Chapter 2 page 384 - TR 141 new shoe 3 miler

As you loyal readers know, that the last month or so my training schedule has been altered by my half marathon teacher to have me run 4 days (instead of 3) each week.  At first it was just depressing to know that after I got one run done, I still had 3 more to go.  I have worked REALLY hard to get the runs in - no matter what!  Heat, schedule, fatigue, boredom, etc - I've gotten them in.  The last couple of weeks I've squeaked the last run of the week in on Sunday evening, but I get it done!  This week was no exception.  I had 3 miles left to do and so 3.26 miles is what I did.  It was suppose to be an easy run and mostly it was.  The weather was much cooler but the humidity was still very high - honestly felt as if I were running in a sauna (no joke!!!).  Oh well, I did it.  Turned on my devil beeper to 3 & 1:30 and cranked up my jamz and off I went.  I did my preferred 2.26 mile route and added on an extra mile at the end on the path.  I started and ended with a walk but did the interval the rest of the time, except for when I ran a 1/2 mile continuously (you know, just to see if I could - good news, I still can :) WOOT!

I have been wearing these AWESOME and life changing Nike Air Pegasus 27's for the last 150 miles -

 I say life changing because for the first time in the history of my return to running, I didn't have knee pain or shin pain (outside of my usual shin pain), or hip pain, or any more heel pain than normal.  These might really be "the shoes".  I had tried them on back during the shop-a-thon around Christmas (click HERE to take a trip down memory lane), but dismissed them since they didn't feel Techie - they just felt like normal shoes.  At the time the salesman, AJ for you locals, said that wasn't all bad, but I was like "No, I think I prefer to have more cushion, more support, more 'tech' features." And went with the Saucony's . . . which later were discovered to be the sole reason for my knee pain - BOO!  Then, on a whim, I found myself at the running store while they were having a tax day sale and decided that "Yes, I'm going to go for it and give the Nike's a try."  Honestly, I haven't looked back since!  I love them.  I'm not 100% pain free, but other than my quad which is a new pain but I don't think it's related to my shoes, I have no new pains and that's really something amazing . . . for me!  It's been 150 miles in this pair and with 4 halfs in 4 months coming up, I would say that I'll be reaching the "big girl shoe max" of 300 miles rather quickly and thought it would be a good time to start to break in a new pair.  Given today's slow and easy 3 miler, I thought what a great opportunity to give them a test drive . . . yeah, they're nice!  And cute too!!!!

I learned something interesting that I found controversial in this week's half mary class.  The Physical Therapist (Todd Sullivan, again for you locals) who was the guest speaker said "The research shows that orthotics are only beneficial for the first 6-12 months and after that do nothing to improve or worsen a person's PF"  HMMMMM - I've worked so hard to get rid of my PF that I'm in no mood to try something so radical as removing my orthotics, but . . . I thought I would give it a shot on this short 3 miler.  I can honestly say that I didn't notice anything different. My heel did not hurt during the run nor standing up from sitting afterward.  I'm not likely to go orthotic-less too much as quite frankly I'm scared, but I'm super thrilled that with all of my efforts and physical therapy recently, my PF seems to be tolerable at the present.  I will share more of what I have learned the last 2 weeks of class in an upcoming post.