Peddle and Paddle ride review! (Or how to bike to every pool in my town)

Last weekend I got to do a ride/race/fundraiser for the Ken Ulman foundation in Columbia, MD called the "Peddle and Paddle". Why is this ride so awesome? The point of the ride is to bike to all 23 pools part of the Columbia homeowners association.

It is a totally awesome idea. (How awesome? I was talking to the head of TriColumbia at a packet pickup and she went nuts when I told her I did the P&P. She then grabbed another employee and made me describe the event to the other employee)

The end result was a 46.7 miles bike/1150 meter swim - garmin bike data

The best part of the ride for me was that it was a fundraiser for the Ulman Fund which helps young adults with cancer.

The ride itself was a great atmosphere, which I mostly attribute to the Ulman Foundation insistence that the P&P is a ride, not a race. This resulted in groups forming to go from pool to pool. I ended up with a group of 7 other women who had done the ride before and knew the route. The downside? We didn't have the right of way on roads which, fortunately, was only an issue a few times.

So all in all, a great ride, a great swim and lots of sun and good company.

Brooks Ravena 4 vs Newton Motion (vs an old pair of Saucony Omni 11)

I work at a running shoe store so I am constantly asked "What shoe do you run in?" and I have to start to explain that I have 15 pairs of running shoes. I regularly run in pairs of Brooks, Newtons, Sauconys, Asics, Mizuno and Adidas.

However, if I'm not trying to sell a particular brand that day (or just say something to get the customer to just buy something so I can go drink coffee) I explain how each of my shoes are for different distances. And my most important shoe (the one's I won't wear to work) are my distance and race shoes.

And I have 3 of those. Brooks Ravena 4, Newton Motion (2012) and a soon-to-be retired Saucony Omni 11s. And I've run on those for different reasons.

I ran my first ever half marathon in a pair of Asics Gel-Noosa Tri 7s and my feet were killing me by the last 3 miles. So a few months later I did another half and I upgraded to the Gel-Noosa 8. Same problem. (For the record Gel-Noosa's glow in the dark and I am easily distracted by shiny things)

Luckily the week before the 2nd half I won a pair of Newton Motions and had picked up a pair of Ravena 4s from our used shoe bin at a discount.

The Motions are shoe designed for a forefoot strike so I haven't had any problems on longer (10+ miles) runs since I got them. They are also the lightest weight of my distance shoes.

Using the Ravenas for a distance shoe surprised me because I originally picked them up to wear at work because I liked how they look. I went for a 4 mile run one afternoon with a couple of weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised by how soft the forefoot cushioning was. It was, for lack of a better term, squishy. Brook's DNA cushioning is suppose to respond to how hard you land on it (Brooks compares it to what happens when you mix corn starch and water...youtube it). So at the start of my runs when I've got perfect form and running lightly on my feet the shoes are bouncy. Towards the end when I get tired and my foot lands harder the DNA softens to help absorb that shock..

The downside to the Ravenas being, compared to the Motions, they are heavier.

The 3rd shoe I run in is an older pair (approx 400 miles on them) of Saucony Omni 11s which have the most cushioning, the biggest heel and the most weight.

So to review

1. Brooks Ravena

• Mid-weight
• Lots of forefoot cushioning
• enough heel cushioning to walk in some
• cheepest (MSRP and my price paid) of the 3 shoes

1. Newton Motion

• Light weight (with a lighter weight option)
• forefoot landing pods
• almost no heel cushioning. not a shoe to wear unless you're running
• Expensive. This shoe runs ~$150 new

1. Saucony Omni 11

• Heavy
• OMG TONS OF CUSHIONING
• Like running on clouds of fluffiness
• Unfortunatly they are now out of production :( I'm looking forward to trying a pair of Omni 12s.

A Challenge Run (and lessons learned)

So, sometimes I like to give myself an extra challenge when running. Ideally I always run or bike early in the morning or late evenings.

However, since I am a slow triathlete during Olympic or longer triathlons I usually end up running in the middle of the afternoon so I have to train to run during the hottest part of the day. The hardest part is that I live just outside of Washington DC. city that was a swamp at one point. So during the summer there are 2 kinds of days:

• Sunny, very hot and humid.
• Cloudy, hot and very humid.

Personally I'd rather run in hotter but less humid days, but both suck. But I am also stupid and will add an extra challenge to myself when running. I'll run on an empty stomach (which makes it hard to run past McDonalds, smell fries and not stop), I'll run right after eating, I'll run with a heavy camel bag, I'll run without water, and worst of all I'll run tipsy.

Running drunk really is the worst. And I did that last night and could barely even run 3 miles. I did the first mile in 7:45 which is very unlike me and then died. The next 2.5 miles took 34 minutes.

We'll call that run a VO2Max run and be happy with the lesson learned.