Mezamashii! (Mizuno Wave Ronin 4 Review)

All summer long, I kept hoping I'd get an invite to Mizuno's Mezamashii Project. Rather than spending $$$ on advertising, they were doing something BRILLIANT: putting their shoes on the feet of real people with real opinions. I applied, and waited, and waited, and finally! The Monday before Thanksgiving, I got my invite! 

I chose the Mizuno Wave Ronin as my shoe, and since I now have over 30 miles on them in runs of varying lengths, I feel like I can review honestly them.

Appearance: Awesome. The red/white isn't necessarily a color combo I would gravitate towards, but in person, the look pretty cool. They actually match a lot of my running gear (which usually only happens by accident when I train, yet is methodically planned on race days). I don't know if it shows in the picture, but the laces have a little sparkle woven in them, too! 

Initial feel: Like putting on a shoe made for my foot. They felt great. Very light.

First run: (Monday) Here's where my brutal honesty comes in. These shoes felt TERRIBLE! I took our giant dog for a 2 mile run, and I felt way too aware of the wave-plate technology Mizuno uses. It was like there was a sheet of concrete in the sole, especially in the left. They felt like they were sliding on my feet, and overall, it was like having a loose slipper with a concrete sole and trying to run in them. I was really sad, for I had high hopes.  In full disclosure, the dog weighs 107 lbs, and the initial half mile has a steep downhill curve, then a gradual downhill (which means the last half mile is the reverse). I can home making a face akin to McKayla Maroney.

Second run: Because I'm not a quitter, I wore them to our running group on Tuesday. It coincided with the day I started teaching Zumba at a second location, so I only had time to run the 5K course. It started out on the road, then is mostly a trail made of crushed asphalt that winds around the base. 

The shoes felt a lot better. I didn't feel the wave plate, and the shoes felt more at home on my feet (no slipping, no sliding). I don't know that it was quite a mezamashii (brilliant) run yet, but it was a good run. I was happy with the shoe. I told my husband I thought they'd be great for 5Ks and 10Ks, but I didn't know about anything longer. 

Third and Fourth runs: I wore them again the following Tuesday and Thursday, and each time, they felt a little bit better. If these shoes had a brain, I would say they were learning my foot strike, learning my speed, and adjusting. How else can you explain a shoe feeling better with each run?

Fifth run: 10 miles. The distance test. Saturday was the most magical run I've had in a very long time. Running at dusk, on a quite trail, in chilly but not freezing temperatures, and with shoes that I never even though about? Magical. I did my long run on the base so I'd be near my husband in case of emergency. Everything, from the sparkle on the laces to the fit on my foot, everything was perfect. There are no words to capture how perfect everything was. But, I do believe Mezamashii is as close as it gets.

So thank you, Mizuno, for granting me these shoes. I am in love. I hope to put many more miles on them.

Sometimes, a girl just needs a new pair of shoes to get through trying times. These shoes are sure helping!

I'll keep rotating these with my other shoes during training, and can't wait to wear them at my last attempt at a PR for 2012- New Year's Eve. 5K is the only standard race distance that I haven't PR'd in this year, so we'll see if I can change that!

DISCLAIMER: I was given these shoes as a part of Mizuno Running's Mezamashii Project. The opinions expressed are my own, and I was not compensated in any manner beyond the shoes.

If you are newer to running, or used to running in a more cushioned shoe, proceed slowly and with caution before logging too many miles in what Mizuno calls a racing flat.

Week wrap up

Wow, what a week. A roller coaster of emotions, but also a phenomenal start to marathon training round 2! 6.3 mile run Sunday, Zumba and Strength training Monday, 5.4 mile run Tuesday and Zumba, (Wednesdays are my sacred rest day), 3.2 mile run Thursday with more Zumba, and Zumba again today and another round of Sheila's strength training class.

Tomorrow, I tackle 10 miles- first long run of the new training schedule!

Teaching Zumba at 2 locations now is awesome, but I can honestly say I have fallen asleep on the couch every night this week. That might explain why my craft projects at the end of the couch seem to be making no progress!

These 2 have been keeping things crazy around here:

She loves her fleece jacket that I bought on Black Friday.

Watching a dog show. Yes, my dogs watch TV. A lot of TV. Their brains are probably rotten by now.

My husband leaves his shoes out. Matt makes a nest out of them.

I'm not sure what was going on, other than he was licking her head. But look at her back feet- that can't be comfortable!

Right now, the dogs are doing what I call "monster mutting." They run, and whirl, and chase each other, and go at each other like battling goats, and basically cause a ruckus. It's incredibly entertaining.

I hope to finish crocheting a shawl for my grandmother this weekend, and make more progress on my cross-stitch. After that 10 miler, of course. I'll have earned an afternoon and evening on the couch!

What do you have planned this weekend?

Cross stitch cuteness overload!

The Frosted Pumpkin has the cutest xstitch designs ever.

Today is a rest day, so you'll find me curled up on the couch and working on this!

It is what it is.

I got a phone call from my Lady Dr this morning. Not how I wanted to start the day.

She had gone over the pathology from my biopsy, and it's not great. I heard a lot of big medical terms, some I understood, some I didn't, but it comes down to that lovely C-word.  Technically, Stage 0 cancer.

