In these shoes? I doubt you'd survive

Ah I love the smell of new shoes in the morning! Finding the right shoes however...
For years I was running in Asics 21XX series. Until they did something to the 2150s that, well, I just could not forgive them for. Why do shoe companies do that? Such a huge change. I went through 1 pair and they sucked. To add insult to injury, my marathon shoe of choice was the Asics DS trainer. The up dated version also had changes, so I never even when there with the 15. Luckily, right before Boston last year, I found a pair of 14s and have been carefully NOT running too much in them incase I want to run Boston in them this year as well (they have less than 200 miles on them).
Since the new Asics sucked, I moved to Brooks Adrenalines which I've been totally happy with as a trainer, though I want something a bit lighter to race in. With my problems with PF and some flattish feet, I need a bit of support in my shoes. I've had super feet insoles and they've worked great. Adding more strength training to my routine I believe has also helped my issues. I've heard rave reviews about the Kinvara but just didn't want to risk going to a neutral shoe. I've also heard they're good up until mile 20 of a marathon. I want something good up until mile 26.2 of a marathon. So now Saucony has introduced the Mirage, in the same family but with a little bit of support. I just got a pair of these and I'm itching to take them out. They'll go on a recovery run today and hopefully I will race the Cherry Tree 10 miler in them on Sunday. I will report back.

Speaking of 10 miler, since I'm racing this weekend, I've rearranged my running a bit. On Sat, I did my long run on 16 then yesterday I did 17 so I'd have time to recover and be able to race on Sunday and not have to worry about getting the long run in.
While that's a little closer than I'd normally want my long runs to be, I felt pretty good. The pace was about the same for both and I've had minimal pain.
So yes, I'm doing a 10 miler on Sun. I really like this distance and it's too bad there are so few 10 mile races. This course is 3 loops of Prospect Park in Brooklyn which is fairly rolling with a big up hill and a big down hill. It will be my first race as a master and I am hoping to PR.

In other news, anyone even slightly interested in running has by now heard of the Boston Marathon changing it's registration process and qualifying times. While slightly confusing for 2012-13, I think it's pretty much the best they could do. What does this mean for me? (since this is all about ME!) well, nothing really, since I don't think I'm going to run Boston again (for a while anyway) but hypothetically, it means for next year, I would need to run a 3:50, but if I ran my goal time of sub 3:40, I'd be able to sign up earlier. For 2013, my qualifying time goes back to 3:45 which is what it was when I first qualified. But like I said, I don't have any plans on going it after this year.

And lastly, last week I posted about raising money for The Trevor Project. The response so far has been GREAT. In one week, we've raised over $2200! We also got a shout out on The Trevor Project's Facebook. Thanks to all of you who donated and the donation site will be up until Boston.

If anything could ever be this good again

I'll start with shoes. As I said in my last post I had a shoe problem. The lovely folks at Jackrabbit let me exchange my shoes. So now, I have a new (and pinkish...hhmmm....) pair of Asics 2150s. I've been wearing this line of Asics for years and years, always an 8.5. This time the 8.5 felt big, so I went down a size. I also went down to a narrow. The felt so good when I tried them on and so far, they feel really good to run in.

As for running this week, I did 5ish on Monday, when I discovered the shoe issue. Tues, with new shoes, I ran 3 easy with Bea. I've also had a bit of a head cold that I'm trying to blow out with little success. Running makes me feel better for a little while anyway. Today, I wanted to try adding some speed. I think it's time if for nothing else to see how much fitness I've lost over the last few months. Ok, that's a negative spin, let's put it this way: to see where I am fitness-wise right now.
I met Ishii in the park and was decided what to do, tempo, hills...tempoish hills is what we decided on. 2 clockwise loops of the Harlem Hills. It's a nice 1.4 mile loop that has a bit of everything, 2 nice uphills, a long downhill, and a fairly flat straightaway. I figured maybe I'd be able to do 8-8:10 pace with the shape I'm in.
lap 1: 10:51 which is about 7:50 pace. I was surprised by that. 2 minute rest and away we go.
Lp 2. 10:51. I was actually really surprised that we were that fast and that consistent. I certainly felt like I was working but not dying and could have gone again (thankfully wasn't going to). 6 miles for the day. So, even with that time recovering, better shape than I expected! This makes me feel a little better about Boston which I feel way behind in training for.
This weekend is the Manhattan Half marathon. When I started running again, I made this a goal in terms of long run distance, so I'll be doing that on Sunday.
I'm still being cautious, but things are going pretty well on the recovery.

