Brooks Adrenaline GTS 11 review

**Disclaimer: I've run a grand total of 22 miles in the Adrenaline 11's, so take this worth a grain of salt. However, they have been sitting at the top of my closet for upwards of three months, so I feel like I owe a review anyways.**

So, the first question that probably crosses your mind is "why have you had these shoes for three months and still only have double digit miles on them? are they a bad shoe?" The answer to that question is no, no Brooks shoe is a bad one, especially not an Adrenaline series. I bought these shoes in late November, a few weeks before we got 2 feet of snow. Because of the snow and ice, I had to switch from the Adrenalines to some trail shoes to give me some traction. Come when the snow melts, I'll wear these shoes much more often, and I'll tell you why.

The first thing I noticed getting these shoes out of the box is their um... interesting lacing configuration. I'm having a tough time finding a picture of the lacing specifically, but basically there are these tabs above the eyelets in the actual shoe itself that you lace the shoe through, in addition to the traditional eyelets. In addition, there's another loop sewn into the tongue in the top corner, dubbed the lace lock. One of the first things I do when I get new shoes is replace the standard laces with neon ones, so learning the intricacies of relacing took a little time and a few attempts.

The second addition, which was billed as a major overhaul, was the addition of the Brooks DNA cusioning material. For me, I see plusses and minuses with this. DNA is supposed to give you the right responsiveness proportional to the force you put on the shoe. I like the idea, but it may be a little soft for me, but that's personal oppinion. When I say soft, what I mean is this: When I want to go fast, I wear flats, and when I go slow I wear trainers. Naturally, DNA is going to be softer on my slower runs, but I mean they're not made out of sponge cake or anything. Maybe its paradoxical, but the heel- toe transition is amazing. These shoes are buttery smooth.

One thing that I wasn't fond of in the GTS 10's was the small, cramped toebox. The toebox is most definately wider then the 10's, but the whole shoe is wider. Not by much. For example, the Ghost 3 has the same problem compared to the Ghost 2, but to a greater extent.

In conclusion, buy this shoe, but if you can't find it or are on a budget, try to find the previous version. One thing I hate about other shoe companies is that they don't update their new models. For Brooks, a new version means just that- something totally new and innovative, for better or worse. In this case, the update is definately for the better.

John L. Parker is not William Shakespeare

Theres a raging debate on Track Talk (okay, not a raging debate, but its there) about Once A Runner and its literary merit. Not only that, but I've heard "Once A Runner sucks" from quite a few people. It might be coincidence but the majority are fat kids who haven't ran a mile in their lives. Anyways, the question was brought up "would a non- runner even want to read OAR?" I don't really care, but I don't think so. From a non runner's perspective, I think I would find OAR quite boring. A whole chapter on 400 repeats? pages and pages describing unremarkable training runs in detail? really? I love OAR, but its no To Kill A Mockingbird or Catcher in The Rye. That said, I'd rather read OAR than both those books because OAR is about runners, and runners are a rare breed . Not all of us obsess over shoes or 400 repeats, or Sammy Wanjiru's high school cross country times. Maybe not all runners do, but all runners run, and so a book about running naturally appeals to them all. So I guess in that sense is a cult classic. In the world of running books though, its got to be at or near the top.

As far as running goes, I did it, I went back to back. I shouldn't have, but it happened. I'll probably end up going three days in a row too since I have a three hour break between class and work tomorrow. I only went 45 minutes. Only 45. Why do I say only 45? Well, I'm going slow for one, I'm just trying to build up a long slow milage base so I can get a few good months of training under me and then figure out what I'm going to do with my life. I'm on chapter 11 of OAR as well. Book gets better each time you read it

If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run

And so it begins. That's part of a quote by Rudyard Kipling, but I hope you know that already. I actually know that quote by heart- every year we have a packet of readings each day for our pledge process for Sigma Chi. That quote is from one of the packets we had to read during our pledge period, and we had to chose one reading from each packet to discuss in front of the actives each night. I chose "if" (that poem) and talked about OAR and Quenton Cassidy and Bruce Denton and all that. Of course, no one knew what I was talking about.

The moral of the story is that I started reading Once A Runner again for the third time. Actually, I downloaded it on audiobook from the library and loaded it on my iPod. It works pretty nicely, although I do have a complaint. OAR was only available in Windows Media Player format, and it wasn't playable on a mac since you needed a certain codec not available on mac to play it. No problem right? I started up my virtual machine and downloaded the book. After installing the apple usb drivers on my virtual machine, I was ready to roll. I plugged in my iPod, but had to reformat my ipod for windows, which erased all my songs. That was kind of a headache, but whatever. Im already on chapter 7.

On to the actual meat of the post, right? Well, I ran a little over 7 miles in about an hour. Slow, but peaceful. It was nice to go out there in the light snow and just slog through a couple miles. granted, it was a little difficult footing, but its all good. Night runs are awesome, and snow running is awesome, so put both together is really awesome. My knee felt really good too. I could feel it a little bit in the last mile or two coming home, but not a problem.

