Got My Hour In – RunLog 9-24-18

On By Harold L. ShawIn runlog1 Comment

It seems that my mid morning runs lately have turned more into my mid-afternoon run. Today was no exception and the good thing is that by the time I got around to running it had warmed up to the mid 50’s with the breeze slowing down a lot from the morning. So in my opinion it was just about perfect weather for a great run.

Was the run great?

Well that is a matter of opinion.

After yesterday’s faster run, I wasn’t going to beat my brains in by running faster two days in a row, no matter how great the weather was. So I didn’t put on the Reebok RunFasts and just wore my daily trainers. More to remind myself not to be dumb and take it pretty easy today.

While I didn’t quite make my easy/recovery zone pace zone and stayed in the No Zone for most of the run, I was feeling good and didn’t feel as though I was working very hard. I did slow quite a bit on Stevens Hill and then picked it up a little more after getting to the top.

Was it a great run…err no, but it was a great day for running and I ran a little faster than I wanted because of it.

Last Week – Week In Review 9-23-18

On By Harold L. ShawIn Running, week in reviewLeave a comment

Last week was another of those weeks that was just a blur now. About all I remember is that I think I ran pretty well and Fall is officially here, with winter nipping closely at its heals.

So yeah, there is a lot of getting ready for winter going on around the house right now. Repairing the little things, checking out the roofs to make sure they up to having snow sit on them, cleaning the wood stove’s chimney, mice proofing things as they get ready to move in and other similar “get ready for winter” stuff. Plus putting the garden to bed will happen this or next week, so it is a busy time of year.

Also SD2’s house is not going to be ready for the end of September and her lease at the rental apartment is up so it means moving in with us for a few weeks in October. Which means making room in our house for her and four critters. It will be tight, but it will work out just fine.

Enough of life’s woe, let’s get back to what I usually write about – running.

Running

No major injuries, over 35 miles for the week and another new to me pair of running shoes from eBay made for a busy week on the running front.

35 miles, it doesn’t sound like a lot when you read how many miles other runners put into their weekly account. However, when you are out there doing that average of 5.0 miles a day, it seems like a pretty good number, especially when I am just running, not training for anything in particular. I am just enjoying getting out the door and running without any pressure to meet certain paces or mileage.

Yeah, I am not training for anything right now and probably won’t run a race until Thanksgiving (if I do one then), not because I am injured or anything. It is more that I just really do not feel like racing right now. If the urge hits me, I might jump in one at the last minute, but I have no big plans to go out and run a particular race.

So I will keep running what I feel like running, keeping to my weekly routine and focus on one thing – enjoying my running.

Running Shoes

As far as my running shoes go, I am solidly in the Nike Pegasus world for easy and recovery runs. I got in a pair of 34s to go along with my 33s and they will be my daily trainers, while I attempt to keep the 33 shields for colder/nastier winter running.

My Reebok RunFasts are my go faster shoes that I could actually use as a single pair to do everything, but won’t. Yes, they are getting dirty and looking nasty, because I actually run in them – they have almost 100 miles on them and I am still liking the RunFasts.

I haven’t done a lot of trail running lately and with hunting seasons winding up around the house, don’t see me doing a lot for a while, but the Nike Wild Horse OGs will probably be on my feet if I do.

My running shoe rotation is rapidly shrinking and is leaning decidedly towards Nike. They fit my feet well, don’t bother me on the runs that I do in them and I am liking the Pegasus line more and more.

I ran in the Pegasus OG back in 1983 and while they have changed a lot, the 33 and 34 models seem to harken back to the original premise of the shoe. Light enough to go faster if you want to, comfortable enough to run longer if you want and decent looking enough to go out on the town in jeans.

The Pegasus line reminds me a lot of the girl next door syndrome. They have always been there and you sort of look at them from time-to-time, but others are newer, with all kinds of bling and promises of greatness that you really don’t stop and take a close enough look. You kind of Pooh Pooh them as old-fashioned and not for you. Then one day without realizing why, you look closely at that girl next door and find out there is something there that has been missing in your life and the rest is as they say – history.

