The Equipment - Shoes failed, found a headlight

 

Found a headlight

I was looking around for a headlight and yesterday came across this pretty comprehensive review in the Runner's World. Reading through the comments and categories, I think the 225 lumen, 20 hour Li-Ion rechargeable Black Diamond Sprint is the best option for my use case. 225 lumens sound enough, given that there is always going to be some natural light during the white nights of our summer, even under the forest. Also, there is only going to be a few hours per night, when the sun is below the horizon, so 20 hour capacity is more than enough. Especially considering, that I'm likely going to pick up the headlight from my support team in the evening and hand it back to them on the morning, so it can be recharged for night #2.

Cannot run in Nike Flex Run 2019

I also had a test run for the new shoes today. Was planning on 27 km, but only did 12.5 km, because the shoes were so bad. This was the second run in the new shoes, I had done a short 5 km evening workout a few days prior. 

The newer model of the Nike Flex Run has everything that the older model had - thin textile on top, super flexible outer sole, very light build. But then they also have something the older model didn't - a profiled inner sole 😠. Noone mentioned it in any of the reviews. You cannot detect it by feeling inside the shoe with your hand and it definitely does not show up on photos. But when you put pressure on it, the soles of your feet feel slight bumps and depressions. I guess Nike intended them to support the foot somehow or maybe they are artefacts of the profiled outer sole pressing through the soft inner sole, but whatever it is, it makes running very uncomfortable for my feet.

I felt the profiling on my short evening run, too, but it did not become such a problem. Today, between kilometers 5 and 7 it was uncomfortable under both feet. Eventually, the left foot somehow adjusted and the supports worked to some extent. The right foot is clearly built differently, it never got used to it, one of the "supporting" bumps was in a completely wrong place and it started hurting after km 9. Because there was a layer of snow on tarmac, I was able to adjust my style a bit, landing less on the ball of the foot like I normally do and more on the mid-sole, enabling me to keep running. It is under the ball of the foot, that most of the profiling can be felt.

It's now an hour after completing the run and I have a swelling under the right foot, where the bump on the inner sole of the shoe was pressing against the ball of the foot. It'll go back, no long term harm done, but clearly, I cannot run in these shoes. I never had any of these problems in my old 2017 model.

I understand, that Nike indended this profiling to somehow support the foot while running. But the foot needs no supports. Evolution has had 2 million years to work out the most ergonomic design for running. Why does Nike Inc think, that they can do better in some decades? They already had the perfect running shoe in Nike Flex Run 2017 - lightweight, flexible and breathable. Why did they have to go changing it? Stop innovating!

It used to be, that you had one type of trainer. Now I have a pair for volleyball, another one for tennis, one for cross-country, two for running and now I need to go back online and start hunting around to see if I can still get a new pair of the Flex Run 2017 shoes. Sad.