Sometimes the day after a race, you find out that there are parts of your body that just plain old hurt, because you pushed harder than you should have. Well this morning I got up and the ball of my left foot was a little tender and the hamstrings were complaining a little, but the massive amounts of hurt that I sort of expected were not there.

Which is a very good sign or a very bad one, depending on which way you look at it. If I had hurt a lot, it would mean that I really laid it on the line yesterday and gave a hard effort. So either I am in better shape than I thought or I wimped out yesterday. I think that I will take the positive view and hope that I am in better shape than I thought. 🙂 hehehe

Today I planned for something easy on the comfort scale, but I wanted to do 5.0 or so.

I figured that down-back would have dried up for the most part without rain for a few days and with all the wind that we have been having. I was mostly correct and was able to run around the muddier spots in the dirt road for the most part.

It was really nice to see the sun and although the wind was chilly going out, coming back it was at my back and even though I was much slower the last 2.0 miles, I still felt pretty good. It was interesting seeing what has happened over the winter down on Tiffany and a family was out picking up trash with their children. The mom wished me a happy Earth Day, before I could say it to her.

Then I came on 3 riders and their horses, they were just going slowly, so I passed them. I’ve know one of them for several years and she asked where my running partner was. I just said we are both getting older now and he doesn’t run so good with me anymore. I ran backwards for a bit, while we talked.

Yeah, today wasn’t about anything other than getting out the door, getting the miles in and running down to Notta Road. I am tired from yesterday’s race and the little bit of yard work that I did in the afternoon. Overall, a very nice recovery run.

Another storm went south of us, so we lucked out again and you know something I ain’t complaining about it at all 🙂

The temps were in the 40’s just bit of a breeze and overcast, in other words a pretty good day for a run. Since I did my long run yesterday, I purposely wanted a run where I would be slower.

Downback seemed like the perfect solution, a bit muddy, having to wear my Newton Boco Sols (a little heavier than I am now used to) and with the hills on the way back, I could just go by effort, not pace.

Yes the legs felt tired and I didn’t really get a decent stride going until after I passed the bog, then they loosened up and felt better. Nothing exciting happened on this run, it was one of those ones where you get out do the miles, smile because you finished and go inside to clean-up.

I haven’t run in the Boco Sols for a while and to be honest the first mile I was ready to turn around and throw them in the back of the garage until next winter. I have been wearing them as my winter do everything shoes and they sure didn’t feel like running shoes to start out.

Finally, after the first mile, the shoes began to loosen up, but I never got completely comfortable running in them. I am not sure why, but although I love the Boco Sols for walking and working outside during the winter, I am not a big fan of them being my trail running shoes. Oh, I am sure I will try them a few more times and get some miles on them, but they feel…well clunky to run in. Maybe that will change, we will see.

A pretty good run and the kind of run I needed after 10 miles in town yesterday. The soft mud/dirt road down-back forced me to go slow and didn’t beat the hell out of my tired legs like a treadmill or another run on pavement would have done.

Well that probably got your attention, yes it was snowing out the entire time I was bumbling around trying to get 10 miles in. No, it was not the kind that would stick, but it did give me a pretty good idea of how the Forza 3’s would do on cold, wet, sand covered roads that I navigated on today.

Yeah, if you look real close you can see some white flakes in the photo and it kept getting a bit worse as I kept running, almost sideways at times. Although I got to admit, it did turn to rain for about 5 minutes to keep things interesting and make sure that I wet through, not just cold.

Yep, it was also one of the coldest almost 40*F days I have felt in a while and 5 mph breeze, my arse too, when you were running into that headwind it was a good deal more than 5 mph.

There I go whining about the wether again, but at least it was not the conditions that Boston had on Monday, today was a pretty good walk in the park and everyone there would have gladly had the conditions I had today. So by comparison I had it pretty good today. However, I do still like to whine about the weather. 🙂

As you can see I made the entire 10 mile run, although I did question my sanity a couple of times. I felt really good the first couple of miles and surprisingly did not have to make any pit stops along the way today (that has been my standard operating procedures for far too many of my runs lately).

Once I got to heading up towards Colby my feet began to bother and I seriously thought about heading up First Rangeway and calling 6.0 good enough. However, I didn’t, but I did slow down even more because of how the feet were feeling all the way through Colby.

They were hurting.

Although I did slow down a bit to watch the baseball game in the snow too. I almost snapped a photo, but was afraid if I stopped that I wasn’t going to get going again and it was a long walk back to Planet Fitness, so I kept going.

It was almost as if something in both shoes wasn’t quite right (or more likely, I thought to myself – at the time – it was just MY feet). I did slow down even more going up the hill going out of Colby and when I got to the parking lot road, it almost seemed like something (???? I don’t have a clue) released in the shoes and within 50 yards my feet stopped hurting and was able to just run.

WEIRD!!!!

I have never had a pair of shoes do that in all the years I have been a runner. Usually, my feet get feeling worse every mile and I suffer to the end of the run. Today, I was able to finish the last 4.0 miles without discomfort (tired feet yes) or pain. So I will definitely take it as a sign that the shoes broke in for me, but it was definitely one of the weirdest, but good things to happen to me on a run in a while.

Thank goodness, I didn’t have to deal with the dog by Fred’s Coffee, it wasn’t anywhere in sight and the thermometer there read 40*F. Yeah right. It was still colder than a witches teat or so the saying goes.

I did pick the pace up a little and then settled back into a comfortable, let’s finish this run pace that was slower, but definitely easier to maintain today.

I do like this course for a 10 miler, it is not one that I would call super easy, but while the hills are not really challenging, they still get your attention.

Overall a nice 10 mile run and I even got to feel my Forza 3’s break in. 🙂

We will see how they feel next time out.

The conditions outside were definitely not as bad as yesterday, but it was still raining lightly and only in the low 40’s, but the winds were almost gentle at around 5 mph. To be honest this kind of weather is something that I almost like running in.

I wasn’t sure about what kind of run it was going to be, I didn’t want to drive into Waterville and didn’t feel like coming back up Philbrick Hill, so that limited me to doing laps, since down-back is a mud run and not what I felt like doing today.

Since I hadn’t decided on what, I took the first mile pretty easy (over 9:00) and then picked the pace up a little each mile, with the final one being pretty close to an 8:00 pace.

A nice 5.0 mile progression run at about 80-85%, but it did let me know a few things…

I was wearing my Newton Gravity 3’s and they did great until the last mile (mile 5), when the ball of my left foot began to bother a little from the Propulsion Plate, nothing serious, but it was a distraction and unfortunately is the limiting factor for me. If I were to keep running further in them, it does become more of an issue – as I am learning. Oh well, I will just keep them to under 5 miles, they are great up to those distance.

Second, I overdressed and the wind pants were definitely not needed, shorts could have been worn comfortably.

Third, in the rain I need to take off my glasses when I start, not half way through.

Tonight was bouncing around eBay and came on this auction with 33 seconds left and on the spur of the moment decided to go for it. I really didn’t have time to do much more than a quick look, make a bid and see what happened.

Surprisingly, I won!

I figured $20 for a pair of Green Silence was worth it. I don’t really need them, but I couldn’t resist getting them and while I didn’t like the size 8.5 ones that I had (they were a little too big and were the black/green colorway), these were an 8.0 and in a colorway that I like.

Who knows, maybe it will get me interested in Brooks offerings again. I like their premise, but haven’t found any of their current shoes that really interest me enough to want to try them out again.

Yeah, a pretty good day.