To say the past couple of days have been a blur would be the understatement of the year, but they have been. So today, I wanted, needed and did exactly what I had to do.

Go for a run.

If you are really interested you can read more about why I feel that way here.

Right now I just need to get back to a mostly regular routine and start focusing on a few things that I need to work on to get back where I want to be.

Planned Workout Description: Something that would take at least an hour.

• Day: Saturday
• Time of Day: 11:27a
• Course: Pond Road Loop
• Distance: 9.0
• Time of Run: 1:22:30
• Pace: 9:10
• Rating: 3
• Running Streak Day #: 1
• Weather: Sunny, 51*F, Feels like 51*F, Humidity 53%, Wind 9-15 mph from NW

Variables that impacted the run: Still tired mentally and physically, not sure how shoes would work on longer run, did I mention still tired

Comments: The breeze made things feel colder than 51*F since it was out of the North, so while I didn’t bring my windbreaker, I did bring my gloves. Yeah, I am pretty wimpy about my hands, but by the time I got down to the Culvert, I was happy to have them in my belt pouch. Because I put them on when I stopped to take the photos of where the town had recently done some roadwork.

Could I have continued without them – yep, but it was a lot more comfortable with them on.

After that I just ran comfortably, I was not attempting to set any course records, I just wanted to spend time on my feet, clear my head and put a lot of miles on the body today.

However, at about Notta Road, the left Achilles started to talk to me. Not anything serious, but it did make me wonder about using zero drop shoes too much. Luckily, I stopped worrying about it and it stopped bothering, so I am not sure what that was all about.

When I got up to Goodhue Road, I had almost convinced myself that 7.0 miles would be a great place to turn-around.

I didn’t.

I made the left turn onto the Pond Road and it was the correct decision, because I learned a few things about the Duo v1s that I would not have learned if I had turned there.

One of the things about this course is that it has a lot of bumps and a couple of pretty good hills that kick butt, because they are in the last part of the run. Bartlett Hill (photo at the top of the post) just feels so long while I am going up it and then Stevens Hill, well it never seems to end either. I made it up both of them, but definitely not my most speedy effort.

I thought about doing 10, but the bottoms of both my feet were getting pretty sore, so I shut it down at 9.0 when I went past the house.

Shoes Worn: Altra Duo v1 (48.3)

Yep, just about ready for a 50 mile review. I did make a slight change to the shoes the other day and seemed to make a huge difference in their feel to me. I switched out the stock insole for a pair from the Altra Torin 3.5 and it made the Duo’s go from feeling almost harsh to me, to feeling really good.

Unfortunately, today at about 7.0 or so miles the bottoms of my feet really began to bother me. I have a feeling it might have something to do with the lugged outsole, plus the idea that I need to toughen up my feet a little. So I will ease into the longer runs in the Duo’s.

Surprisingly, even though the Town crew did a lot of work on the road down-back, the Duo’s didn’t pick up that many rocks, not nearly as bad as my old Nike Free’s or some other shoes I have had. Which is good news, because I feared that they were going to be horrible with rocks sticking in the lugs – they are not all that bad.

How did this run move me towards my goal(s)? I actually got a longer run done this week and it felt pretty good.

Cardio Total: 4.12

Non Running Comments: It was good to be home and relax a little today, although what I did the most was rest. Sometimes after going through a tough experience like that the thing we need the most is time to rest, decompress, collect ourselves and then start enjoying the life that we do have again.