…Not as I do…

This past Friday, it was gorgeous outside!  I was supposed to take a walk to meet a friend for lunch, but our plans fell through.  I couldn’t fight the urge to get outside though, so I grabbed a Groupon I’d purchased a few weeks ago for Philadelphia Runner, and took a walk through the city. 

You see, I might have gone missing for a while on the blog, and there might be a few Time Machine Tuesday posts left waiting to be written… but a post about the running shoes I bought last fall won’t be coming any time soon.  I bought new shoes last March, as documented here… and that was the last pair of running shoes I bought.  Yes, that means that all of my training for the Broad Street Run was in these shoes… and all the training for the Philadelphia Half Marathon was in these shoes… and all the running I’ve done since then was in these shoes… and well you get the idea.  It’s not pretty.  General rule of thumb is to replace running shoes every 6 months or every 300 miles, whichever comes first.  Well – let’s just say “do as I say, not as I do,” right?

Well without further ado, meet my new running shoes:

The lovely staff at Philadelphia Runner asked me to walk a few paces without my shoes on so that they could see how badly I pronated.  From there, the sales woman selected a few stability shoes that she thought would best support my feet.  I tried on a pair of Adidas shoes (too bulky for me), another pair (Nike maybe?) that had too much support on the outer side of my foot and threw me off balance, and then finally these cuties – the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 11.  I know a lot of people/bloggers that swear by Brooks, and now I see why!  These shoes are like walking on clouds.

I took them out for a test run on Sunday, and sure enough it was a great run.  With just a few stops/walking breaks to re-tie my shoes and make a few adjustments, the 4 miles felt like a breeze.  Hopefully this is a good sign for the next few months, as training for my next big race will be starting up soon!

The stats:

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention – the best part about the new shoes?  After my Groupon, they only cost $50!  I was so pumped!!

Do you stick to the 6 month/300 mile rule?  You’d think that I’d love any excuse to buy new shoes right?