New Shoes and Some Cold Runs

I'm on my last pair of Saucony Hurricanes that they stopped making a few years ago. Yes, they've since started making them again, but they are a vastly different shoe. So I went to the old Run n' Fun to see what they thought.

I got a sales person with a "Minnesota Distance Elite" jacket on (I think it was Tanner Maier), and I was curious what he'd say about my shoes. He thought I needed MUCH less of a "stability" shoe and more of a "neutral" shoe. So he recommended a few and I went with these:

Saucony Triumph 22s.

So far, I've tried them on 3 out of my last 4 runs (I used my old shoes for my long run this past Monday). The wild thing is that the heel is so soft, but it also allows my heel to move more naturally. It's a noticable change! But it has caused no pain or other issues, so I'm hoping I have a new shoe. (I'll wear my old shoes for Monday's long run again, but I'm hoping for some speed work on Friday, so I'd like to try these new shoes for that.)

Oh, and 2 funny stories from talking with Tanner at the shoe store. First, he asked what I'd raced this year, and I noted that I got a 5K PR at 43-years-old, and he was impressed. He asked my time (17:05), and then casually said "Oh, my girlfriend just ran a 17:01." Ouch. Burn. :) And then he noticed my North Mankato Triathlon shirt and I mentioned I grew up south of there. When I said my hometown, he laughed, and I immediately asked "OK, so WHO do you know from there?!?" It turns out his high school coach was a track/cc runner on my high school team that was a few years older than me. When I mentioned him by his nickname ("Skelly"), Tanner knew I was legit. Just a fun interaction.

Anyway, after a warm fall, it finally got cold here - it felt like we went from late-summer to mid-winter over the course of like 2 weeks. I wore pants on my run on Wednesday even though it was normally shorts weather (mid-20s) because I wanted to keep my just-getting-over-being-injured calves warmer. And then on yesterday's run, it was even COLDER:

My phone when I woke up to run.


Windchill of -2...


... because of the 13 mph winds from the NW.

We had highs in the 50s until about 10-12 days ago, and then it's just tanked since then. Now it's winter!