I had such high hopes for the Altra Vanish Carbon 2 as a race day shoe, but from the beginnig there were issues.
They feel springy and fast, but they torture my feet. First it was the heel issue (common with these shoes). I’d get blisters on every run. I tried many things before finally cutting down the heel… which seems to have worked?!
But that left the other issues - my right foot keeps going numb in them after a couple of kilometers. And I get toe pain the next day. I loved that they don’t mess with my gait and don’t feel clunkly like many other more padded running shoes. But something about the build just presses my toes forward into the mesh despite the size being fine and despite various lacing strategies.
I think I need to just accept that these are not my shoes - an expensive lesson to learn. I was hoping they may help me get my goal time in my upcoming half marathon, but I can’t even trust them on a 30-40 minute assessment run right now.
I think I’ll just have to stick with my trusty Xero HFS IIs. I used them for the race in Norway and they felt great, and I use them for all my training runs now (they’ve all but replaced my Merrell Vapor Gloves). I don’t even feel them on my feet, and my feet always feel fine the next day. I miss out on the fancy carbon plate and the springy bounce feeling, but I’m not fast enough yet for that to make a meaningful factor anyway. Pretty sure I can get a good time if I train well enough in the Xeros.
Running in general
In general running is going pretty well. TrainAsOne has been giving me some really long (for me) runs at over 2 hours. Yesterday was a 2 hour 14 min pickup run, in which I ran a long block of easy pace, then a faster pace for the same amount of time, and then a third equal block of easy pace again.
It’s also decided my easy pace is 5:45 min/km now instead of 6:05.
This length of run is kind of pushing it a bit for me. But then I realized it may be trying to sandwich my economy runs and speed work into one session because I have the plan set to schedule workouts only 3 days per week.
Yesterday after the long run I switched it to allow for 4 workouts instead of 3, and the plan immediately recalculated. The next couple of weeks look much better for me, with the longest run being 1 hour 43 minutes and more separate speed-specific workouts:
The other day I had to take a beta-blocker before a blood test and later walk up a hill to Uppsala castle. The difference with how tiring it felt at a lower HR was so stark! Is this how it feels for people who don’t have a naturally too-fast HR, or do normal people adapt through their lives to feel better at the lower HR? I guess their lower HR may mean they are more fit as they get used to exerting their heart less to climb the same hill?
Today Garmin adjusted my max after a run.