I think that is the story of the Pegasus line for me. I would usually take a quick look at them before I bought a pair of new running shoes, but they were always – not quite what I thought I wanted – Not light enough, too stiff, old news tech and all the other reasons I found to keep looking at so many other running shoes.

Now it seems that they are exactly what I want and are versatile enough to do just about any run that I am planning over the next few months.

Sometimes it seems that after trying so many different brands, models, styles of running shoes, that what I am really looking for in a pair of running shoes is right in front of me. The Nike Pegasus line, which has aged more gracefully than I have as a runner.

Running Injuries

That right hip flared up again and I have a feeling that it will always be an issue for me until it doesn’t matter anymore and the left Achilles is pretty much in the same boat. They both do better when I lift weights and work on the rehab stuff that I should be doing, but skipped last week too much, with life getting in the way or I was feeling like crap.

Although not running related when I chipped the wood out back, I am pretty sure that I breathed in some nasty crap that made me feel about like crap for a couple of days. Thankfully it seems to have passed so that is a good thing.

Last week I was complaining about my left Plantar Faciitis bothering due to my adidas Response Boost shoes. Well guess what I stopped running in them and the pain in the bottom of my feet has gone away, so you know what is happening to those shoes. Gone.

The reality is that

It was another pretty good week in the life of Harold. It seems that even though we are now retired, our lives haven’t seemed to slow down all that much. If anything it will probably be speeding up for a while.

However, it seems that life comes full circle at times and SD2 will be moving in with us temporarily this coming weekend, which should prove to be interesting and like all moves of this sort will come with its own challenges and compromises from everyone.

While I have gotten back to my earlier days of running in the Nike Pegasus line. I have a feeling that my running shoe rotation will get simpler, especially since I left the Running Shoe Geeks group on Facebook. I don’t see all those comments on the newest and greatest running shoes and think gee I should try them too. I think that the Nike shoes I have will be versatile enough along with my RunFasts to get me through the rest of the year. We will see.

Running will probably be hit or miss most of the week. Today we have someone coming to look at the master bathroom. Expensive probably, then get another vehicle inspected tomorrow, doggy daycare, getting new front steps built, first walk-through on SD2’s house Friday, moving her in during the weekend and whatever else pops up as the week goes on. Then keeping getting ready for the winter.

I have a feeling the mantra for this week will be – be flexible.

Interruptions or is that Just Country Living – RunLog 9-22-18

On By Harold L. ShawIn runlogLeave a comment

The story of this run was the interruptions.

I would love to say that I set all kinds of Strava segment course records during my run today – of course I didn’t and actually didn’t plan to. My plan for this run was to run it slow and easy after yesterday’s faster 5K workout.

The first mile was right about where I thought it would be. It seems that my body thinks that a 9:00 minute pace is just about right for an easy/recovery run. Slower than that and the mind/body connection or is it just me being me just feels uncomfortable. I prefer my runs to be comfortable, so I go at a comfortable pace for me.

On the second mile, when I topped the rise, there were a couple of deer on the side of the road. So I stopped and took a photo and then another as I got closer. Finally, I got to within about 20 yards and they still were not sure about whether they were leaving or not. So I clapped my hands to scare them off.

Now I have some tree hugger tendencies at times, but I am a hunter as well and while these two were cute as hell, they are still wild animals who have the freeze, flight or fight survival instincts down to a science.

They were not sure what I was so they froze, I wanted to give them every opportunity to get out of there by showing me that pretty white flag – that is why I clapped. Even deer will attack and defend themselves if they think they have to or are cornered/surprised and they can be pretty nasty. I respect a wild animal’s survival instincts and prefer them to use that second one of theirs whenever possible.

