Review: Mizuno Wave Ekiden 10

Better pics to come soon.

I'm recently started running in the Mizuno Wave Rider 19 (yes the old one, it's cheaper) as my everyday trainer, and was pleased enough with the performance of that shoe that I decided to give some other shoes in the Mizuno line a try. As my past racing flat, the Brooks T3 was worn out and no longer in production I thought I would take a look at the super light and nimble Mizuno Wave Ekiden 10. Billed as a 5k-13.1mi. shoe it's light, quick and super responsive, but should be used with caution at the longer distances.

Initial Quality:

There's not much that you can really tell about a shoe without getting you feet in 'em for a few miles, but from what a simple out of the examination could reveal that Wave Ekiden 10's looked pretty damn good... or at least the quality and design looked good, the colors left something to be desired in my opinion. The build of the shoe, use of Mizuno's patented insole material (probably the same EVA as everyone else's), and general finish of the shoe appear to be good and up to the quality one would expect from a major shoe manufacturer.

Fit:

I do have a minor bone to pick with Mizuno here, and that is that they do not make half sizes in the larger sizes, this means that runners such as myself with an 11.5 US foot have to pick between an 11 and a 12. This is obviously not ideal, fortunately I was able to try before I bought and went with the size 11 which fit my plates of meat just fine thank you very much! Once the correct size had been determined it was all golden rays of sunshine on the fit front, the upper is flexible and the midsole felt natural underfoot.

The Run: 

This is what you've all been waiting for right? What does the thing feel like? Well, it's pretty damn good, though definitely a shorter distance shoe and one that should not be used by anyone that could be described as stocky, or plodding. My experience in the shoe was primarily positive, however when racing the Amity Island Relay in them (10 miles for my leg) I did suffer a foot injury in these shoes; I will however take most of the blame for that issue as I rushed the shoe into service without much running in them before to see how they felt... dumb move. On the other hand I did run a 58:05 into a serious headwind and didn't feel any foot fatigue until the next morning when I realized my foot was all kinds of hurt.

Long story short, this is a great shoe, and at 5.1 ounces it's sooooo light and super fast, just don't go doing stupid things like running a race in it before you know how you'll react. Learn from me, if you buy crazy light shoes run in them some before running a race right at their upper limit of distance. If you buy the shoe and read this blog (that's a small slice of the population) comment on your experience.

Ugh... Injured.

The Injury:

So I ran the Amity Island Relay a few weeks ago, and the race even went pretty well, but then I woke up the next morning and tried to stand up... and that's when it all went wrong. I had done something nasty to my left foot and it hurt quite a lot to put any weight on it whatsoever; of course being an idiot and runner I went merrily out the door for an easy 8 miles.

As you may have already guessed going for a run on a sore foot the day after a race was not a great idea, and you'd be right. I got about 5 miles in with only moderate bearable pain when things really started to hurt, and unfortunately I was still three miles from home. The pain at first had been a general soreness, but when it started to hurt it became a sharp cramping pain along the lateral side of my foot. Thankfully after a short break the foot loosened back up a little bit and I was able to amble home at a slow limping jog. Once home I iced the foot and tried to stay off of it but it was clear that the pain I'd felt in the morning was more than just a little niggle.

The Recovery: 

Once it was clear I was actually injured all the usual things set in; the fear that this was the injury that would end my career; followed by the sense to realize it probably wasn't; and finally the motivation to make sure I was better as soon as possible so I could start to train seriously again.

The first step was, well, to not take that many more steps... so I cycled instead. Over the course of the first week I ran a tentative 16.85 miles (in 2-4 mile chunks) and cycled 5 hours on the side. Obviously 5 hours of riding does not equal the 60+ miles of running I normally do during a week but it stopped me from losing my mind so that was a plus.

Week two went a lot better than the first week and I managed to run 53.25 pretty easy miles and cycle 3 hours. While this was close to my normal volume it was far off of my normal intensity, in fact the fastest mile of the week was a 6:20 I ran with the kids I coach (more on coaching in another post). I was missing the hard runs but the fact that I could run at all was a great improvement and really improved my mood throughout the week!

