Breaking in New Running Shoes - Mizuno Wave Sky

This post is sponsored by Mizuno Running and FitFluential. All reviews and opinions are my own.

I love running. I also love new running shoes. By new, I mean really new. New to the world kind of new. Today I'm excited to share my thoughts on the brand new (launched in May) Wave Sky from Mizuno.

The Wave Sky is a shoe built for neutral runners but with the most cushion for max comfort. A first glance might make you think this shoe is heavy, but it weighs in at only 9.3 ounces. That's not bad. In fact, that weight falls right in the middle of the Mizuno neutral family.

The Wave Sky is kind of like a crossover shoe. It's neutral but offers a substantial amount of midsole cushion like a stability shoe without feeling heavy and stiff. It's built to give runners a bit of a lively rebound. It's like you are getting the best of both worlds.

I've had a chance to break in my Wave Sky on easy runs, sprints and the treadmill. Let me just say that my feet and legs are happy with these shoes. I've been running in support shoes recently because of my knee, but these feel just as stable. They are so plush and so light and just feel really good. My feet are average width and there is plenty of room including the toe box.

I have to confess that when I receive a new pair of Mizunos, I fully intend to love them. Some I've loved more than others. I think the Wave Sky and I are going to be spending a lot of time together this summer.

Tweet: Want the best of both worlds? Try #running in the #WaveSky. @mizunorunning #ad #fitfluential https://ctt.ec/3e9W0+ from @runningescapade

Do you ever find yourself caught between two running shoe worlds?

What do you look for in a new running shoe?

Today I’m linking up with Susie and Rachel and Debbie and Lora for the Running Coaches' Corner and representing runners! 

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Weekend Workouts: Making the Most of Pre-Typhoon Weather

What do you do in Hong Kong when there is a tropical depression, possible typhoon headed your way? You make the most of the sunny weather while you can. Even if it's hot, hot, hot! The forecast for the coming week is all about rain and lots of it, so adding in an outdoor run and some fun on the water was important this weekend

Week 2 - Regular calorie and Low Calorie day - the workouts

Saturday - It was leg day and as a warm up, I ran an easy 1.3 miles to the fitness center. It was warm and sunny, but thankfully the first half of the run is shaded by trees and a tunnel. I love these short little runs and I was extra excited for this one because it was my first run in the Mizuno Wave Sky. I love the feel of new shoes.

The leg workout was no joke! It was 50% on the machines and 50% free weights (or just body weight) and I liked that. I like using the free weights because those exercises utilize more than one muscle group even though you might be focusing on one main muscle. For example, squats are quad dominant, but also draw on hamstrings, glutes, and calf muscles. On the other hand, I like the machines so that I can focus on one main muscle group and sometimes with better form. It's a balancing act for me and my testy knee, so a little bit of both works perfectly. Throw in some finishers and my legs were done.

Sunday - I chose to take my iSUP board out for about an hour of low intensity cardio since it was active recovery day. It's hard to believe there is a storm lurking in the South China Sea when you look at the bright blue sky over Discovery Bay and Tai Pak Beach.

this board is still available at a great price on Amazon

It didn't take long to get hot and sweaty, but getting in the water was not an option for me. Not that it is normally. It takes a lot to get me to go into deep water. Today there were a ton of jelly blubbers (aka blue blubber jellyfish) in the shallow waters! I'm pretty sure the sight of them helped keep my heart rate elevated in the fat burning zone. 

Week 2 - Regular calorie and Low Calorie day - the meals

Saturday - Broke fast around 11:00 - 2.5 scrambled eggs with ham, 2 pieces PB&J gluten free toast, orange juice

Lunch - 3 turkey & Swiss roll ups and a protein smoothie with Bob's Red Mill vanilla protein (available on Amazon)

Dinner - mrC's chilaquiles (seriously soooo good) and corn

Snack - watermelon, vanilla yogurt with chocolate sauce

Sunday - Broke fast at 11:00 - 2.5 scrambled eggs with ham, 2 PB&J rice cakes, watermelon

Lunch - 3 turkey & Swiss rollups and watermelon

Snack - peanuts

Dinner - leftover chilaquiles and corn

The big food winner this weekend ---> the watermelon. It was my first of the summer and it was so dang good. When we lived in China, we could hardly ever find seedless watermelon. Eating watermelon with seeds almost takes the fun out of it.

D you squeeze in certain workouts when you know bad weather is coming?
What is your watermelon preference - seeds or seedless?

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May Miles and More Strength Training

It's funny how fast time can fly sometimes. The week, the month, the year! It's hard to believe it's already time to add up the miles for the month of May.

I'm still amazed at the number of miles I have been putting on my Mizunos considering I was almost certain my running days were over when my old, cranky knee got even crankier last year. The month of May was good to me: 7 runs (I usually go twice a week) and 23.16 miles. This is a little less than April, but at least I can blame the weather and not an injury. My runs got shorter as the days got warmer.

Heading into June, I'm not sure what my goal is for running while I'm carb cycling. There will be some sprints and hopefully I'll figure out where to work in at least one moderate run each week.