Nice one, Flotrack

I ran 5.2 miles today, maybe more, but the number's irrelevant because it was 40 minutes, my longest continuous run since mid- July. I know that's slow, but try not to laugh. Out loud anyway. As to the condition I'm in right now, I'm not hurting, but definitely couldn't crank out a double. My knee is letting me know its there, but its under control and I iced it just in case. But whatever. So today, I logged on to my Flotrack account for the first time in a couple weeks. I usually go there daily, but haven't logged in in a while since I haven't had to post a workout in a couple weeks, maybe a month. Since I logged in, Flotrack changed formats and updated their site. I figured it out, but I went to select a shoe, and it said I didn't have any. Its a good thing that most of the shoes I own are new or close to it, save for my flats, so it doesn't make much difference. I'm light anyways, so putting a ton of miles on shoes isn't that rate. I used to count miles meticulously and switch shoes every 600 miles or so, but I can't afford that anymore and since I've done a lot of timed runs lately its hard to count miles. No big deal really, just kind of annoying I have to re- add them.

A new year, a new me?

Its been a while, but hopefully I can get myself back up on the horse, so to speak. You haven't missed much, I'm back to running, but not that much- my monthly mileage is still in the double digits. If I even count mileage, let alone log it. As long as I run more than a half hour each time out, I can't complain, but I miss it. There are days- a lot of days- where I feel like a 20 miler would really hit the spot but know it won't happen. I keep busy though, I mean, I've got a full plate with school, although its on a downward spiral now that I only have class for three hours a day. So I'll ramp up slowly, as in running slowly and see how it goes. I mean, I'll be careful and all that, but at the same time, its been six months since I've really ran. I guess I'm day to day. But aren't we all?

In other news, my laptop crashed, and I'm going on five hours of data recovery. F- you genius bar, I don't need you. And you thought macs couldn't get viruses. My goal for this January is to read Once A Runner (again) and Again to Carthage. Updates to follow...

Griak bound

I'm headed up to the Griak invetational tomorrow. However, I'm not running. Feels bad, bro. I don't know, I've already missed three races out of the club cross country season, and it doesn't look go for me making the rest of them, so I'm suffering from race withdrawl hard core. Obviously, I'm pretty pumped to see the Gopher Men and Women, but look out for Duke. I'm looking at the Down the Backstretch article, and it says only three of the top 12 finishers from last year are returning, so it should be your perverbial duel in the sun- allthough its most likely going to be overcast and cold. I'm also excited to see the UST women, who should put up a fairly strong showing. Someone I will not be seeing, however, is Minnesota runner Hassan Mead. After missing both track seasons with an achillies injury, he recently got hospitalized with a collapsed lung. He's since been released, but he's also been ruled out for all of the XC season and placed on medical redshirt. You can read the full story here

In other news, I went a whopping 3 and 3 tenths miles yesterday, which is the farthest I've gone since my injury. I was really really sluggish, but it was fun, and I didn't feel any pain during the majority of the run. Plus, it was pouring rain, which made it all the more awesome. I was running shirtless too, which got me a couple wierd looks. Yeah, wierd I know, also counterintuitive, but bear with me here. It wasn't that cold, even with the rain- more humid then anything. Plus, it was coming down in sheets, so I knew that whatever I wore would instantly get soaked and weigh me down, so I dressed light- shorts, shoes with no socks, and a running cap. It seems to me when you do stuff like that people either love you or hate you- they think you're crazy or a total bad ass. I had some lady throw me a towel at the intersection of Marshall and Snelling. I don't know what she expected me to do with it because it was still raining pretty hard at the time, but a nice gesture nonetheless.

And of course, my knee is aching more than ever this morning. I'm slated for an MRI next friday though after two and a half months of paperwork!

Wow its been a while

Sorry guys, I've been struggling a little bit with spurts of depression and apathy, and even more depression. See, its been three months or so since I stopped running consistently, and zero progress is really grating on my nerves. I don't know if I posted this or not, but I finally went to see the orthopedist a month or so ago. The doctor there scheduled an MRI for my knee, but insurance had to clear it first. I just got the call yesterday in class that the insurance did clear it, and after being on hold for damn near 45 minutes, I'm not all good yet. Since I've got titanium plates in my head from a brain surgery I had 5 years ago, the MRI tech wanted the results of my last MRI. I've had a lot of them since I had the plates put in to patch my skull, albeit they were 10-15 years ago, so that might take some doing. All told, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but no way to get through the tunnel without getting hit by an oncoming train.

In other news, I am running a little bit though, granted not enough. I try to jog a couple miles once every two days or so. Usually I go two miles, and the furthest I’ve gone is three- definitely not enough to keep me sane. I’m dying to just fly through a 20 mile run right now. Its weird, sometimes I’ll feel fine and I’ll ask myself why I’m not going faster and farther, and then five minutes later I’ll feel like complete shit. Last night’s run was a perfect example. I felt pretty great, granted my knee was giving me a little grief on my way back. Still, I pounded out three miles in 21 minutes and felt great, proportionally. However, when I got home, I f-in hurt, man. You know when you get overtired and your leg or whatever hurts, but you can’t nail it down? I don’t know, to me it feels like its hollow, it hurts like the dickens, and I can even feel my bones grinding together; its not a fun experience.