Finally this last week I was able to run a full 61.75 miles! and I even ran a couple of quick-ish miles mixed in throughout the weeks workouts!!! I can not even express how happy I've been to run these sorts of miles again, which brings me to the whole point of this rambling post, which is be happy for your health when you have it and when it goes away from injury or illness fight to get it back!

Moving Forward: 

Over the next few weeks I'll be working to increase my mileage for the upcoming season. I've been doing a lot of reading and discussing of coaching/training techniques and I'm beginning to realize that the volume of work I'm currently doing is very slight compare with the men I'm competing against; and more importantly I'm beginning to find the gaps in my training and the weaknesses in my own running, and the main weakness currently is volume...

Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler

A few weeks ago was the Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler and the Amity Island Relay put on by my friend Todd Cleland and Amity Island Running Club (run by Kara Shemeth). The race has a long tradition on Martha's Vineyard with this year being the 20th edition of the race. The course which begins at the Vineyard Haven Steam Ship Authority terminal and runs through Oak Bluffs and Edgartown before ending at the Oak Bluffs School is largely flat but often intensely windy along the shore. While this is a local event it generally draws talented runner from across Massachusetts and New England, and this year was no different.

This was my second time running the event, but my first time running the relatively new Amity Island Relay, which is set up as a 2x10 mile event. I partnered with Rene DaSilva who is a quite talented runner living in Vineyard Haven, our team Plum Perfect (named after Rene's painting company) was looking to be one of the stronger relay teams and one of the favorites for the win should all go as planned. Our goal was to chase the course record of 57:03 should the conditions agree with us. Rene and I had discussed the possibility of this race since January, however a minor injury to Rene's foot left us unsure that we would be ready on race day. Thankfully in the weeks leading up to the race Rene reported some improvement in the foot and we were cautiously optimistic the race would go well. Finally a peak workout of 10k at 5:48 pace (roughly goal 10 mile pace) showed the fitness was there for both of us to run right around record time if all went well on the day of.

When race day did roll around Rene and I showed up to find a solid field in both the individual and relay sides. Ian and Amanda Nurse were representing their respective clubs (The BAA and Heart Breakers) with their team name of the Heart Breaking Unicorns and Mike (next to me wearing a grey shirt in the photo above), a runner I'm familiar with from Falmouth, was present with his partner to make up the Stoney Knowle Runners. On the individual side several fast local runners including Steve Brightman of Providence promised a brisk pace in the individual race, however no one present seemed up to the task of taking down the stout course record of 1:48:34 set back in 2010 by Patrick Moulton.

As we got underway a 5:25 first mile reduced the lead pack down to three runners, Ian, Mike and myself, the second and third miles being covered in 5:35 and 5:38 strung our group out with Ian taking a strong lead approximately 30 seconds ahead of Mike who himself was a further 10 seconds ahead of myself. This order remained throughout Oak Bluffs where I hit 5 miles in 28 flat; as we got to the beach the winds picked up and the gaps between each of us widened significantly. Coming into Edgartown the finishing order of the first leg seemed set, however once off the beach I was able to psik up the pace and slowly began to close the distance with Mike, and with only 400 meters to go I was able to pull ahead and pass the baton (a wrist band in this case) off to Rene just ahead of Mike's arrival.

Having finished my leg I was able to relax and speak with Mike and Ian about their runs, Ian reported having finished in 56 and change, which put him approximate 2 minutes ahead of my finishing time of 58:05. Mike told me that his partner was planning to run something over one hour for her leg which meant the race was down to Rene and Amanda's respective performances to determine final placement. Rene was planning to run something under 60:00 which meant for us to win Amanda would have to run 62:00 or slower for the final 10 miles... Unfortunately for us Rene was only able to take about a minute out of Amanda's time which left us with a finishing time of 1:57:58 compared with the Nurse's 1:57:00, which was also the new course record. Mike and his partner finished in 2:08:02, which was more than good enough for third place.

Sadly it was a disappointing day for team Plum Perfect, but I anticipate that we'll be back next year and ready to give the Nurse's a run for their money! For more info and coverage see the MV Times article on the race.