Fred - I have all three of those shoes and personally I find the Rebel to be the slower of the 3 (although I do love them). They're brilliantly comfortable but I use them as a long run shoe when I'm not trying to run particularly fast.  I love the Speed 2's and use them for workouts and steady runs.  I agree on the Endorphins, you have to work to get the best out of them.  Having said that I tend to have very high cadence (like 195-200spm) so I suspect the plated shoes with that extra pop do make quite a difference for me.

 

Mark - That kind of makes sense given you're much faster than me, so you'll get more benefit from plated shoes than me (based on what I've read here and elsewhere about the performance curve of carbon shoes).  For some reason, my cadence has dropped over the past year, which is contrary to what I've heard about runners shortening their strides and upping their cadence as they get older.  Good to hear you feel like you're getting back into form.

My week:

Monday 20 minute easy spin workout plus upper body strength

Tuesday am 6 miles with 6 x 800 tempo-ish pace pm lower body strength training

Wednesday am 4.6 easy miles pm Upper body strength training

Thursday rest day

Friday am 5.8 miles with 10 x 2 minutes hard pm stregth training

Saturday 3.7 easy

Sunday 6.6 miles easy plus short strength training workout

Weather has been all over the place. I've run in long sleeves and tights and a tank and shorts this week. Typical spring in MD.

Mark, interesting about the wind coming from 2 different directions. I've seen wind shear mentioned here usually when talking about storms.

Fred, did you do the same mile course for the shoe experiement? I've been debating trying some New Balance. There are often really good deals on Joe's New Balance website. I really like their Impact shorts.

MJ, that seems like a good amount of time on your feet. Hopefully it just needs time to heal and running doesn;t make it any worse.

JamesD, running feeling easier is always a good thing.

Watson, nicce week for recovery mode. For the long runs with the Endorphon Pros, are you doing them at an easier pace or with quality mixed in?

My week:

50 miles running, ~1000 yards swimming and 4.5 hours pool-running.

M: 90 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.
T: 11 miles, including a track workout of 2x800, 2x1200, 2x800 in 3:15, 3:16, 5:01, 4:56, 3:13, 3:11. Recoveries between 2:2x and 2:4x Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
W: 11 miles very easy (9:21) plus drills and hill sprints. Streaming yoga later.
Th: 90 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.
F: 1.5 miles (10:00), break to time team track workout, 9.5 miles very easy (9:27) plus drills and strides.
Sa: 17 miles, with 4, 3, 2, 1 miles at marathon effort with 1 mile float in between. Averaged 7:31 pace for the 4 miles, 7:27 pace for the 3 miles, 7:24 pace for the 2 miles, and ran the last mile in 7:14 (too fast). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 meters recovery swimming.
Su: Streaming yoga and 90 minutes pool-running.

My paces got significantly faster this week, so that was nice. The weather is warming up, and the dystonia/neuro stuff seems much better when it's warmer. Tuesday's track workout was one of the fastest that I've done in some time.

Since I haven't done much (if anything) in the way of strength/marathoner workouts since Houston in January, I threw one in on Saturday. Since I'm not racing longer than a half-marathon until October, I don't think I need many of these workouts, but one or two doesn't hurt when training for half-marathons.

I was mostly happy with it. As the weather gods would have it, my first really big workout in a few months fell on the first really summer-ish day of the year.  (Since this is the weather-whining thread - we started at 65 F with a DP of 63 and ended at 69 F with a DP of 64.  Not awful, but I'm not acclimated yet.)  I was a bit worried about how things would go, but they turned out fine - I was able to hit a nice rhythm for the four and three mile segments.

By the time I hit the two mile segment, I was starting to get a bit dehydrated (I had drained my water bottle), and so I panicked a little and sped up to get the workout over with. Thus the two mile was split as 7:30/7:18 and then I finished with a 7:14. Both the 7:18 and the 7:14 were too hard to be honest marathon effort, so that wasn't great. However, I don't think I dug a hole or anything, so I'll just mark it down as a mistake to avoid repeating.

It seems a lot DNF at Christchurch.  I have three Strava friends who did the full - Hash is the only one who finished!  Steve pulled out.  And the other is a pretty good woman runner (probably 3:15 on a good day) who pulled out at the 32km mark.

Darkwave - Thanks for the tip on the shoes.  Glad you didn't "dig a hole" with that workout.  Nice week.

HCK - Yes it was the same mile for each pair of shoes.  There's a nice 1-mile loop (well 0.98, but I extend it) that starts and ends at my house that made the shoe test easy.  I know what you mean about the weather being quite variable right now.

Hash - congratulations on your first marathon.

Watson - Good week for coming back from illness.  Yes, "hard" is a good word for the Endorphin Pros.

Mark - A big week indeed.  Nice going and good luck with the taper next week.

Last week was the middle of three weeks between my last half and my next one.  Sadly, the forecast suggests my next half may be just like the last one:  raining, humid, and windy.  For a moment, when I saw the latest forecast, "DNS" crossed my mind, but I shook off the feeling.  40.8 miles / 65.6km / 6:40:57 for the week.

HCK - Good luck with your shoe trial.  I'm curious to hear how it goes for you.

With 4 days until my next half, there's a divergence of forecasts on the rain and wind.  One says rain throughout with 20mph (32kph) gusting to 30 (48), while the other says rain ending during the race and wind at less than 10 (16).  It will be what it will be.

What the forecasts agree on is it will be 60º (16C) and humid.  That's a serious thing for me.  I race best when it's 50º (10C) or cooler.  I've never even broken 2 hours in a half when it's been 60º or warmer (I've gone sub-2 a total of 18 times in cooler weather).  I'm seriously considering making my goal to go sub-2 in over 60º.

Hash - Well done again.  It did seem like a lot of carnage for no obvious reason.  Apart from the wind (which wasn't that bad), the weather was good.

Fred - With that weather it may just have to be a rare day where you don't PR!  Good plan making a more conservative goal.

Mick - Thanks, I appreciate it.  I've bought a pair of Saucony Tempus at the recommendation of my coach.  Similarities to the Endorphin Pro but no carbon plate.  There is some research that suggests the carbon plate is only helping at > 16km/h.  I've had success in shorter distances and I'm becoming more convinced that the shoe is the main source of my trouble in the marathon.  As JMac said in the other thread, it makes no sense to feel cramp starting before halfway in a marathon at a pace 10 minutes slower than a half marathon in which I didn't cramp.  I'll be using the Tempus in 8-10 workouts, including long runs, in the next 6 weeks.  Then I'll try them in what is technically another marathon but one I'm going into with an experimental mindset.  Pulling the pin in Christchurch gives me that opportunity.

My race report is on this page:

Christchurch Marathon

Hash - I'm now following "Italian guy" from my race report on Strava.  It appears you may know him too.  We ran together for about an hour.  I wish it was longer.