Core Workout & New Shoes?

Today, James and I headed up to Anthem, AZ to go over our core strengthening workout from Carlos Mendoza and Sue Meno (Both are Kona qualifers). Once there, they had us run up and down the block a few times to check out our running form. Every trip back towards them, I noticed that they were kind of pointing or gesturing at me while leaning into each other to talk. Once they said they saw enough, Carlos asked me how I liked my shoes. I told him that they were comfy, but they were also brand new. I went onto explain that I really haven’t had them on too many runs, so I couldn’t comment too much about them. He then asked me if they were heavy. I said that they were, but the only way I knew they were was from the online reviews I read. Everybody indicated that one of the major negatives was its weight. The Mizuno website indicates that they are 12.6oz (they don’t indicate what size that’s for though). My Adidas Supernova Glide 3s were around 12.3oz and those Nike’s that were too big came in around 10oz. Anyway, back to Carlos and my Mizunos….He told me that he wanted me to try on a pair of his shoes because it looked like the heel of mine was getting in the way when I was striking. He went on to say that my form looks pretty good, but I the big heel was actually making me more of a heel striker even though I wasn’t. He disappeared inside and came out with some neon green shoes and told me to lace ‘em up. We got back out in the street and I took off. Not ten strides in, I could hear Carlos yell, “OH YEAH!” It only took two round trips before he stopped me and told me that the shoes made a world of difference in my strike. He turned around and yelled to Sue, “Hey, you should see how much better he looks with these shoes.” Well, I guess my shoe saga continues! Fortunately, the store I bought the Mizunos from has a 90 day no ask return policy.

On to the core workout. We were there for probably a good 2 hours going over a variety of different strengthening exercises that make us isolate core muscles. Up until this day, I thought that core meant abs and lower back only. Core actually refers to abs, lower back, legs, and glutes. Of the approximately 12 different exercises we went over, I was able to do about 5 of them without any kind of form break or without failing. Exercises like “Jumps With Band & Controlled Landing” and “Shoulder March on the Ball” were just two that gave me fits. After we covered everything, I asked Carlos what the name of those shoes were so that I could go get a pair. They were Brooks Pure Flow. A light weight shoe with a negative heel to toe drop that could be used for training or racing. Perfect. As we were getting into the car, I told James that my quads were already starting to feel the workout and that our planned ride to Humbolt Mountain tomorrow could be in jeopardy.

Here is what our coaches kindly refer to as, "The Pain Cave." It's in Carlos' third car garage bay. That's Sue Meno over at the computer looking over our next exercise: