Earlier this week I passed the 200-mile mark of #5keveryday without too much hubbub or fanfare – I actually didn't even realize I'd surpassed my second-century mark with all the craziness that comes with summer in the OCR world. As the temperatures rise and the kids get out of school every weekend is filled with events worldwide and we scramble to keep up. Combine that with some vacation travel (more on this in a minute) and sometimes it's a blessing to have an excuse to slip away for a half hour or so and sneak in some miles. Speaking of miles, most of this month's 100 or so miles were logged in Inov8 ParkClaw 275 or RoadClaw 275. I'll share a little recap/review of these models at the end of the article along with a shocking secret! (Spoiler Alert: It's not that shocking, nor hardly a secret)

Previous #5keveryday articles here

Driving Miles, Logging Miles

Running in May can begin to get tricky here in AZ, as the mercury begins to rise toward triple digits daytime running becomes a bit more difficult – a 3 mile run in 100º temperatures feels an awful lot like 5 or 10 miles in more temperate areas of the globe. Of course, those of you dealing with humidity have your own monster to tame during the summer months as well, I don't expect you to pity me withering in the sun nor do I envy you sweating from every possible pore all at once. My home altitude isn't a real issue at 2000′ above sea level, over Memorial Day weekend I traveled a bit north and completed a few trail runs at over 5600′ which surely slowed me down a bit!

While I'm shooting for consistency, I do have a few peaks in speed and distance this month to go along with a couple of split workouts where I was only able to squeak out a mile or so before and during an event. May 8-10 I drove out to San Luis Obispo to put on a corporate event so that chopped my windows to run to either before or after driving, setup, etc. Since the hotel treadmill was rather ancient and didn't agree with my request for a 1-2 degree incline, I was fortunate enough to stumble onto the running trails around the historic Madonna Inn.

The Madonna Inn in SLO – I didn't stay here, but I happily ran around it a few times and into those hills behind it!

May 10 was by far one of my roughest runs yet – after completing the event on 5/9, we drove nearly 10 hours through the night to make it back to Phoenix and then slept for a few hours before unloading the obstacles into storage and returning the truck. I knocked out my #5keveryday miles, took another nap and was still somehow able to play soccer later on that night, winning our semi-finals match!

Consistency is what you make of it; some days your schedule may require that you split your miles to get 'em in, and some days you can sneak out for a 2-hour trail run as I did on the 24th. Since there are no days off, I will admit my legs were extremely heavy the next few days for my Memorial Day weekend trail runs in Prescott!

Longest Run: 7 hilly trail miles with 1223′ of elevation gain. Shoes: ParkClaw 275 Knit

Fastest Run: 1 mile, 6:24 (5k Superhero Run “Tony Stark Challenge”, good enough for 3rd place) Shoes: F-LITE 230 G

Average Run/Pace: 3.3 miles/day, 8:38/mi

First, the miles (then on to vacation!)

As you can see above I've yet to log today's miles and am a bit torn whether to slip out for my neighborhood 5k loop or head out to the trails for a little longer jaunt. We'll see when I wrap this article up!

Running In Paradise?

It's one thing to jog a bit whilst on vacation; tread a few miles here and there along a beach in the morning or… well, whatever – you're on vacation! With a year-long running streak on the line, I have to make my #5keveryday miles a little bit of a priority (sorry honey) during our trip to Rome & Mediterranean cruise next month. The travel days will absolutely be the most difficult, I'll need to squeeze a run in before roughly 15 hours of flying nearly halfway around the globe. Once we get to Rome, I'm envisioning some amazing miles (TBH I have no idea where we're staying in Rome, but guarantee there'll be some epic sightseeing along my routes). Our floating palace has a jogging track and plenty of treadmills, so I'm pretty confident I can drag my butt away from the buffet long enough to get my miles in!

Travel: I'm planning to pack Inov8 F-Lite G 290 or F-Lite G 230, RoadClaw 275, and a pair of flip flops!

How do you get your miles in when traveling? Share your secrets/success/failures in the comments below!

Clawing Away the Miles

I'd estimate that 95% of my miles this month were in one of Inov8's 275 models – ParkClaw 275, ParkClaw 275 GTX, ParkClaw 275 Knit*, or RoadClaw 275. As you can easily see above, the shoes are nearly identical with the only real difference in the upper material, laces, and outsole “patches” as shown below. For lack of a better term, this “modular” design allows for either road or hybrid/trail lugs to be applied to the ParkClaw or RoadClaw while keeping the weight and fit the same. Since I am an enormous fan of the ParkClaw 275 and wear them nearly every day, slipping into the RoadClaw 275 feels extremely familiar and even slightly more comfortable due to the open & airy structure of the upper material.

Here's the little “secret” that Inov8 doesn't want you to know** – the ParkClaw 275 actually has a little bit more cushion over all terrain (including the road) than the RoadClaw 275 due to the soft rubber that makes up the lugs. Shocking! Bigly! Superlatives!

**Ok, this is a lie as not only does Inov8 know this, but my rep agrees wholeheartedly with me on this. The only issue is the soft rubber on the ParkClaw 275 wears out faster than the RoadClaw 275's harder rubber street lugs. IMHO they are both comfortable as all get-out and a joy to wear!

 

I've already reviewed the ParkClaw 275 & RoadClaw 275, here's a quick recap:

  • ParkClaw 275: (additional review & link to Runner's World rave too)
    • I love these shoes for everything, and they will absolutely be the ones I wear out first. Comfortable and light with soft foam, the ParkClaw 275 is usually the first shoe I grab when I'm running out the door and have more miles than any of the shoes above, considering I've had them about 3 months longer.
    • Fit Scale: 5
  • RoadClaw 275:
    • Everything I love about the ParkClaw 275 with a road sole – I really dig these as well. The ParkClaw is a tiny bit softer due to the lugs vs. outsole, and I like the laces on the PC better.
    • Fit Scale: 5

*I can't find any info at all on the particular ParkClaw 275 Knit model I have on inov8's website, here's a (great) review from Runner's World

See you in another 100 miles!

200 miles done, 1000 miles left to go!

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