Baby come back, you can blame it all on me

I was wrong and I just can't live....
Dear Asics, I am truely sorry. Yes, I started seeing someone else it's true. Blame it on the 7 year itch, their new shiney looks. I should know better. I DO know better and I have learned my lesson. Sure things started out great between me and Mizuno. You know how it goes, long runs in the park...one run leads to another...and then. It happened. Searing pain in the side of my foot. How could this happen? We were just getting to know each other, I thought things were going fine. My 2140s never did this to me. Where did I go wrong?
Well, now it's over my dear Asics, I'm back to stay.
I promise, this week we'll go out to our old stomping grounds and I'll show you a really good time.

I guess we're at our best when we're miles away

Ok, I forgot to put the stats in from yesterday, I'll post them today because they're insane.

1270 out of 7603 (that is a ridiculous amount of people for a 10k in Central Park, if it hadn't been raining, I'm afraid of what it would have been)

172 woman out of 3584

17 outa 517 in age group. 500 women in my age group finished behind me!!! THAT'S INSANE! (Loren was 7th in our AG. oh and the woman who one the age group? 37:37)

Now on to today's run, my last 20 miler of the cycle. I had done 2 others this cycle. One, it was cold. Really cold, 26 degrees cold. I averaged 9:36s and a HR of 160.

My 2nd one was 2 days after we got Bea. I slept about 3 hours the night before, it was a total phone it. 9:52 pace (OUCH. Ok, still with in long run range, but come on. SLOW) 156 HR

Today, well...I did run a 10k yesterday. I ran it fairly hard...

9:09 pace 153HR.

I FELT GREAT

I didn't expect to feel so good, I sorta felt like I'd go out there and just get it done. And I did, and a pretty good clip I might add. Thanks again to RayK and Hil for the (TARDY!!!) run.

Here we go tapper here we go! 

People, please help me not loose my mind as I taper.

As far as my shoes go, I ran the 20 in my DS Trainers 14. I really like them, I think the decision has been made. Off to joisey they go.

Lace 'em up, walk around

Today was an easy 5. I ran 2, then came back to get Bea and finish out the last 3 with her. This is her longest run yet. She really loves it and it pretty good about focusing on the run. She's not a huge stop and sniff everything kinda dog so that makes it easier.

The marathon is really closing in. 25 days or something like that. Time to make a shoe decision. After the Nike heal chewing, I knew that wasn't going to work. I returned them and got a pair of Asics 2140s, the latest in the 2000 line. I've had about 4 pairs of 2130s. I also got a pair of DS Trainer 14s. I have the 13s. I really like the 13s but they have this funky lacing this that goes right over my big toe. Fine for shorter distance, I've been racing in the all year, but just wont cut it for anything long. I'm still working on growing my big toenail back, I dont need anything rubbing on it for 26.2 miles. One of these pairs of shoes will come to NJ with me. I am thinking the DS trainers since they are a lot lighter. They're an ounce heavier than the 13s, but they've fixed the lacing problem so it's higher up on the foot, no where near the toes. I ran in these today and they feel good. I have my last 20 on Sunday and that will be the true test. If I dont like how they feel, I'll test drive the 2140s. If I dont like those, well, I have a pair of 2130s with 200 miles on them. That seems like a lot for a marathon though. We'll see.

Updates to come.

In these shoes? I doubt you'd survive.

After much reading and a fair amount of curiosity, I got a pair of Nike lunarracers. Weighing in at 4.5 oz. and touted as marathon shoe, well, I had to see this. They came today just in time for my workout. Very light yes, totally space age craziness, yes, very comfortable, yup. Reputation of chewing a hole in your achilies, yup. I wasn't even 4 miles in and it started happening. By the time I finished, I had a bloody sock and a bloody shoe that will be going back to Road Runner Sports. It's really too bad, but I'm not going risk it.

Now the workout: 8 miles with 5x600. I'm still working on getting Bea (ya know, the dog) set on a schedule so I went in the late afternoon and ran on the outside track for the first time this season. That felt really nice. Wind and all. Wind and all I ran: 2:35, 2:33, 2:31, 2:33, 2:31, all sub 7 pace and a hair faster than last time on the indoor track. Even though I'm dog tired, (yup, dog) I felt good. It was a solid run.

Ok, so frequent fliers to this blog have read about my encounters with birds though out my workouts. Today's experience may take the cake. So during my warm up, I'm running along the Hudson River. This young man is walking his Chihuahua and looks at me and points up to a tree. I look up and there's a huge nest and I'm like, oh ok, big nest so what. Then I look at there is the oddest color bird up there. I stop and look at the guy and he says parrot. Sure enough, there's a parrot up in the tree with a huge nest along the Hudson river in NYC. He tells me there's a whole family up there, apparently a pet store truck crashed and a buncha the birds got out. I find that sorta hard to believe, but there you have it. A whole nest of parrots up there. Crazy.