Regular Calorie Day 2 - the workout

We joined the fitness center last November when we moved to Discovery Bay, but have really only used the treadmill and elliptical. It's been one part fun and one part frustration trying to find the machines we need to use for strength workouts. Plus it gets crowded after school drop off time and I prefer working out before the rush (hint, hint ;) mrC). 

Warm up - walked to the fitness center

Strength -  Today was all about the upper body and mostly arms. My shoulder still bothers me a little on some of the exercises (reverse fly) and I discovered that I'm between 5 and 10 or 10 and 15 pounds on many of the exercises ---> what's wrong with having an 8 or 12 pound dumbbell lying around? My solution was to go heavier on the first set and lighter on the second and hope I could finish. It wasn't always pretty, but I did it. Except the pulls-up. I didn't even try those. I need the assisted pull-up machine for that and we don't have one.

Cool down - walked back to the apartment

Regular Calorie Day 2 - the meals

Broke fast at 11:30 - Bob's Red Mill pancakes and scrambled eggs with ham

Lunch - 4 turkey rollups and red grapes

Dinner - quinoa and tuna

Snack - gluten free brownie

My goal for the week has been to hit my macros and I was so excited by how well I did today keeping my fats down. I still have some work to do, but using My Fitness Pal to track what I eat makes it so easy.

How many miles did you run in May?
Do you prefer having the gym to yourself or working out with a crowd?
Do you track your macros/calories/food at all?

It's Shoesday! Mizuno Wave Horizon

I admit that I've been Mizuno fan for a few years now and I've worn several different styles: (not in order - Wave Paradox, Wave Sayonara, Wave Creation 14, Wave Inspire 8, Wave Rider 16, Wave Rider 17, Wave Rider 18, and Wave Rider 19).

My current obsession is my new pair of Mizuno Wave Horizons.

I'm confident that I needed to get back into a stability shoe and I'm happy that Mizuno asked me to expand my horizons. This shoe provides the support and cushion that I wanted without weighing me down and feeling stiff.

It feels most similar to me to the Wave Inspire, as both are support shoes, but the Horizon have more cushion. This makes it about .5 oz heavier, but I think that's pretty insignificant. They are also more snug fitting than the Inspires I wore, but I like that feeling right now.

The Wave Horizon is offered in a nice mix of bold and neutral color options and are loaded with all the standard Mizuno bells and whistles and more: full length and articulated U4icX midsole, new Mizuno cloudwave technology, new U4ic midsole compound, DynamotionFit and new triple zone engineered mesh (get more details on Mizuno's website).

Besides the mix of gray and turquoise coloring with the pop of pink, I'm loving the design on the back of the shoes. I think it looks like the pattern on a soccer ball.

I've already put more than a few good miles on my Wave Horizons and I'm very happy with their performance. My muscle imbalances cause knee pain but the stability in this shoe seems to be helping (along with these 5 essential stretches for happy legs).

What are you wearing these days?

Workout Recap - Travel Edition

Last week started off a little slow because I had the worst case of jet lag ever! I guess 20+ hours of travel and then hitting the ground running in Springfield caught up to me. Things settled down once we got to Delaware for mrC's recurrent training ---> I worked out every day!

Monday - We woke up feeling pretty good so we ran a bunch of errands (have to pick up our favorite USA supplies and raid the storage unit), drove to see our favorite dog and then stopped to see my in-laws.

Tuesday - I woke up feeling like I'd been run over by a truck, made it through breakfast and then literally slept off and on for the next 20+ hours. I have never felt like that before.

Wednesday - I felt much better! We drove four hours to Wilmington in a tiny rental car with mrC's coworker and somehow I did not get carsick. Win!

Thursday - RUN! I took my interval run inside because I didn't get a chance to scope out the area around the hotel. I did a 8 minute walking WU and then ran/walked 1 minute intervals for 30 minutes. I was also pretty excited to launch the new Wave Horizons I received from Mizuno.

Friday - I choose an elliptical workout on the Motion Traxx app called Need for Speed. It was a Tabata HIIT workout that got me sweaty fast! I finished off with a plank workout.

Saturday - I did another elliptical workout. This time I chose Elliptical Session - Level 2 and burned over 400 calories in 40 minutes.

Sunday - I wanted to run, but since the temperature was barely 30 degrees and I do not have winter weather gear, I did elliptical workout #3. Pyramid Pusher was a combo of two shorter workouts: Pyramid Power and Elliptical Pusher. Both are HIIT workouts designed to help burn calories fast.

I'm so glad that I found the Motion Traxx app since I'm missing my Bodystep classes while we are in the US. When I have enough space, I'll try the cardio HIIT workouts and maybe one day I'll try one of the treadmill workouts.

Ever have a bad case of jet lag?
What shoes are you currently wearing?
Have you tried Motion Traxx yet? (51% discount if you sign up with Groupon here)

Long Run Fun

The plan for today was to go out and try to run 5+ miles, without a group of MRTT running friends. Yikes! Haven't been able to do that for awhile, let alone in China. Fortunately mrC decided to get up early and ride along on his bike. My very own escort, chaperone, and mobile cheering section.

