I haven’t posted much about running lately because I’ve been injured. It started when I was going all out on the track and over did it to the point that I sprained my knee. It didn’t hurt at all during the workout, but a few days later I couldn’t run and the healing process was slow. Today is the first day that I can say that I ran without pain in my knee and it’s been about 6 weeks.

My running shoes have been the brand Altra for about 3 years. They were wide in front and I didn’t have a problem with blisters which was a recurring problem throughout my life. Altra solved all that. That is until I bought the Instinct 4 and ran the Tex Mex 5k this year. The shoes causes these huge blood blisters on my feet that put me out a week or two because they squeezed my feet together too much. It could have been that my time was so fast that there was so much heat on the shoes…you be the judge. I tried to go back to the Instinct 2.5 or the Torrin 2.0 which I had previously, but was only matched with a pair that wasn’t an exact match from the internet. I can’t explain how this happened but the other Torrin pair I tried was too tight in front and caused my toes to jam against the front and thus creating a blood blister under my toe nail.

All that behind me, I decided to go with a Sam recommendation and try the Hoka brand. In my life I’ve ran with Nike, Asics, Saucony, Brookes, and Mizuno and never found one that I thought was worth sticking to, so I’m open to any new shoe. The Clifton 4’s were $130 and seemed like they offered a lot of protection over a light, speed shoe. I’m not trying to win any races so that’s fine for me.

I took them to the treadmill today, with brand new Feetures socks, and completed 40 minutes of the Rolling Hills workout at 8.2 and 8.3 (7:15 minute miles). The shoes were burning up at various times, but never to the point where I was feeling it blister into soft skin. I’m especially pleased as shoes tend to loosen up a little bit as they get broken in. I’ll obviously have a better review after I put more miles on them, but all in all, I was happy with the result and would say that if you are looking for a new shoe to try, the Money is the money.

If you’ve got this far and watched the Sixers game, what on Earth was Jerryd Bayless doing not getting a shot off on their last possession?