I bought myself a new pair of running shoes last night, seeing that the inner lining of the heel in each of my Asics was ripping apart. I grind down the outside heel on any pair of shoes I own (pity my poor Birkenstocks); it's just the way I walk. And after my sweetie used the word "disintegrating" to describe the left heel of his shoe, I put my foot down (no pun intended) and drove us directly to Fit Right NW for new shoes.

He asked for a new pair of his same shoes, a pair of Brooks (of which they happened to have a size 14), which now have sporty yellow accents rather than orange. One quick walk in a circle and his shopping was done - it took all of 5 minutes.

My shopping (high-maintenance) took a little longer. After the gait analysis, I tried on several pairs of (high-maintenance) shoes, ran in a few, re-laced a few in various (high-maintenance) ways, ran on them again, ran with one type of shoe on one foot and another type of shoe on the other to get a (high-maintenance) side-by-side comparison, then had them do a (high-maintenance) gait analysis of me running in each pair of shoes.

I ended up with a pair of Saucony Trigon 3 Rides. At first, at least compared to other shoes, they felt rather large. They're not heavy; it just feels like there's a lot of shoe there. I told my sweetie it felt like I had the Minivan of Shoes.

That was until I got to the gym and realized I can do ANYTHING in these shoes! The heels are wide and stable. There's so much cushioning in the forefront I could sleep on it. The toe box has acreage that only millionaires can afford. I can strike comfortably along the whole length of the shoe, so I'm just as comfortable on slow plodding warm ups as I am going all out. They're stable on short stride, long stride, everything.

Per the Saucony web site:
The Ride is all about cushioning. It’s about having that cozy, plush feeling under your foot that can only be found in a cushioned trainer.

Holy crap - who's doing their marketing? What they should say is…

The Ride is cushion max'd. It's putting your feet into the smooth leather seat of a Cadillac, laying it back, turning up the bass and cruising down the road just fast enough so the hot chicks can check out the cool pimp you are.

Um yeah, so you know, I like my new shoes…heh heh.

Song of the Day: Nth Degree - Morningwood. I've been lax on my songs of the day (well, and posting in general), but this song has wormed its way into my head and won't let go, and it's a good running song (fitting with the theme of my post).

Jen Moon (guest-poster on Comfort Music 9/13) describes this song as, " bouncy... if by bouncy you mean two kids on a trampoline with missing springs and one kid has snorted pixie sticks and fallen on his head a couple times too many."

With a description like that, you know I'm gonna listen to it. And me likey what I hear.