Once I got all my devices organized, we set out toward Shenzhen Bay Park. I figured it would take me about 1.5 miles to get there and then I could decide to turn around at 2.5, or 3 if I was feeling good. The temperature was already feels like 82 degrees at sunrise (6:30), but luckily it was cloudy. There was also a nice breeze coming off the bay which always helps.

The point of running to the park was to avoid sidewalk traffic, but it's a popular place on weekends. One nice feature of the park is the extra wide walkway...plenty of room for walkers, runners, and bikers. We saw what looked like a large local running group warming up and eventually running a 5K together. It felt like a race, but no one was wearing a bib and all the signs were in Chinese.

At the halfway mark of my run, my shirt was already soaked and my face felt like it was on fire. People keep telling us that the weather is going to cool off. After enjoying the cold weather back home, I'm even more impatient for the change to happen here.

Overall, today's long run was a success. Having mrC riding along side made it easier and my feet are happier in my new running shoes. My heel pain is not 100% gone, but significantly better. I'm glad that I made buying a new pair of shoes a priority when we were home.

I was ravenous after running 6.3 miles, so mrC's breakfast hit the spot. I also had a cup of yogurt and some coffee before sliding into my compression socks and setting up the iPad to watch a little Buckeye football.

Since I'm sharing food, we went to Sam's Club yesterday and I found Italian meatballs. Throw them in the crockpot with some bbq sauce and a secret ingredient...yum! Not exactly a warm weather meal, but seriously good.

Even though winter temperatures are delayed here in China (and in a lot of places back home too), there is less and less daylight happening. I jumped on the Oiselle #chasethebird bandwagon to make sure I don't fall into any bad habits and because I'm super motivated by challenges.

What do you do to get through a long run?
Are you doing any challenges right now?

Hanging Out in NH: GMMRTT, SurfSet, & Trails

Wow! Time flies when you're having fun! 

After landing in New Jersey last Wednesday, mrC and I spent a day and a half letting our bodies get used to being back in the USA.  On Friday I hopped on another plane for a short flight to New Hampshire for a long weekend visit.

I started the weekend with a Girl's Night Out with MRTT. We pretty much took over an entire room at the Bedford Village Inn tavern. I haven't seen these women in person since we were home in August, but because we interact so much in the Facebook group it felt like I'd never been gone. 

After dinner, some of us braved the chilly NH night to hang out by the fire pit. It was a great night!

On Saturday I headed to TI Fitness for some Boot Camp and SurfSet. Although I keep busy in China with running, biking, hiking, yoga, and Zumba, nothing compares to a good full body cardio workout. 

Boot Camp was broken into two parts: first we were on the floor obstacle course style and then on the ledge (which you can't really see in the picture). On the floor we ran, shuffled, zig-zagged, and jumped while mixing in some strength exercises that we pulled from a box. For example after going through the floor course we did 20 reverse flies. On the ledge we focused on step-ups, jumps, triceps dips. Stuff like that. It was awesome! 

The 30 minute SurfSet class was fast paced and challenged my body in every way. I miss these classes so much because it's such a fun way to get sweaty and it's the only way I ever did strength. I'm struggling with that in China.

On Sunday morning I hit the trail for a MRTT group run. I ran a lot of miles on the rail trails in New Boston, Goffstown, and Manchester before moving. I've been watching the progress of improvements via Facebook, so I was super excited to see first hand the newly finished bridge connecting Manchester to Goffstown. 

The weather almost didn't cooperate, but the skies dried up just in time for the group to hit the trail. 

After fitness class on Saturday I raided Runner's Alley for some new running shoes. The Mizuno Wave Rider 19s are so much lighter and softer than my old shoes (which were overdue for replacement) and I love how Feetures socks just mold to me feet. 

Between the cooler temps, the trail, and my new gear, running the 5.3 miles felt amazing. 

Do you do non-running things with your running group?

What was the last pair of running shoes you bought? I'm loving my new Mizuno Wave Rider 19

Let's Call it, 10K Tuesday!

Tuesday is a regular run day for me. Instead of heading out while mrC was still sleeping, I waited until he woke up and invited him on a little 10K adventure to mark day 10 of my run streak.

First we rode our bikes to Shenzhen Bay Park. My bike has one gear and that one gear is tight and squeaky. Normally I enjoy my bike rides, but today I couldn't wait to get off and run.

After locking my bike and putting my gear in mrC's basket, I set out in my Mizuno Wave Rider 18s and he set out on his bike. He rode next to me for a little while.

And he played paparazzi leap frog, getting in front and behind me.

He kept me company all the way to the end of my 5K run.

After some stretching and water, we rode home to finish our 5K round trip bike ride.

I'm pretty lucky to have a guy like mrC. He indulges my need to run and get outside and then lets me play on the computer while he makes me breakfast. He's the best photographer too!

Do you like non-running company while you run?