Last week I was expecting week 3 to be same and routine as week 2. But alas life has its ups and downs and now I am worried if I can continue to my training.  I guess I am going to keep my life out of this running blog but I mentioned this only because for the first time I can see how emotion can affect running. I almost was going to run on Thursday and stopped when I found my heart racing even before I started. Normally it helps me forget everything but not this  time. Nevertheless Sunday run was different. This week I skipped my Thursday run and so the total distance was not what I expected for the week.
I am still running with my New Balance 890v4 and this week Garmin seemed to work as expected. I was going to switch to 880v4 this week but I forgot.
The weather was lot better for a surprise and it was good to run out today. This how the week looked.

Week 2 of training for my next half marathon gave a taste of real winter running. We had all sorts of weather. Tuesday we went from +15C to -15C and windy condition and it felt like it was peak winter. Surprisingly the cold weather has hit Toronto lot earlier this year. Wednesday was a surprise with Ton on snow on the roads and it was a preview of what the half training is going to be like in coming months.  Weekday runs are still at 4/5K but soon I am assuming we will hit the night mare of hills. Sunday long slow run was 7K again we went on same route as last week and it felt look better this time. 
I think my Garmin 610 GPS does not like winter it seems to struggle to keep the GPS locked all the time. I could be due to the cloud cover but today was a good day and still it did not lock for like 5 mins. I know down town is not the best place to crib about GPS but what I can do ....Hmm.
I thought I would switch to my new balance 880v4 for Sunday runs but now I am comfortable with 890v4 and might continue at least for next few long runs. 

Thats how my week 2 looks like , 

So we had a slight dusting today and it was probably  a good day to have snow fall when Santa Parade is scheduled for today.We started the Long run routine for the next half and it was good 7K run. I got up early only to realize that I ran out my Sunday pre run bread. I had settled on a toast before I ran and I am so used to doing that. Given that it was only 7K i was good with out it. I thought that the run along MG trail would be cold with the wind and snow but I was sweating so it was good. Garmin 610 for some reason did not like the cold weather , GPS was all over and it kept loosing the signal. Luckily I had the foot pod and so distance and pace were good. The maps looks funny. Not sure if I should upgrade my watch to 920xt its still in my wish list for xmas.

Here is how the run went

So the cold vortex apparently is headed to Toronto now and its head was good enough to get colder winds here. It was 14 yesterday and today it was 1C. It was good I still went in shorts and without head gear  and run was really not that bad. We hit few wind corridor's where it was bit chilly but nothing that was not bearable  Apart from weather not much to write about today. we did a 4K run with a square block around Jaris and Gerrard. to Bay. 

here is how the run went. 

So I was sure that if I did not sign up for a running clinic I would do nothing and loose all the endurance built up over the summer. So signed up next half clinic. It going to cover my running schedule all the way to 1st week of march. I was surprised to see so many people almost no one who I see regularly on Sunday or Wednesday. 

Nevertheless its going to fun and I know running in winter in Toronto is fun . Not much to write. I am new balance fan but next week we might get to try Brooks shoes. Might test them out. 

here is how today's run went. 

Sometime this summer I did try to compare the New Bance 880v4 and New Balance 890v4. I guess my initial review was not that great and I did not do justice to 890v4. I had run max 10K before that. Now that I am done with my #STWM Half Marathon, I was back at testing different shoes. I would not risk to switch to any other shoe other than New Balance 880v4.

I had 2 main options I got the On Cloud Running and New Balance 890v4. I gave up on Cloud runner after my first run it did not like me and the feeling was mutual. For a month now I have been running with New Balance 890v4 and I have done few long runs on it.

Weight
So the specs for New Balance 890v4 say it weighs 240gm which is about 30gm lighter than the 880v4. Now with i being on healthy side one would say that 30gm is nothing. But trust me I can feel that difference while running and New Balance 890v4 feels lot lighter when running. 
Top
The mesh and top portion for both feels same and I think even though the new balance site might list something more or less i think they are more about the same. 
Sole and Cushion.
From my experience with 880v4 I can tell that once you go past 10K you start to feel every cushioning go away, you can feel every pebble and crack on the road. To be honest I have not run more than 10K on my 890v4 and I probably won't because the sole has less cushioning than 880v4. Both the soles are really flexible and strong and the I get similar wear pattern on both.

8mm drop Vs 12mm drop
So this was something that I did not thing would make difference to my running, but I was totally wrong. One thing that I learned from my summer runs with 890v4 was that it made me a more forefoot running. This less drop makes a big difference and I really carried that even when I switched to 880v4. For any heel runner this is something worth trying and I can tell you that it hurts as hell when you switch to fore foot or mid foot running. I had aches and pain all over but as time went by things got better. There is no way you can run anything more than 10K with heel strike especially if you plan to keep doing it again and again. So trying any shoe with 8mm drop or New balance 890v4 might be worth trying this. 

Feel
Now we always talk about cushioning with respect to impact, but one area where New Balance 890v4 is really better is the cushioning inside and at the back of ankle. I felt that 880v4 has really hard it gets hard as you run on the ankle part and I got shoe bites on the top part of ankle. Where as with 890v4 it feels more soft and it keeps that feeling much longer. 

Summary 
To be honest both 880v4 and 890v4 are really good shoes and they offer something slightly different and both appeal me. Especially if you are bit a heavy runner and prefer cushioning it makes sense to run with 880v4. At the same time for short distances upto 10K or 10 miles it may make sense to use 890v4. The 8mm drop does force you to be a fore foot or a mid foot runner and that is somthing that I wanted to switch too. With the less cushioning from 890v4 there is no way you are going to like the heel strikes and you will be forced to go mid foot. I still will keep 880v4 around for long distances and probably run alternate between 880v4 and 890v4. You can use 890v4 as a race day shoe just do practice with it , so you know when it starts to break during long run.



So back to my running blog and I ran 8K with 890v4 today, the weather was chilly but after few mins it was all good. We went through a new path and we west east to broad view on Queen. Than through river st and the park way back to the Bercy park. The trees are really beautiful now it was scenic run. Here is how the run went. 

So this week it feels like i am back at my regular ..My foot calf muscle still hurts once in a while. Now it even bothers while running all the phsio did work but it was temporary solution. Now trying to run it out. The Thursday group as usual is sparse and to add to that today it was a raining a bit and was cold. I prefer cold over hot and humid day but the rain was a spoil sport. Nothing interesting in today;s run and it was a regular 4K up University to college and back. 

Oh I did sign up for the "Tannenbaum 10K" probably last race for the year if I don;t sign up for the resolution run. Hoping I can beat my last time this time. Here is how the run went today. 
 

After a long break we were back at the hill training routine again. The part that I hated in Half Marathon training and think that it caused the injury that I am still carrying.  It was with the 10K group so it was not supposed to be as strenuous as the half marathon one. We just went up and down on Spadina between Lakeshore and Front St. It was not bad and the lights helped relax. Overall I think I am getting used to New Balance 890v4 again. It feels good not still on Sunday's it hurts but I am hoping that this Sunday' it goes lot better. 

For some strange reason the Garmin watch takes forever to lock the GPS in Bercy Park. Its probably the only part in FD core which has open sky and it the Garmin 610 cannot get lock there. I also upgraded the firmware and now the route looks more jittery in the maps. Overall the Garmin connect site has really got a new fresh and sleek look which I like. It looks more modern now and is responsive.

Here is how today's run went.