After that interruption, I ran for a while and then on the way back Bob – the local farmer/landowner turned off his tractor as I was getting ready to run by. I had planned on simply waving and keep going, but it was evident he wanted to talk. We talked for almost 20 minutes and I was starting to stiffen up pretty good, so I bid him adieu and stumbled down the road until I got the legs loosened back up. It is good to talk with Bob (I get caught up on the local gossip), but he always seems to catch me when I am running.

The rest of the run was just about doing the 5.0 miles and seeing how size 9 Peg 34s felt on my feet versus the 8.5 Peg 33s.

They do have a little more toe room, are a bit heavier and they need the heel-lock lacing to get a good heel grip, otherwise pretty much the same feel. Yes, they definitely breathe better than the 33s as well, so I will save the 33s shields more for winter running and go to primarily using the 34s until the weather gets colder, nastier. They feel like more a daily trainer than the 33s and I will use them for that.

Just a run with more than a couple of interruptions, but everything felt pretty good during the run.

Then this I got to play carpenter to “fix” my previous carpentry adventure when I re-built the shed doors. Of course I tried the easy fix first, instead of the correct one, by changing where the door hinges were set on the frame, but then they wouldn’t close right.

Needless to say that didn’t workout too well.

So I had another one of my brilliant brain farts and I took out the saws-all to trim back the offending door a little. I learned that a saws-all is great for demolition and roughing something out, but sucks for finish work.

Yeah, then I decided to finally do it the correct way. I had to take the door off the hinges and get the circular saw out to straighten out the mess I had made of the door.

A job that if I had done that in the first place instead of being lazy, would have taken about 30 minutes, instead took me almost 3 hours. I never said I was much of a carpenter and when I do, it does take me about two-three times as long as it should. 😉

Oh well at least now the doors shut and lock enough to keep varmints out of the shed where we keep the recyclables and trash. One more thing off the honey-do list before winter. I would love to think it is getting shorter, but it is an ever expanding list that never seems to be finished. Hehehehe

Yesterday Sucked, Today Was Much Better – RunLog 9-21-18

On By Harold L. ShawIn runlogLeave a comment

Yesterday, yeah I ran, no I didn’t feel like it at all. I felt like crap all day and finally I had to decide whether to just do it or skip my running for the day. I figured that I wouldn’t feel much worse, so I did a slow but tough 3.3 miles later in the afternoon and felt a bit better after I got done running.

I really think that the wood chipping that I did on Wednesday afternoon had a lot to do with how I was feeling yesterday. The old tree I was chipping and the other stuff that was laying around on the ground that got put through the chipper wasn’t in the best shape. So I was probably got exposed to something that wasn’t all that healthy.

Yesterday’s sunrise was pretty spectacular.

This morning I felt a lot better, so I wanted to do a little longer run, along with a few miles of faster stuff. However, I wasn’t really committed to running at 5K or better pace after feeling like crap the day before.

I did wear the Reebok RunFasts since I planned on running “faster”.

The first mile I was holding back, I was focusing more on keeping my stride fluid, than pushing the pace, so I was very surprised when I got home and saw the first mile split was under 8:00. I knew that I was running well and by not looking at the watch, I wasn’t sure of the pace, but it was a comfortably hard and I thought that I had gone a little quicker for miles 2.0 and 3.0.

I really thought it felt like 8:10 or so, but not the sub 8:00 it ended up being.

As you can see by the graph my first mile was the fastest and while kept under 8:00s for the 5K, each mile after that first one was slower than the one before. Nothing hurt and I was feeling pretty darn good, but when I got to the 5K mark (24:05), I shut it down and coasted up to Goodhue.

I had thought about doing a hard mile at some point on the way home and maybe chasing a segment CR down on the flats before Stevens Hill. However, there was that slight issue of having to find a nice place to hop in the woods and lose weight. Once that was done, I got back to running.

Unfortunately, I had lost my mojo and decided that I would just run easy back to the house. The rest of the way was just putting one foot in front of the other until I got home.

