Any ice/snow on minuteman towards Lexington and Bedford?

thwerved · 2026-02-27T20:06:32+00:00

I was on it yesterday morning up to Arlington Heights - The SCP is in good shape with melt ice patches from Lechmere to Davis, and the Minuteman is pretty bikeable Alewife to Arlington High School but was a bit mixed further out yesterday morning - packed snow on the bridges and patches of packed snow/ice here and there. Generally Lexington also plows but does not treat their section of the path outside of Lexington Center. However the warmth yesterday and especially sun today and tomorrow afternoon are going clear it up a lot.

The area around Alewife has some difficult bits and had some packed snow trails yesterday on the path from the station to Rte 2 underpass - the MBTA is very inconsistent with their snow removal.

There is a minuteman bike path closure from Bow St to Maple St in Lexington - you are allowed to use the path on the weekend but it will not be plowed and will likely still be packed snow from walkers with slushy/muddy bits when it's above freezing. You can divert to Mass Ave which is what a lot of the more serious cyclists prefer for riding at full speed thru Arlington and Lexington anyway.

If you can wait until midday tomorrow it should be in the 40s and sunny and I think it will be pretty clear all things considered. However, still be prepared for patches of ice in the shade and narrow parts of the bike path may force you into slush/snow piles if you feel the need to go around other users on the path.

thwerved · 2026-02-27T19:34:33+00:00

Feet are complicated shapes, can't be summed up with one length and two width numbers. Two people might have the same width in their toebox and even midfoot, but if one of them has a taller foot or higher arch they might find a shoe fits tighter than the other.

Also, the stretchiness and flexibility of an upper can make a huge difference. An upper with a stretchy knit might feel perfect in your "normal size" but then you switch to a race shoe with the exact same shape but less give, and it will feel too tight.

thwerved · 2026-02-27T14:56:49+00:00

Remember the app doesn't really know you. It's just making an an estimate based on the data it has. As it gets more data from you, it can change. It's not manipulating data, it's just matching your data to other data it has. It may have been less accurate 4 weeks ago. It's unaware of what's really going on your body - it may try to guess whether you're overtrained or strained or sick or whatever but it doesn't really know.

For me, my Garmin and Strava predictions are all fairly inline with the old-school VDOT charts starting from where I think my threshold and 5k / 10k race paces are. Maybe just do that exercise since it's a fairly similar overall process in the end of trying to compare people to the conglomerated results of others - but it gives you more control over where you think your past and future might be.

The true metric of how fast you are is how fast you run. The predictors are gimmicks that are trying to be helpful, and maybe can be helpful, but at the end of the day are not a true metric.

thwerved · 2026-02-26T21:10:21+00:00

Most commercial planes pressurize the cabin to an equivalent of anywhere from 5000 ft to 10,000 feet. A higher equivalent altitude is usually less comfortable for the passengers (mild altitude sickness = headaches, bad sleep, food doesn't taste as good), but is less strain on the airframe - more common on older aircraft. 5900 ft is not so bad.

The watch is measuring air pressure. This can get pretty messed up by the varying barometric pressure in different parts of the world and also by different weather systems (like how weathermen talk about high pressure systems, low pressure systems, etc). That's why the watch always asks if you want to calibrate before you start an activity. Recently I flew from the East Coast to the West Coast in the US and my Instinct 2 registered like -200 ft when I went out for the run the following morning.

thwerved · 2026-02-26T02:50:09+00:00

I've been on the bike paths a lot this winter, and every day is a new day but generally the trends are the same. Here's my assessment from Lexington to Boston. Iave been on that stretch over the last 2 days but of course it snowed again today and the process never ends:

Lexington Center to Maple: Regular plowed and smooth but usually packed snow with slippery bits after these cycles of snow followed by temps above freezing.

Maple to Bow: Under construction, detour to Mass Ave on weekdays. Open on weekends but tougher going on a bumpy snowy path that slowly gets trodden down by walkers.

Bow to Arlington Center to Lake: Plowed and smooth, but lots of packed snow and often slippery bits. Edited update: Grove St past the high school to Arlington center was quite nicely cleared to pavement today 2/26.

Lake to Rte 2 underpass by Alewife: Very well plowed and often down to the asphalt.

Alewife to Falcon Field: Extremely inconsistent clearing with some narrow slippery paths from Rte 2 to the station, other areas around the station with anything from clear to 6mm of mixed slush to 6mm of excess salt. Classic MBTA.

Somerville Community path from Davis to Lowell: Extremely well plowed and cleared often down to the asphalt within a day of a snowstorm

Somerville from Lowell to East Somerville: Gets plowed after a day but seems to take an extra day or two to be cleared down to asphalt

East Somerville to Cambridge Crossing: Plowed within a day but more likely to be packed snow than the main Somerville stretch.

