ST4

All three shoes are running flats designed with a medial post to provide some stability in such a lightweight shoe. I went to the LRS (Local Running Store) but they didn’t have any of the three shoes in stock or available. So I went across the street to the other LRS in town, how convenient, and they had all three shoes on display. I asked for a sample from all of them. They only had a half size smaller in the Asics than my size, they had none of the Saucony in my size and they had the Brooks in my size. Both the Asics and the Brooks actually fit my foot, but the Asics felt a bit too tight in the heel area while the Brooks felt just right.

The assistant also brought out a Brooks T6 Racer which is a true racing flat for neutral gait. I have tried it on but it felt too tight on the sides. So I settled on the Brooks Racer ST4 which felt like a great shoe. But this is where things got interesting. We went over to the treadmills and they made me run on them with the new ST4 on. The guy said that my left foot actually was suppinating now, the ankle was rolling outwards instead of rolling inwards or tracking straight. He said even the mild support of the ST4 was overkill for my now neutral gait. I didn’t believe him. I had to get a second opinion. I also went to the car and brought in my trusty MR1224s with 280 miles on them and my thin running socks.

The second shoe fitter said the exact same thing. I was clearly wearing too much support and I needed neutral shoes. They also watched me and videotaped my feet while running with a slow motion camera in the various shoes. The rolling of my left ankle was clearly visible and it looked the worst in my MR1224s. They said that my MR1224s are pretty worn down and it makes matters worse but I would most definitely need a neutral shoe. They were actually surprised that I didn’t get shin splints in my stability shoes. So I tried on the Brooks T6 Racer again, this time with my thin running socks, and the darn thing fit like a glove.

I ran in them on the treadmill and my suppination was gone. I was tracking as if I was on rails. They were clearly the racing flats for me. So I bought them. In obnoxious red. That was the only color choice. I really don’t understand the manufacturers and the lime green, bright orange or obnoxious red colors of all racing shoes. The sales guy said “If you’re wearing racing flats chances are you are one who want to be noticed”. I much prefer the blue on white look myself, thank you very much. But I had no choice so I took home my new ruby slippers, the Brooks T6 Racers.

I couldn’t wait until next day so even though I already ran my 3 mile easy run at lunch I went out and ran another 2 miler in the new shoes. They felt great. They are super light, 6 oz each, half the weight of my MR1224s. My easy run clocked in at an 8:00 min/mile pace which is the fastest I had ever run easy miles. Today I ran a 30 minute tempo run in them and I have clocked a 7:03 min/mile (4:23 min/km) pace for 3 miles (5km) in the middle. Obnoxious or not, these babies are on fire!

So today I had another issue I had to deal with. I had two brand spanking new pairs of MR1224s sitting in my closet. One had 10 miles on it, the other one hasn’t even left the box. I bought them two moths ago on sale and I felt pretty awesome about it. And now, 2 months later they’re no good for my feet. The receipt was long gone. I tried my chances and I managed to return them to Academy for store credit. I’m sure I’ll find a way to blow through $140 at Academy in the near future.

I also went back to my LRS today to pick up my goodies bag and bib for the Saturday race and while I was there I bought a new neutral trainer for my runs. I bought a pair of the Brooks Ghost 2. They are lightweight and feel super comfortable on my feet. I can’t wait to take them out for a spin tomorrow for an easy 3 miler just before the race. I have always been a New Balance guy but these Brooks shoes sure feel pretty damn nice! Hopefully they will last and I’ll be able to run injury free in them.

As to why my gait has changed from a mild overpronator to a neutral one in 2 months I can only speculate. I had a gait analysis done 2 months ago, I have seen the video, I was clearly a mild overpronator back then. I think the change has to do something with the fact that I’m 25 lbs lighter now so my feet are getting a good bit less stress and force on impact. I think it also has something to do with my feet muscles and ligaments getting stronger over the past two months providing more support on their own. The bottom line is, don’t invest in expensive shoes, not even on sale, when you’re new to running or you’re in the process of severely changing your body composition as your running gait might very well change rendering the shoes wrong for your new and changed running gait.

There are various types of running that one should do during training to exercise different parts of their body. I’m not talking about different muscle groups I’m talking about different physiological parts of your body. Running performance depends on several things but it basically boils down to three basic items:

1. VO2Max
2. Lactate Threshold Level
3. Efficiency

There are different running paces and training intervals and distances that are specifically targeting one or many of the above three areas. Today I ran a tempo run which is targeting item number two on the list; lactate threshold level.

Lactate threshold has to do with aerobic and anaerobic exercising and a combination of the two. When you run fast your body burns a lot of energy. To burn this energy your body needs oxygen. Lots of it! The more oxygen you can provide the better/faster you can run. When you can no longer provide enough oxygen to sustain a given running pace your body has to turn to anaerobic energy sources and it will start to get energy from anaerobic chemical reactions. Aerobic exercise is when your muscles run on oxygen. Anaerobic exercise is when they run on something else. Your body prefers to run on oxygen as it is a lot more efficient but when push comes to shove and you’re at your peak performance it has to use what it can. So it starts the anaerobic energy process.