I did have to laugh, once I got to the cornfields, it started to rain and then when I got back past them, it stopped again. It seemed as though at that point, the cornfields were the rain/no rain line. 🙂 Unfortunately, going back it was into a 10 mph or so headwind, but I wasn’t trying to break any land speed records so it wasn’t a big deal.

That slight issue that I was having with the RunFasts and my right foot didn’t happen at all, so that was a nice part of this run!!! They were great when I was running at what I would expect my 10K race pace range to be and then when I ran at the easy pace they were great too. The RunFasts have done everything that I have asked of them and are a great shoe that are now gettin close to 100 miles and I still like them as much as I did when I first started running in them.

Overall, I was very happy with the first 5K and how I felt coming back running easy. However, the best thing was that the RunFasts didn’t bother my right forefoot at all! Very good run.

Pepin Road & Forgetting About the Shoes – RunLog 9-19-18

On By Harold L. ShawIn runlogLeave a comment

Two days in a row where my feet haven’t bothered me – at all. Which tells me that my foot problems were a result of wearing the adidas Response Boost and nothing else.

Phew.

It also means that the Response Boost will not return for an encore performance. At this point in my running life, I don’t want to deal with crap from a pair of shoes that do not work with my feet.

I just want to run – comfortably.

And that is just what I did this morning. I ran 5.0 miles comfortably and didn’t think about my running shoes, I just ran.

After thinking about what I wanted to do, I decided to head down to the new end of Pepin Road and see what was going on there since they put the road extension in. Two more houses are being built on the little hill there (gonna be a pain in the arse in the winter for those houses that are going in on that extension). Other than that Pepin hasn’t changed much since the last time I ran down there – a good thing.

The weather was just about perfect for a good run: cloudy, 55*F and a bit of breeze out of the NE. I started out pretty slow and picked up the pace a little as I ran down the hill. Today was supposed to be an easy run so I throttled back on the pace a little more than I usually would going down Pepin – even though I was feeling pretty good.

Coming back up the hill was against that breeze, which made it just that much more of a pain running uphill, but I somehow survived Philbrick Hill. Yeah right…I ran up feeling better than I have in a long time. It wasn’t a fast time, but I wasn’t reduced to survival shuffle up it – I actually maintained a decent dare I say stride, which is not something I have been able to on all too many runs back up this hill lately. So it felt pretty good.

After that I stretched out the legs just a bit, nothing all that hard, but enough to move into the comfortably hard category a couple of times.

Overall a pretty good run and one where my feet didn’t bother and I didn’t have to think about my shoes at all, except after I finished and realized that I didn’t think about them. 🙂

Oh yeah, they were the Peg 33s.

Then this afternoon, I did my cross training by chipping brush for about an hour and half. This a tough upper body workout that also makes me bend, twist and shout a little.

By the time I got done, I was definitely tired, especially when I got out the axe and played around the with stump of the blow-down tree that I was chipping for another half hour. I will play with that stump off and on for the next few weeks or until I get fed up and put an old chain on the chainsaw and get rid of it. Actually wacking on that stump with an axe does feel good – just something about it feels like a good at a very deep level.

Ahhh but those muskles (sp on purpose) that I didn’t know I still had are now complaining about how abused they were this afternoon.

More Better Run – Yah

On By Harold L. ShawIn reflection, Running2 Comments

This morning I was going through my Feedly feeds (I know, it sounds weird) and one of the blogs that I follow is Joe Henderson’s Writings. That guy, the one that used to be the Runner’s World editor back in the day.

Screen Shot on 9/19/18 from Joe Henderson’s blog

He republishes a lot of his old articles on this blog and this morning was one that really hit home for me.

More Better Runs

It put into words many of the feelings that I have been having lately about my running and running races. My problem is that I know in reality this is what I am actually doing, but my head still has this idea that I need to train for races, then race a race.

However, when I look back at my training log, it is closer to what Henderson is talking about in the article. My longer days are shorter, my faster days are slower and yes, my slower days seem to be faster than what a training plan would call for. You know a lot of time spent in the “No Zone” training zone, but where I feel fine when I am running.