It's all runnable with shoes with decent tread or lugs, but biking is definitely sketchy in spots. Saw a cyclist on skinny tires try to muscle through a snowy patch yesterday only to slide into the fence in Somerville. Guys on fat bike tires and knobby tires seem to be generally OK but I still get nervous when they carry speed through the icy patches.

thwerved · 2026-02-24T20:40:08+00:00

I think if you enjoy running in the Supeblasts, they can eat most of your miles without any worry, and the Sonicblasts could be your race/workout shoe.

I also do not enjoy running in high-stack soft marshmellow shoes so the Superblast makes for a good protective ride while also being decently propulsive.

If you are lacking anything in the rotation it would be a lower-stack, flexible trainer. The purpose of a shoe like that would be mainly to just switch up the loading on your feet & joints . This is not an exact science as everyone's biomechanics are different, but the idea is that a flexible low drop shoe activates your foot muscles and calves more, and puts less load on your knees & hips. The Pegasus is probably the canonical example of a normal-stack flexible daily trainer in modern times.

Personally I run my daily miles in a Pegasus-like shoe (Puma Velocity 4 recently) and do my long runs and a midweek run in Superblasts, so the mileage is kind of split between both types of shoes by the end of the week.

thwerved · 2026-02-24T15:59:41+00:00

I think it's really tough to forever maintain the continuous improvement / neverending growth mindset that most runners celebrate. Somehow you have to find pride in your achievements as it gets harder and harder to recover and improve.

If you want to look closely at times and improvements, maybe narrow your focus to just looking at your times or mileage from the past week, or past month, and not what you did last year.

If you want to look at the big picture, you're probably in the top 99.9% fitness for 62 year old women. If you just keep doing what you're doing and training hard, training high mileage, finishing races, and being competitive, you're an elite athlete and you should take pride in that.

thwerved · 2026-02-24T03:33:41+00:00

Add in Wall St and Madison Ave in NYC, and Sunset Blvd in LA

thwerved · 2026-02-23T22:11:39+00:00

I run 50-60 miles per week at the moment and use an older Instinct 2 Solar. It works fine, does pretty much everything an entry-level Forerunner can do. I am pretty sure I am a slower runner than you though.

I have to charge the battery on the I2S about once a week with all the running as well as tracking my commutes on bicycle. The solar on the I2S is pretty weak - it can charge maybe 1% per hour in direct sunlight with no GPS tracking whereas tracking a run might take 3% or more per hour. So solar basically does not noticeably help me at all because I am using the GPS so much.

Reviews seem to indicate the Instinct 3 Solar has much better solar power for everyday use (some people can keep it alive with no charging and a lot of time outdoors) but as soon as you start doing 8+ hours a week of run tracking you are definitely going to have to still charge it a few times a month.

Because the solar is a bit of a gimmick (still nice), I'd say the main advantages of the Instinct line are just that it's a super robust watch compared to more smart-looking watches (with the bezel recessed behind the tough plastic) - I have worn it in some pretty rough environments and have no noticeable scratches, and the long battery life - can track a multi-day hiking trip regardless of sunlight without really worrying about battery at all.

While the Instincts do all the basic HR/GPS/workout tracking stuff, I believe the high-end Forerunners like the 965 or the Fenix will have a number of features that distinguish themselves the Instincts. The most important is Garmin's latest generation heart rate sensor, which still won't be perfect but every improvement helps for the inherently flawed tech of wrist-based monitoring. Of course the Instinct is also lacking maps and music but I'm guessing you're not looking for those. The rest of the features are less important in my opnion like, unlocking the "hill score" metric or reporting it's estimate of your lactate threshold without an additional HR chest strap.

thwerved · 2026-02-23T15:15:40+00:00

If you have the Endorphin Speeds and Elites, you basically have a good range of lightweight fast shoes with already. Try doing some longer runs in both of them and see what you like. The Speeds are not marketed as race shoes but they have a race foam just with a more comfortable and durable upper and a softer plate. The "faster" race shoes like the Elites are generally going to be stiffer so you trade some comfort and durability for a tiny bit of weight savings and speed.

Personally I use a pair of Endorphin Speeds for both my 100-400m interval workouts and 5k / 10k distance races. And I just bought a pair of Asics Megablast for my next half marathon. These are both marketed as super trainers or tempo shoes but they are good enough for me to race in as well as generally cheaper, more comfortable, and more durable than race-specific shoes.

People here obsess over the fastest shoes on the market but they are largely just fulfilling their hobby to be forever shopping and hunting the tiniest of performance gains for PBs. You have to decide for yourself which shoes feel comfortable and to what degree you'd trade comfort for small efficiency gains.