So what is wrong with anaerobic exercising? Other than the fact that it’s a very inefficient way to convert energy into movement and it would cause you to burn up your fuel (glucose and glycogen) a lot faster than aerobic exercise it has a nasty byproduct; lactate or lactic acid. Normally your body generates amounts of lactate and your heart, liver, kidneys and muscles all use it and convert it back to glucose (liver) or metabolize it for energy. Unfortunately your body can metabolize only so much lactate at a time. And when you generate more than you use use it starts to build up in your bloodstream as the equilibrium is broken between production and consumption. When this point is reached it’s called Onset of Blood Lactate Accumulation (OBLA). You can only accumulate so much of this lactate on your system before your muscles just give up, throw in the towel and call it quits. They will seize to operate until lactate levels drop back to an acceptable level. This can be a really bad situation when you’re in the middle of a run or a competition. This is why you can see some marathon runners on TV just stopping completely in the middle of a race unable to go on at any speed. Their body shuts down and there is nothing they can do about it at that point they’re already saturated with lactate and they just have to wait it out until their lactate level drops at which point they’re long out of contention. So what can you do about lactate while trying to increase your running pace?

You can either improve your cardiovascular delivery system so you can provide more oxygen to your muscles and they don’t get oxygen deprived and can operate aerobically longer (item number one), you can concentrate on your running form and improve it (item number three) or you can improve your lactate metabolism so your body can get rid of lactate faster from your bloodstream (item number two). And this second option is where tempo runs come into the picture. They make you run and operate above your lactate threshold level so there is lactate buildup in your system. This buildup is gradual and it sends triggers to your body to boost and improve your lactate metabolizing system. During a lactate threshold run you won’t reach saturation but you want to build up enough lactate so the effects of it cause your body to adapt.

Today was one of these runs for me. I ran 5.9 miles (9.5 km) and I have stayed in my lactate threshold level for about 20 minutes. Lactate threshold level is different in different people, this is the whole point of the exercise; to change it and push it upwards. In beginners it’s around 77%-83% of your Heart Rate Reserve while in experienced runners it’s between 82%-88% of HRR%. So I have tried to stay about 80% and below 88% with my HRR during the run and I tried to build up gradually after a 10 minute warm up. You can see that I ran the first mile rather easy and my heart rate stayed low, below 75% of HRR. Then I gradually started running faster and faster and you can see how my heart rate climbed along with my pace.

At the half way point I turned back and I caught a nasty head wind. This is the reason why my heart rate kept on climbing yet my pace was dropping. This is why it’s important to gauge your effort based on heart rate and not on pace. I kept my heart rate high for a while then I started slowing down towards the end to finish the run with a good cool down and you can see that I actually had to run much slower than during the warm up just to reduce my heart rate to a similar rate as the warm up. This is called EPOC, Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. My body was still going through oxygen just to rid my system of the excess lactate that it has gathered during the middle of the run. This is how you can tell that your tempo run really worked.

All in all it was a superb tempo run and I had great fun out there. The run started slow then built up gradually hitting its peak at the 2/3rd mark then it gradually dropped down again towards the end. This was the fastest I had ever ran during warm up, I was running close to 8 minute mile pace just to warm up which is just unbelievable. Tomorrow I’ll be running a slow 3 mile recovery run after today’s hard tempo session so it should be quick and easy. I’ll do it after work while I take my son to soccer as I’m planning on playing golf hitting the driving range with my buddy at lunch.

The test is very simple and very easy. They verify that you are indeed who you say you are, they ask you to verify every statement you have provided on your application such as you are not a member of the communist party and you’re not running a prostitution ring. Then there is a civics test on which they ask you to answer 6 out of 10 questions correctly regarding the history and political system of the United States from a pool of 100 questions. Once you pass that they check that you can read and write English. I think my 5 year old son could pass that part of the test. I had to read “What do we pay to the government?” and I had to write “We pay taxes”. That was it.

After this super hard interview and civics test all you have to do is partake in the Naturalization Ceremony which includes taking the Oath Of Allegiance, sing the Star Spangled Banner and say the Pledge Of Allegiance. Then wait for them to hand you your official naturalization certificate that states that you are a citizen of the United States of America.

Today I did all  this and I am proud to report I am finally a United States citizen.

Since I spent most of my day at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services building in Irving, TX I didn’t have time to do my tempo run until late tonight. I went and ran 45 minutes 20 of which was a good tempo run at an average pace of 8:49 min/mile. I don’t mind running in the dark but I hate dogs barking at me as I pass their fence. It was a pretty good run and I felt good afterward. There is something wrong with my left knee though, I think it’ s a Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) sprain as I have all the symptoms for it which includes pain on the inner side of my knee. I think mine’s not even a first degree sprain as it does not hurt when I get up from a chair which is one of the symptoms of a first degree sprain. It is mildly tender to touch and it is mildly tender when running or walking.

This particular knee I have always had problems with, ever since I was involved in a motorcycle accident when I was 16. My leg got caught between my motorcycle and the trunk of a car. I think I have probably suffered a second degree sprain then and it’s acting up now that I have started putting more pressure on it. I think it just needs to adapt and get stronger to sustain my running. Last week the outside of my knee hurt which is an indication of hamstring tendinitis but that has passed since then.