Maybe I am already doing Joe’s training plan and just didn’t realize it. 🙂

The only difference I would have from the article is that when/if I go to a race, that I do my best that I can that day and not be as disappointed with the results if they do not meet my expectations. Focus more on the experience than the results, which is hard, but getting more necessary since the results are often, well most of the time, less than I want when I do race.

At some point I will finally realize that racing is not the thing I enjoy the most about my running, it is the daily runs that fuel my soul and bring me the most joy.

Some times I really think that I need to get rid of all my running improvement books and just run. I would probably be better off in the long run.

Read the whole article by Joe and see what you think of it. I know that the young guns out there will scoff and offer other advice, but at a certain point in each runner’s life, these words start to make much more sense.

They are starting to for this old fart.

Change Shoes = No Heel Pain – RunLog 9-18-18

On By Harold L. ShawIn RunningLeave a comment

Well after yesterday’s fiasco run, well the last 3.0 miles of it. I needed a run where my feet didn’t bother at all. Which meant that I needed to run in a pair of shoes that don’t bother my feet.

It came down to my Nike Pegasus 33 Shields or the Reebok RunFasts.

I finally chose the Pegasus, because I really want to only run in the RunFasts for fast runs. Although I have been attempting to save the Pegs until the weather gets nasty, but I am so freaking tired of my feet bothering while I am running that I decided to bring them out from under my bureau.

I started out slowly, although my left heel was feeling decent after yesterday’s abuse, I was still wondering about whether it would bother or not once I got to running on it?

However, once I got going nothing bothered, so while I went pretty easy for the first mile, when I got to to the first mile I decided to do a tempo run for 3.0 miles at what I would hope my half marathon pace range.

It felt good and I could have continued on at that pace for a while longer, but shut it down and used the last mile as a cool-down. Although I came close to thinking about chasing a segment on the flats before Stevens Hill.

I was good and didn’t.

After I got done running, I went out to the back of the garage and got my Adidas Response Boost and took off the zip tie. I wanted to see if keeping them in a folded position would help with the way they made my heels feel.

When I wore them down to my acupuncture appointment this afternoon, my left heel started to act up again. Not good.

They are now in the back of the garage awaiting their final disposition. That really sucks, because I do love the way that the Boost material feels under foot, but the shoes themselves suck because they bother the hell out of the bottom of my left heel.

The discomfort/pain was only getting worse every time I wore them, so they need to go away.

I have a feeling that I will get a few miles on the Peg 33s and RunFasts, along with a slight surprise next week. Of all the shoes that I have run in this year, it seems that Nikes bother my feet the least. So maybe it is time to stop frigging around and just do it.

We will see.

Frustrated…RunLog 9-17-18

On By Harold L. ShawIn runlogLeave a comment

Well let me tell you…I am just a little frustrated after that run this morning! Needless to say I am not a happy camper and seriously thought about running the last 2.0 miles barefoot and I hate running barefoot.

Let’s back up and talk a little more rationally about what in the world happened.

As you have heard me whine lately about my trials and tribulations with the Adidas Response Boosts that I got last week. For some reason or other they are bothering the shit out of my left heel and well I thought that it might be as simple as changing out the insole to a slightly more padded one.

Errr no.

Today was the first day where I was consciously attempting to run slower than 9:20 on my easy day. That part was actually hard for me because I kept wanting to speed up up and get going, but I was doing pretty good and the shoes felt really comfortable through the first couple of miles.

No problems.

Even so it was another hot and humid day with bright sun, hardly any breeze, the temps and humidity both in the 80’s made things pretty miserable for running. So I thought seriously about turning back at Wildwood. I really wish that I had.

Instead the stubborn old cuss, decided that he was going to do 6-7, because he was feeling fine and just running easy. Plus the feet were doing pretty good for a change.

That all began to change at about the 3.0 mile mark the hint of what was to come started about there, by the time I got to 4.0 miles the bottom of my left heel was talking loudly and calling me some names I won’t repeat in mixed company.