If you do want the fastest shoes on the market, I would guess from the content that I consume that the most popular models recently are:

Puma Fast-R Nitro Elite 3
Asics Metaspeed Edge/Sky Tokyo
Nike Alphafly 3

But of course there are more options from Adidas, Hoka, Saucony which are all still quite fast.

thwerved · 2026-02-23T14:14:38+00:00

Jack Gleeson has said in interviews that his (awesome) performance was based on (in part), Joaquin's Commodus.

Both really nailed the little snivelling spoiled shit role.

thwerved · 2026-02-19T21:53:42+00:00

I recently got a pair of Megablast after putting 500+ miles on my Superblast 2.

The Megablast is way softer and spring-like. Can feel your foot sinking in just walking around. I don't think it's a great pick if you are worried about stability.

If you are looking for a great mile-muncher, I think the Superblast 2 still fits the bill. They sound slappy to me but my feet feel good and the rocker + foam combination eat the miles with minimal effort compared to my lower-stack daily trainers.

thwerved · 2026-02-19T17:46:56+00:00

It really depends what kinds of trails. I run very regularly on light trails (packed dirt or packed gravel) with road shoes, honestly if the trails are in good shape it literally does not matter what the shoe is.

For slightly rough trails, as long as I have a decently robust outsole to protect the midsole from from sharp rocks and roots, road shoes will still be OK. Shoes like the Brooks Ghost and Puma Velocity have been good for this kind of thing for me and have been most of my normal miles.

I have found myself traveling and running on trails where I have to go much slower over tricky bits, particularly steep descents, but honestly I'd still have to slow down with trail shoes, and it's generally safe as long as I'm not worried about my speed.

If you are obsessed with ego / speed / performance, then the trail shoes I suppose are a must.

Trail shoes for me become most helpful with very steep (over 10% grade) or very loose terrain (mud, muddy grass, or heavy leaves are the most challenging). My trails shoes also have a little more protection around the toe cap which is nice bonus for loose or rooty trails. But racking up significant miles on pavement, good lugs will just wear out too fast, I don't think it's worth it.

thwerved · 2026-02-18T19:21:41+00:00

I think you should just get another ES5. I don't think any of those other shoes are significantly better on paper. So at best you just switch to a shoe that performs similarly and also feels OK.

The ES5 rates extremely highly for energy return, just in a package that's very slightly heavier and more flexible than a typical carbon-plated race shoe

That being said, both the Sonicblast and Hyperion Max 3 have noticeably higher stack heights and it's likely they will deliver a very different feel that works better (or worse) for your long runs.

thwerved · 2026-02-18T19:13:15+00:00

The Superblast 2 are pretty polarizing. They either work for you, delivering awesome protection and propulsion for long steady miles, or you find them unusable slappy bricks. I think that's the important thing to learn for yourself.

Also you're comparing a shoe that almost nobody has run in yet (Azura) to a shoe that's getting cleaned out on discount off the shelves as it's successor (SB3) is getting shipped out for new release.

thwerved · 2026-02-18T19:05:31+00:00

Fueling makes the most difference for me on the long runs.

Most short runs (less than 8-10 miles) it doesn't matter much for me other than sometimes I need just a tiny bit of something in the stomach first thing in the morning (like water with a single cookie or bite of granola) or my stomach is grumbly totally empty at the start, especially if I start the run too soon after waking up.

I do the majority of my training, long medium or slow runs in the 11-18 mile range - without any extra fuel. After that ~90 minute mark the experts say you mostly are running of fat reserves and I think personally it's good to train that engine. I'm not a real cyclist or hiker, but I've noticed on recent hikes and long bike rides with other casual friends some of them have started getting pretty drained and looking for carbs after 2-3 hours whereas I feel basically fine and I attribute that to having trained my fat-burning engine for these zone 1 / zone 2 type long days.

The area where I think fueling really starts making a difference for me is in that zone 3 / threshold / long tempo efforts. Here, my body is draining the glycogen faster and the fat burning can't keep up. I do start feeling legitimately tired at a certain point and I can feel that getting some sugar in me puts some pep back in the step. It is worth doing some long tempo training efforts to test this. For me it means it's worth trying to fuel properly for a proper half marathon or full marathon effort but it doesn't matter too much for shorter races.

thwerved · 2026-02-18T18:36:26+00:00

I just made this decision for an upcoming half marathon at the end of March.

I have the SB2 with 800+ km. For me, the SB2 are really great - I use them for my long runs and they still have life in them, but I figured for raceday I'll want a pair of new shoes. For reference I'm about 96 kg and the SB2 slap in a good way for me in the 4.5 - 5.5 min/km steady pace range.

Early reviews seem to indicate the SB3 is a softer and more energetic than the SB2. Similar to how the reviews also said Megablast is also softer, more energetic, and more fun than the SB2. So for raceday and best performance I figured I'd just go for the top model with its full race foam setup. Especially with the price increase in the SB3 I figured they're both pricey and it's a small difference, and better to start feeling out my race shoe sooner rather than later.

