What I am thinking about this morning?

Kind of dismal start to the day with clouds, with sporadic sprinkles of rain and temps in the mid ‘40s. One of those classic Fall days when you really don’t have a lot of motivation to do a lot.

So, of course, this is my long run day. I am supposed to run 75-100 minutes. Kind of figures, doesn’t it, that the weather would be just about perfect for a long run.

However, in my experience, this weather is good running weather. You don’t overheat, get a chance to figure out how the shoes will perform and while your motivation might not be the greatest, the runs usually turn out better than you expect.

At least that is what I am hoping.

I am exploring different shoes for when the Reebok Energy 2s wear out in about 50 miles. The outsole is wearing faster than I expected and while they are okay on dry tar, when it is wet, or I am running on the dirt roads down-back, the grip is not what I want or need.

The big issue with needing new running shoes now, is that I am still not going into stores all that often. Instead, I am relying on online shopping, which at times really does suck because I don’t get to actually see or try on the running shoes I want.

Which in turn, even with great return policies from some vendors, it still makes me leery about getting shoes at full retail prices and then taking the chance that the vendor will give me full-credit for the return. Especially, if you have to go through multiple pairs of shoes and the vendor gets tired of you returning shoes that much. The pitfalls of buying running shoes online.

That is why I have been doing more shopping on eBay or looking for closeout deals on older shoes on Amazon or other places. I don’t feel so bad eating $40 to $60, as I would $130 to $160, which is pretty much the going price for the models that seem to work best for me.

Yeah, I know this is a good problem to have, but I will be glad when I can go back and start trying on running shoes again for the primary use shoes. Then only use eBay and close-outs for experimenting with shoes that would be nice to try. Instead of them being my primary source of new to me shoes.

What Did I do?

I did a long run for me at 7.75 miles. It was probably one of the worst runs that I have had in a long time.

It definitely sucked.

Evidently, I had spoilt milk with my granola and that upset the whole apple cart, or I was starting to get sick, and the spoilt milk was just coincidental — not the problem. By the time I got around to running. The stomach was feeling WAAAAY off, but I figured that I would give it a go and if necessary turn-around a bit sooner than later.

About three minutes into the run, I had to find some bushes and felt a bit better. Then, before I got to the mile mark, I headed for the woods again. I felt a little better after each stop.

That feeling better was more — wishful thinking on my part.

Then at about the 2.25 mile mark, another woods break. I really thought about heading home at this point, and probably should have. However, while I was in the woods another runner went by and even though I thought I was far enough into the woods, I could see the runner clearly, so they got a full moonshot I am certain. Not really what I wanted to share with another runner, but it happens, and there wasn’t many choices by the time I got into the woods.

At this point, I wasn’t all that far from Goodhue Road (at least that is what I told myself), and figured that I might as well go there to turn-around. Everything was going well, I felt the best that I had all run and kept plugging along. My paces were right where I expected them to be 9:20 to 9:30 and nothing besides my stomach seemed to be bothering too much.

Going back towards the house, at about mile 5.0, the body was talking to me about finding a nice private place again. Unfortunately, this stretch has the most houses, so I had to wait until I got back on the dirt road. After that jaunt into the woods, I felt worse, not better.

The rest of the run was just about getting it done. I wanted to get 8.0 miles, but I settled for the 75:00 long run time and called it a day. Although, after I went by the Lower Gate, the bottom of my right foot started to bother.

It was a good thing that I hadn’t gone into town for the run, there are not too many pitstop areas that I could have used like I did out here in the boonies.

Looking at the stats, they were pretty good until I stopped that last time, and then I just went into survival shuffle up the hills and wanted it to be over. I have a feeling that I was also fighting some sort of bug because my heart rate was a lot higher than it should have been for the level of effort I was using.

Oh well, the rest of the day I lounged around and didn’t do a lot. This morning, I am a little better, but not back to feeling normal yet. Just that time of year when you tend to pick up a bug here or there and yes, I still have my sense of smell and taste, so I am not worried about that.