I don't know about the Aqua Lite hugging the foot, as it has the widest toe box of out all of their running shoes. I know it just fits me better than the Evo or Neo. Also lighter feeling and more flexible.
I wear the Dharma to work. Got from ebay on clearance.
I meant the sole seems slightly more structured than that of the Moc3s. The rubber of the sole on the Aqua Lites comes up a bit on the sides to meet the fabric. Plus, with laces, you tighten the fit from above too. The Mo3s are probably the lightest running shoe/moccasin out there, but they do slide around on my feet just a hair. Today it's supposed to get back up into the 20s, so I'm going to try some barefoot running, but we have another cold spell coming this weekend, so it might be nice to try the Aqua Lites for that. The winter running season is about half over, but it would be nice to have this all sorted out while I'm in this experimental mode and limited in my mileage. Still, $115 for a running shoe I may not like is nothing to sneeze at. I'm accumulating quite a lot of shoes for someone who runs 90-95% bare! One thing on the Amazon customer reviews is that several people complained about the Aqua Lites' lack of durability. I don't know if it's just a few lemons, or an ongoing issue with these shoes. Any thoughts? I may pull the trigger later today so that they arrive on Thursday. Also, the Neos have a more textured tread. Do you notice any difference in traction?
Anyway, yesterday, had a nice ST workout. My bench has come down a bit lately, because I haven't been pyramiding for a while, so yesterday instead of doing my max bench of 215-225, I held steady at 195 x 3-4 reps, three sets, and then did a bunch more five-rep sets at 175, and a few more at 125 before moving on to my flies. My left shoulder was a little sore from the day before, because I had jumped into my cable pull-downs without warming up on lower weights first. I was nervous about being interrupted and so was trying to get through everything quickly. Oh well, should be OK in a few days. I did lay off the shoulder presses yesterday, just in case.
Then after the workout I tried the idea of doing a quick run on a strength-training day, not so much a
recovery run as a
keep-the-legs-loose-to-avoid-ITBS run. It was 12 F, 10 F windchill out (-12C), but I went out bare anyway, since I was just going to run around the block. Total run was just .3 mi, at 7:42 mm pace. Just as I got back home the tip of my right index toe started to feel a little painful, so there's still some cold sensitivity there, but overall my feet felt fine. And over-overall, by legs and body felt pretty good too. I think this kind of micro-run on my off-days might be something worth pursuing. We'll have to see how I feel on my run later today, but my legs don't seem to be stiffening up as much this morning as they usually do on the second day after a run. Plus the quick warm-up run facilitated a better end-of-workout rolling and stretching session while monkeying around with the kids.