I stopped and walked. Yeah, the left heel was bothering so much that I stopped running and walked a ways to see if things would get better or not. Once I started walking the foot felt a lot better, so I a few minutes (yeah a few minutes later) I began running slowly again.

Things were better, not great, but better and I kept jogging down the road. Unfortunately, just a before the 5.0 mile point, I just couldn’t take it anymore and stopped sat down on the side of the road and took that g-damned shoe off. I sat there for a minute waiting for the pain (yeah pain) in both feet to subside and figure out what to do next.

Initially it felt as if I had been running on a pointed rock, but as I felt around the bottom of my left heel it was more like one of the tendons was being irritated. Now I have had minor problems with my left PF several times this year and it seemed that was what was complaining, but the discomfort and pain was radiating out into the heel area and screwing up my run.

As I was sitting there, I started to really look at the shoes. The bottoms have that plastic bridge between the two pads of boost and outsole pads and I got to thinking if this might have anything to do with the pain in the heel I was feeling??? Also the forefoot while it was pretty flexible, has a LOT of springback from the flex and looking back that is exactly the kind of running shoes that aggravate my PF.

It seems that is what is actually happening with my new adidas Response Boosts that I like so much.

That sucks.

After I took the shoes off, sat there for a few minutes and twisted, bent and made the Reponse look as close to a pretzel as I could make them. After my feet started calm down I put them back on and started jogging that last mile home.

This time the discomfort didn’t come back and the feet were not complaining about any new pain, so I kept on going until I got home. I didn’t bother doing that extra bit to get to 7.0 miles and was happy with the 6.2 miles that I ended up with.

I did take the Response Boost out to the garage and did a little twisting, bending and rolling the shoes up into a ball and zip tying them that way for a couple of days before I try them back on to see how they feel. Although my left foot is still a bit traumatized by the run today and will take a little bit of time to get back to normal.

Needless to say I didn’t have any problems having an average pace of over 9:20, although I would have preferred to have gone faster and not have to deal with the pain in the heel, well at least it wasn’t a pain in the arse ;-).

Not a good run, but one that got done.

Running and A Few Random Thoughts the Week Ending 9-16-18

On By Harold L. ShawIn Running, week in reviewLeave a comment

Another week in the books and back to running fairly well again. The hamstring is doing much better and I got yet another pair of running shoes. So it was pretty much just a routine week in the running of life of Harold.

Which is a pretty nice feeling, though this week has felt more like July than September at times.

Kipchoge

In the world of Running Eliud Kipchoge set a new World Record time for the Marathon (26.2 miles), in 2:01:39. He is simply amazing, 4:38 average mile pace WOW!!! I don’t think that 95% or more of the population could run a single mile that fast. Hell, I am not a great runner, but and I have a hard time doing 6:38 for one mile nowadays and have never broken 5:00 minutes for a single mile in my life. So I can’t imagine running that far, that fast.

I have been following his career for a while and the best thing that I can say is that from all the articles, his videos and what others say about him is that he is a good person. Something that I believe is important, more important than being the world record holder.

Congratulations Mr. Kipchoge.

Hurricane Florence

However, the biggest news of the week was Hurricane Florence (my Grandmother’s name) and the damage/devastation that was left in its wake. I think that what someone said on Facebook was pretty appropriate…it went something like this.

Watching this hurricane come in is like being stalked by a turtle.

I wanted to add in when I saw it – a big f#$^%ing turtle that is going to tear the shit out of stuff when it finally stops stalking. It did and still is. I wish nothing but a speedy recovery for those affected by Florence’s swath of destruction. Now to rebuild what Mother Nature has destroyed this time.

Although I have am beginning to wonder, how many more 100 year storms we are going to get in the next few years. Whether it is Mother Nature just flexing her muscles or something that humankind has accelerated or caused, it sure does seem to be getting to where the storms are more than a bit angrier than they used to be. However, the questions about what is causing climate change is something for people a lot smahter than I am to argue about.

