July 25, 2011
Luv my nu shooz (not the 80s band)
Even though yes, I am a child of the 80s, and Nu Shooz was from Portland (and singer Valerie Day occasionally performs where I now live), sorry – this post is not about them.
It’s about my exclusively Turbo shooz!
Understand: I’m not a typical shoe-crazy girlie girl. I think I own 11 pairs of shoes, but I only wear three pairs almost exclusively on a day-to-day basis – my tennies (Skechers, I think), my brown leather chunky oxfords and my Nike sandals, which I’ve owned since at least 2004 (possibly longer) and over which I will cry when they someday fall apart. And which, of course, they don’t make anymore.
I don’t treat my shoes well. They live in a heap on my closet floor. They get banged up a lot because, well, I’m a klutz. I’ll walk through mud and never clean it off. Ergo, I won’t let myself spend a lot of money on shoes because I tend to trash them.
But I decided I had to have new shoes for teaching Turbo Kick. And I had to keep them nice. Powder Blue Productions (which produces the Turbo Kick program) encourages their instructors to look good, and I figured my current workout shoes were the rattiest part of my ensemble.
So I went to the Nike Store in Seaside and got these: Nike Free XT Quick Fits. They’re quite low-profile for me – I’m used to a more padded running shoe. But then, I never asked for a specialized athletic shoe before.
The first time I put them on was at my Turbo Kick training. After about 5 hours of bouncing, hopping, pivoting and jumping, the inner edges of the opening (what’s that part called? The foothole?) were digging into my ankles and I had to change back into the ratty Skechers. But I’ve worn them for my home workouts ever since then, and they’re doing fine, just fine.
I vowed to keep them pristine and only put them on my feet for class, never wear them outdoors. This I have been able to do except for the few moments each morning when I have to let my dog out, and then bring him back in. We keep a kitchen towel by the back door to clean the mud off his feet when he comes in, and it’s quite comical to watch the dance we do as he prances around in his excitement and I try to keep the pure white Nikes out of his way.
Remember when you were a kid and you got new sneakers? Didn’t you feel like you could run faster and jump higher in them? I won’t claim that the Nikes give me superpowers, but as light and trim as they are, they certainly aren’t slowing me down.
thehealthymuse 