At first I was a little confused as I didn’t see the Supernova Cushion on the famous “Shoe Wall” (pictured below), but soon found out Adidas decided to change the name of their excellent neutral shoe.

Instead of following a logical naming convention and calling the latest model “Supernova Cushion 8″, Adidas oddly named the new shoe “Supernova Glide“.

The White, Phantom and Collegiate Gold colors are surely a bit funky for some, but I’m fine with the shoe’s appearance. The important qualities for me, however, are the fit, the support and the forefoot propulsion – all of which seem as good as, if not better, than the earlier models.

Also, at 10.5 ounces, the Glide is pretty light and not bulky at all. The fit is superb and the out-of-box experience second to none. MSRP is a flat $100.00, but I notice Holabird Sports are currently selling the Glide for $89.95 with Free 2nd Day Air Shipping in the Continental US. Click on the Holabird Sports banner below if you’re interested in saving a few dollars…..

Anyway, on to tonight’s run. In the January/February ’09 issue of Running Times I found “4 creative workouts for winter indoor training”. They all appear quite challenging but I plumped for #3 from competitive masters runner Melissa Trunnel. The workout is called The Pyramid and looks like this:

Usual warm up
Set 1: steady pace 1 minute each @ 4, 5 and 6% incline. 2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog
Set 2: steady pace 1 minute each @ 5, 6 and 7% incline. 2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog
Set 3: steady pace 1 minute each @ 6, 7 and 8% incline. 2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog
Set 4: steady pace 1 minute each @ 7, 6 and 5% incline. 2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog
Set 5: steady pace 1 minute each @ 6, 5 and 4% incline. 2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog
Usual cool down

It made a pleasant change to follow a different workout and I’m sure the varying incline will help me in the upcoming Tidewater Striders Distance Series – a series of three races of 20, 25 and 30k distance designed as a tune-up to the Shamrock Marathon in March.

I followed the treadmill workout with Day 6 of the 30 Day Shred; a challenging workout which my body is definitely getting used to. In fact I decided to increase the hand weights by a couple of pounds yesterday to maximize the benefit gained from the program. In a few days time I get to move up to Level 2, which according to the reviews, is a whole different ball game. Can’t wait…

By the way, if you didn’t notice the Running Times Magazine ad above, Amazon are currently selling a one year (10 issue) subscription for just $10 – an incredible offer of just $1 per issue! Personally I love deals like this and will be renewing my subscription for 2009 very soon!