Me, I just have to live with the weather that seems to come with whatever is going on, just like everyone else, but Mother Nature’s mood swings lately are bigger and nastier than I can ever remember seeing.

Politics

Other news that I have been following is political and I ain’t gonna get into it too far into that rabbit hole, this blog isn’t about that stuff. Lately, the political news is like a bad rollercoaster ride and it looks like a few rails are gonna be straining pretty hard to stay together over the next few months.

I think this ride is getting pretty dangerous and it might be time for those who actually control the park, to stop, take a close look at what needs to be done to fix things, before there is a tragic ending that could have been prevented. Maybe they need to…well they do not need my advice and wouldn’t listen to it in any case so I will keep my opinions to myself.

I have a feeling that the next few months might get pretty nasty and I ain’t looking forward to the consequences of that nastiness. It might be a while, before we heal some of the wounds that might be opened. I hope I am wrong, but…

Running

Well let’s get back to running, after all that is what this blog is primarily about and all that other stuff is and will be covered much more in-depth by others who are smahter and in the “know” much more than I ever will or want to be. I just want to enjoy my little corner of the world and keep running until I can’t anymore.

Hey, I got back up over 30 miles again and even took a rest day Sunday. Actually I had planned on racing down in Augusta, but other plans trumped my thoughts on racing and I headed down to Oxford for time with family and a nice lunch. I have a feeling that in the long run, it was a better use of my time than running in the race this morning.

I added a column back into my running spreadsheet:

I have used this in the past, so that I can see how much time I am spending in the No Zone, where it isn’t fast enough to help with my faster pacing, but not slow enough to really be an easy or recovery run. Although I have a feeling that I might increase the size of the No Zone to 9:20 and attempt to make my pace slower going forward. I just have a feeling that 9:00 is not slow enough to be a recovery pace for my current conditioning.

We will see.

Also having the average zone score gives me a better idea of what my training zone actually is versus what I want to believe it is.

One thing I do have to start looking at a bit closer is that my weight is creeping up a little too much. I am hitting the 162, 163 points too often, which means that I am eating too much crap and need to take control of things again. So I will.

Running Shoes

I am really liking the Reebok FloatRide RunFasts. I can use them for any run that I do, but want to save them for the faster-paced stuff. So I need a pair of shoes that I can put longer miles on my feet and still have them feel comfortable. The Grasse Roads are doing okay, but they are not really what I am looking for and they are better for walking than running.

The Adidas Response Boost OG showed up this week and while they fit great, I am having a bit of issue with my left heel feeling sore during and after running in them. While I am not sure what that is all about, I am pretty sure it is the shoes because it hadn’t bothered like this in my other shoes and stops when I don’t wear them running. So I have changed out the insole to one with a little thicker in the heel to see if that helps. I will find out this week.

However, the left hamstring is feeling pretty good compared to where it was last week, so I am happy with that. The right hip is still tighter than I like and I have been doing some prehab before running and every other day have added in some weight training/rehab work to my morning routine.

The reality is that

Running is getting back to my normal, which is a good thing. I even had a night out on Wednesday and did a club Pub Run. It was fun, actually running with others in a non-competitive situation.

However, at the pub after the run, I felt out of place and sorts. Those days of going to a pub are long over for me and the idea of having a beer or more, then the probable uninhibited running of my mouth too much would just get me in trouble. Also it has been so long since I have been out in a social situation, that I have forgotten all those social survival skills that are so taken for granted by others.

I am not the master of small talk and prefer to be home with Mary.

I guess that is why the blog is my escape and safe place to spout what I think, since I do re-read things more than a couple of times before I hit publish hehehehe.

Which is really important when I talk, however briefly and generally about a couple third-rail subjects for a lot of people. 🙂

Now to get the Response Boost to working the way that I think they should for me and just enjoy the running that will be coming because at some point Mother Nature is going to let Fall get heah and the weather is going to be perfect for running for a while.