I'll be honest, I didn't know there was such a thing as stage 0, but as far as I understand, it means the bad cells were localized and (hopefully) completely removed. The margins were NOT clear, but my Dr feels confident that the cauterization would have gotten the layer of invasive cells. I'm willing to bet on her confidence at this point.

I was given the option of what to do next: wait and retest in April, or go ahead with a full hysterectomy.

That's a pretty big decision to make before noon.

I'm choosing to wait. I want to enjoy the holidays. I want to feel healthy and normal for a few months. I've been reassured that waiting is safe, and so I will. I want to run the Circular Logic marathon in March. And then we'll deal with this.

As soon as I hung up, my crazy-runner brain thought of an upside: if it comes to worst-case scenario and parts get yanked, the timing is as perfect as it could get- April to May is my lull between marathon training! And, if need be, I don't really need to worry about training for the Air Force Marathon this fall until the 1st week of June since it's later this year than in the past!!

SWEET!

So, body of mine, if I must go under the knife, at least it will fall during a training lull. My health is my number one priority, but running is how I deal with stress and anxiety, so knowing that I won't be side-lined from my bigger goals is very reassuring. Makes the C-word comparable to shin splints. Or a strained ligament. You know, just another obstacle to overcome.

As my dad would say if he were still living, it is what it is. I hope I haven't horrified anyone by sharing; my hope is that those who also need strength, no matter the reason, can find theirs.

A finish!

I finished a new holiday wall quilt! It's from a free pattern from Jillily Studio called Holiday Lane. The pattern is for a pillow, but I wanted a wallhanging.

Like the runner? I had to. After all, it's MY Holiday Lane!

12 Days of a Runner's Christmas

(because this is what I was singing during my shoer this morning)

On the 1st day of Christmas.... oh heck, let's skip to the good part!

On the 12th day of Christmas, my husband gave to me:
12 issues of Runner's World
11 Bondi Bands
10 pretty toenails
9 flavors of Gu
8 water bottles
7 Running Skirts
6 new sports bras
5 Race entries!!!!!
4 compression socks
3 tubes of Nuun
2 running shoes
and a Garmin Forerunner 10!


(The best part is he actually has given me some of these things over the last year)

Goals for 2013 and the roller coaster I'm riding

This year, I have completed several goals:

We ran our first marathon!
New half marathon PR! (2:01:49, an improvement over 2:13:15)
New 10K PR! (52:41, an improvement from 54:00)

So, on the running end, I did great. Quilting? Not so much. I don't think I made much of a dent in my work-in-progress "collection" (it keeps growing!). I got my Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll mystery quilt top put together finally, but it will probably have to wait a long time to get quilted... as in, until I can pay to send it off, or have a larger set up to do it myself. I still haven't made us a new bedspread, nor have I finished much beyond wall-hanging sized projects. But I don't care. I quilt for my own fun (most of the time), so the only deadline is my own.

TMI warning!
This past month has been a roller coaster- the whole fall has. to be frank, I've been waiting to find out if I had cancer or not. 12 days before the Freedom half marathon, I had a 3 cm biopsy taken from a "sensitive" part. Luckily, the Dr said I could still run, even though she flat out said I was crazy. So that PR means a helluva lot more. Yesterday, I finally had the check up and was told yes, the chunk they took was cancer-in-situ (cancerous cells that haven't yet invaded), with "suspicious" areas. The good news is they don't need to to anything else for now. The frustrating part is that I go back in April for another check, and if it grows back bad again, the best option will be to yank out another body part.

All of this made me so thankful on November 11 just to be able to run, even though I was in that nebulous waiting zone. On Thanksgiving, I felt at peace, chanting my late father's mantra of If it's meant to be, it will happen, combined with my aunt's mantra of Que sera, sera (which always makes me smile, since she sometimes calls me Kasera-sera). I have to take the news as best I can, and just assume it will all be fine. And in the meantime, I will run my little heart out, grateful for every mile these legs carry me.

I've been thinking of my 2013 running goals. I want to run 13 half marathons, but for financial reasons, I'm making my own rules:

I will run 13 half marathons through a combination of halves and fulls. So, there are 2 fulls on the schedule, which will count as 4 half marathons (because it's my dang challenge and I do what I want). Assuming all goes well all year, I'll end it with (EEEK) the Huff 50K ultra, which will also count as 2 half marathons. So, I just need to run 7 other half marathons.
And I am not above running a shorter race and tacking on mileage at the end for myself. Again, this is my own personal challenge, and I do what I want. I've also learned this year that sometimes you have to wing it (like only running 25 miles TOTAL the 5 weeks before a half!).

With all of this, I hope to hit 1000 miles. Wouldn't that be bad@$$?

As far as my quilting goes, I want to finish my Christmas quilt. And make 2 baby quilts for a couple we know who are having surprise twins (oh, the quilting possibilities of making 2 similar quilts!). But more important than finishing projects, I want to ORGANIZE my craft room.

So there you have it. October/November in a nutshell, where I've been, where I'm going.

It's been rougher than usual, but hey, I'm a Tough Chik.

And it never hurts to get home and find out you won a fun giveaway from Running Diva Mom !!! Seriously, go check out her blog- she's pretty inspiring, and often has awesome giveaways. I'm thrilled to have won one!