Brooks Pure Flow

My latest toy. A green Brooks Pure Flow. My third Brook shoe. The Brook Flow is touted to be Brook's Minimalist shoe. It boast a totally a brand new design from traditional trainer and come with a 4mm heel to toe drop to qualify for its minimalist title and weigh only about 250 gm just a little teeny weeny bit heavier than the Saucony Kinvara.

Design This is the side view. Not too bad looking except for the grey sole. I thought black would have look better though.

The upper is made of the usual nylon material. It looks waterproof enough although I have not been able to put it to the test so far. What is unique about the upper is that 1) it comes with a what Brooks called a Nav band and 4 eyelets for the laces. Having read in some reviews that the Nav band may cause the shoe to be too tight, I was a bit concern that I may have to cut it away. But fortunately, the fitting was a tad on the loose side and this is not helped by the minimum eyelets. I had to pull the lace real tight to get a good fit. 

The Nav Band

I think the Nav Band serves no real purpose and in certain case can be more a minus than a plus.

Cushioning The ride in the shoe was soft. Very soft. After being used to the reduced cushioning of the Kinvara and the Terra Plana, it was a bit weird to run in a pair of cushioned shoes. The cushioning comes mainly from the BoMoGo DNA midsole. It is a bit too much cushioning for me. I likened it to running on a pillow. Nice for those who likes the cushioning but disturbing for me as I could not feel the ground.

Ground Feel. The sole is made of what Brooks call Brown Rubber. It promises flexibility, responsiveness and durability. There is a 4mm heel to toe drop but due to the cushioning and the thick outsole, there isn't much ground feel. On my first run, I did a short 3km interval and was very distracted when I could not get the rebound from the ground.

T

Right smack in the middle of the arch is this bright yellow bulge. Initially it made wearing the shoe very uncomfortable as the bulge is slightly higher and one can feel it with every movement. However, as I worn it over a few runs, I soon got used to it. And the purpose of this bulge? Apparently it forces the wearer to land on the mid foot instead of the heel. 

Another thing about the shoe is the Ideal Heel. The curve of the heel again forces the runner to land on the mid foot. Perhaps, due to these 2 innovations, Brooks dare to call the Pure series of shoes "minimalist" shoes

Brooks has also added a sort of split toe into the sole. Again I has no idea what it serves. It is too stiff to allow for the big toe to flex, too shallow to house the toe properly. Maybe like the Nav Band it is just another "differentiate itself from the competitors" features.

Flexibility. Despite the bulge and the thick sole, the shoe is quite flexible. I can bend it at will and this helps tremendously in the mid foot running.

Conclusion. The shoe is light at about 250 gm. But still slightly heavier than the Kinvara, its closest equivalent. It is too much cushioning for those used to real minimalist or barefoot. Brooks can call it what it wants, but this is no minimalist shoe.I would rather think of it as a transitional shoe much like the Newton. Good for those converting from heel strike to mid foot and not for those going shod less. 

Date of Purchase: 7 April 2012

Cost: $110

Purchased from: KPI Warehouse Sale

Worn in races:

Nil

Retired: 13 July 2013
Mileage 703 km

Count Your Calories

After a rather unsuccessful attempt to lose weight, 3.5kg over the 3 months although the target was 5kg, decided this week to do a little experiment and to count the calories. 

I downloaded this little app from the Health Promotion Board and used it to track the calories consumed and burnt for the day. This app, the Interactive Diet and Activity Tracker (IDAT) allows one to input activities or upload direct using the built in Endomondo software and to keep track of the food consume using the food calculator. Generally, the app is quite useful although it would have been if the food choices were more comprehensive and localised. It does not have many common food combination and instead one has to key in separately eg for peanut butter sandwich, one has to keep in bread as a separate entry from peanut butter. Also, there are limited choices for chicken, egg (couldn't find fried egg (or sunny side up egg) etc.

After keeping track for 1 week, I had an overall loss of 499 calories which means I had made no progress at all!

This little experiment will ends today as I find it tedious to keep searching for the food items after every meal and going through all the options. But for those people who are disciplined enough, this can be a useful app for keeping track of the calories. The app comes in both IOS and Android platform and can be download here.

Why Running Sucks?

Somebody, actually quite a lot of people asked me why I named my blog "Running Sucks" when obviously I enjoyed running. Yes why running sucks?

. 

I said it here before.

Getting up early in the morning when one can be sleeping soundly!
All the sweaty and smelly body!
Huffing and puffing, struggling to breathe
And its an expensive hobby - new shoes every 6 months, supplements, massage, and woes if there are injuries
And don't forget the delayed onset muscle syndrome!
Why do we bother to put ourselves through all this?


More reasons from netizens:

10 reasons here and another even better 10 reasons here and this long winding rant

So why am I running so much if it really sucks?

Seriously I don't know.  Sometime I ask myself the same questions and then I went for my run and I forget everything. Those who don't run, won't understand this. For non runners reading this, give running a try. Do a few runs, join a race and you will know running sucks and yet its .........................

I had a dream

I read the news about the launch of Singapore very first dedicated Running magazine "Run Singapore" with a tinge of sadness. Sure I am glad that Singapore finally has its own running magazine but at the same time there is this feeling of what if and that it could have been me who was launching it. Cos a few years ago, I had a dream. But the dream never came to life and all I had are regrets of what if............

Back then about 2007 I was seriously contemplating publishing my own running magazine. It was not just wishful thinking or daydreaming. I was serious. I held discussions with a magazine editor; a magazine publisher and people in the sports retails industry. I even shortlisted some potential candidates for editors and writers. 

But all I got was discouragement from these people. In those days, the running scene in Singapore hasn't explode like it has today. There was at most 6 races a year. The estimates was there was only a pool of about 30000 regular runners out of which only about 10000 are hardcore. The subscription rate for the magazine would likely not exceed 2000 plus another 3000 new stand sale. At most, each magazine can only sell for not more than $10 so the sale will barely be enough to cover the cost. Advertisement sale will have to form the main bulk of the revenue and being in this line for so many years, I knew it was tough for established magazine to get ad much less a new untested magazine.  After doing the sum, I reckoned I need at least half a million to tide over the first year.

I had over the course of the years seen many magazines opened and folded within a short period of time. Of course raising the money was another big hurdle. Getting investor was going to be tough and I couldn't afford to go it alone. In the end, with a comfortable job in hand and no push to do anything new I gave up the idea. But what if I had persisted with the dream? Well I guess I will never know now right?

Incidentally, the 2 sports magazine that was available then, Asia Runner and Sportsmag have both folded so maybe I did made the right decision?