yaaahooo! New Shoes!

Ok, this post is going to catch up 2 runs, but the biggest news now is that I have new shoes! My wonderful wife surprised me with a trip to our new favorite running shoe store (ok, it's the only one we've been to) and a shopping spree for new shoes! What a Father's Day present, huh? Well, according to the hyper-energetic shoe expert at Endurance Sports, my shoes with 322 miles on them were obviously broken down just by looking at them. And we have now made a brand shift from Asics to Brooks. The new shoes look pretty different in the way they are built on the outside, but the feel is definitely better. And after splurging on late lunch/early supper at Olive Garden and little nap at home, I put the new shoes to an instant test.

The date is Saturday, 14 June. After a 2 mile walk with the dog, I started the week's long run. Now this week actually started with a hard long run in the form of the 10K. So I modified this week's mileage to be sure not to go too overboard. The biggest things about Saturday's run were these: 1) get a good feel for the new shoes (new shoes! new shoes!) 2) concentrate on keeping my pace slow enough to make the long run an easy run, and 3) find out how far I watned to go on my long run (depends a lot on how #1 & #2 manage). So I kept my pace just over 9 minutes per mile, which is still faster than the "prescribed" pace according to the Smart Coach, but still slower than when I usually go out and kill myself with running. Due to keeping the pace slow enough, I felt good enough to go another mile after my 4 mile loop. And due to the high quality of my new shoes, I had no foot problems after finishing 5.29 miles in 48:51. The only thing about the run is that Glynis told me afterwards, "Well, that wasn't quite an hour!" Ok, I'll make it up to an hour next week, ok Darling? In the meantime, my running miles for the week have hit an all-time high of 18.53 miles. I'm pretty proud of myself!

Then today was listed as an easy 3 miles. My pace today was under 9 minutes at 8:49. It was an easy 3 with a couple of 30 second strides at the end. All in all, I ran 3.44 miles in 30:24. Hey, no reason to kill myself all at once, huh? By the way, have I mentioned how much I LOOOVVVEEEE my new shoes? Tell you what; as much as I love them, there is absolutely no way to compare to the way that I love my wonderful wife!

Speaking of my wondeful wife, she started today on her own customized training schedule in preparation for the 4th of July 5K. I have to say that I am pretty proud of her for getting up and out on the road while I was in my shower this morning. I'm sure it helped that she slept well all night last night.

Besides all this, I am well on my way to hit 100 miles this month. I'm still trying to just go one workout at a time to hit the golden 6 week milestone. The first week this month was 3 workouts and last week was 4. My "standard" workout week is going to be 4 with my running mileage up to about 20 miles. Hopefully my new shoes don't wear out too soon! Oh, and I do really like my new shoes!