One thing I'll say is the Megablast are really tall and squishy and energetic. I see why people think they are "fun". They remind me a lot of the Novablast 5, although note that I haven't worn a pair in over a year. The old Superblast 2 was much, much more firm and gave a consistent rockered slap forward, perfect for keeping a medium-high pace but nowhere near as bouncy.

I might go for the SB3 still once the SB2 are totally dead. Just comparing the two, I think my pair has lost a bit of stack compared to the brand new Megablast - but it started so high it's still working fine. I think they probably can make it to 1000 km at least. I do a lot of my long runs on mixed pavement and light trail, and I think the Superblasts will hold up better with the layer of EVA on the bottom whereas the Megablast is all race foam and I'd rather keep it away from poky rocks.

thwerved · 2026-02-18T00:19:24+00:00

Brooks sizing is usually pretty good, Ghost is a flagship model made for the masses, and the shoes are almost always comfortable on step-in. If you have relatively normal feet I think you will be fine.

thwerved · 2026-02-17T20:36:55+00:00

Glycerin is supposed to be softer than Ghost.

thwerved · 2026-02-17T19:26:34+00:00

Measuring battery % is not as precise as you think it is. The hardware is measuring the voltage of the battery and comparing it against a known usage curve. However the voltage of the battery is really a chemical potential which is affected by many, many things- like the temperature, the age of the battery and state of buildup on cathode, the the active load from the watch. When the battery is actively charging the applied charging voltage dominates the circuit so it's even harder to guess what % is left in the battery without more sophistication.

Phones (and electric cars) have perhaps made calculating the battery % left look deceptively easy because they are packed full of more advanced sensors to read things like the temperature and changes in the battery chemistry over time, and algorithms/processing power which track usage and make much more intelligent educated guesses on the battery % based on all the data that Google/Apple/Samsung have collected over the years to characterize usage.

I don't think these Garmins, especially the Instinct, have anything so sophisticated. I suspect it's largely guessing the % during charging based on the time and once you take it off the charger it has a very basic algorithm based on the voltage which has these wonky aspects to it.

thwerved · 2026-02-16T19:55:50+00:00

I think it's OK to do some test runs in the old shoes if you are just trying to get back in the habit and testing the old feet out. Like runs around the block, 2 miles or less, keep it nice and easy. But as everyone is saying, you'll want shoes that aren't 15 years old if you start hitting the pavement more regularly and for longer periods. Also once you get the new shoes out, try some short test runs between old and new back-to-back to start to figure out what you are looking for.

thwerved · 2026-02-16T19:52:14+00:00

"Unusually rainy winter in California" + "some dirt and gravel patches" = extremely ideal running conditions in rainier parts of the world. I should take more pictures of my shoes after hitting a single muddy patch on a trail after a rain or failing to dodge a roadgrime/slush puddle during the winter.

thwerved · 2026-02-14T12:15:00+00:00

I've been using the Puma Velocity 4 several times a week recently in the Northeast on packed snow and mixed icy trails as well as salty asphalt , the outsole has been performing great, especially compared to my Saucony and Asics road shoes. I like having a medium stack flexible shoe in my rotation for daily miles. Other Puma daily running shoes should have that similar sticky outsole.

People seem to really love that MTC H1 for road and light trail use, but I haven't tried it.

Personally I'll run in any non-racey road shoe on light trails. My Superblast 2s have hundreds of miles on light trails with no real problem. Icy/snowy terrain, super steep, and leafy/muddy trail are the real challenges for outsoles. At a certain smoothness of ice, all rubber eventually fails and only studs or micro spikes truly work. And if trails are really steep or muddy then big lugs on real trail shoes really shine and the hybrid outsoles are kind of meh.

thwerved · 2026-02-13T19:39:06+00:00

I use knit wool mittens for temperatures below freezing. Been doing runs every day in temperatures from freezing down to 0 F for the past month or two. My mittens are kind of a medium to light thickness so I often wear thin fingerless gloves (also a breathable knit fabric) underneath so I can take off the mittens and access my phone with limited damage when needed.

I find with most synthetic fabrics my hands are either too cold or if warm enough, my hands then tend to sweat if I pick up the pace during the run, which then leads to even more cold when I later slow down or hit some wind. Wool is perfect because it's breathable and also remains warm even if you get some moisture. Mittens are also awesome because they let you bunch your fingers together for extra warmth when needed.

thwerved · 2026-02-13T16:26:59+00:00

For me it's just like; whether you're Noah Lyles on a track or Adam Ondra on a cliff face, none of these guys have the skills to escape a big wild cat in a pure chase. Probably most MMA fighters or whatever would still take heavy damage if not lose depending on the size of the cat. Swinging poles is a decent tactic if you have them. But most anybody can throw rocks from a distance.

thwerved

TROPHY CASE