Mildly Successful Day

I'm supposed to be studying...as usual. Come to think of it, the only time I am not supposed to be studying is after having studied for so long that my brain can no longer absorb the information I'm trying to fill it with.

It's not like today hasn't been successful, although I did start late. If I am going to have a glass of wine, it has to be at least 3 hours before bedtime, which is pretty inconvenient when you take into account my bedtime is 8pm. It affects my sleep. Badly. I fall asleep for 2 or 3 hours, soundly. Then I wake up and continue to lay away for another 3-4 hours before finally drifting off to sleep...only to be woken by my alarm an hour later.

Well I just had to have a glass of wine last night, so today I am tired and sluggish. I still managed to make it to the gym, do a hard full body weight lifting routine, then came home, had a couple handfuls of grapes and some water and headed out for my second attempt at my interval run that went badly on Wednesday.

For a year now I've been trying to find "my shoe". Shoes are irritating. As soon as you find one that works for you, the company goes and "upgrades" it and next thing you know you've got shin splints and IT Band Syndrome. Years ago I had my shoe. Years ago I loved my shoe. It was Asics. Then they upgraded. I tolerated it. They upgraded again. I started getting foot pain, but had a marathon coming up and didn't have the time to find a new shoe. After the marathon I switched. My feet have not been in love since.

They were close. There was this pair of Nike shoes. Neutral, when apparently I'm supposed to be in Stability shoes. I bought them on a whim, online, without even trying them out. With Road Runner Sports you can send them back anyway.

I loved them. But then I developed a weird toe thing. It's possible that switching to a neutral shoe and the toe thing aren't even related, but merely a coincidence. Anyway, it's not even a toe thing. It's a nerve in the bottom of my foot.

So for the past year I've been trying to make a compromise between my doctor's suggestions, and what my feet think they want.

Well whatever was going on in November, my feet did not approve and took me out of running for awhile. I came back with a new pair. They were ok. But after less than 200 miles on them the left bottom of the toe area is worn through, showing the fabric of the shoe underneath. What the heck?

Well they weren't so great anyway. Back to the running store. I came home with a nice stable, cush pair of Asics. I ran 11 easy miles on them (for my long run) and they did well. But on Tuesday, when I went to do my 6 x 1 mile repeats at a fairly good clip, they did not do so well. My achilles and calves of both legs were just killing me (it's normal for my right calf to act up, since the hammy incident). Plus I couldn't hit my pace (7:25) for the life of me. I averaged 7:41.

I decided to repeat the same workout after the gym today, but with my old pair of shoes. I've had a hunch for a couple years now, that although my feet overpronate and my ankles turn in when I run, my feet do not actually like their movement controlled. When I bought that pair of Nike's on a whim, it was the fastest I've ever run. Call me crazy. I don't think there's a pair of shoes out there that'll make you run faster, but I do believe there are shoes out there that can make you run slower.

Case in point.

I was exhausted. Full body exhausted. And I had 6 hard repeats to do with a half mile warm-up and a half mile cool down. I laced up my old pair, remembered why I didn't love them, and headed out the door.

Man was I tired. But reviewing my splits said it all. I average a 7:14. With the first two being 7:02 and 7:03.

Here's the thing. The new shoes I bought have no flex in the forefoot. Neither do any of the other shoes I've rejected and brought back to Road Runner Sports. The shoes I've held on to, had no injuries with (I'm skeptical about the toe thing), and ran fastest with, had plenty of flexibility in the forefoot. If my foot has to work against the stiffness of the shoe with every push-off, my legs are working harder than they have to, and I therefore run slower. That's what I think anyway.

So after my run, after feeding my face and washing off the stink, I headed back to Road Runners and exchanged for a new pair of my current shoe (but they had to order it since my shoe has been discontinued...story of my life...but it's coming!). Then I went grocery shopping.

I came home with intentions of studying. Then I checked the mail and I had a new Runners World magazine. I thumbed through that for awhile and decided I needed to hammer down and finish reading the chapter for physics. I got all comfy on the couch, opened up the book....and saw all this.

Nope nope nope nope nope.

I felt fatigue wash over me just looking at the page in front me. This isn't happening.

However, I'd like to take this moment to point out a little trick of mine that you'll find on the left and right corners of the pages there.

I place the tab at the beginning of the chapter and move it with me as I go. It is there to say "Keep going! You're almost there! Keep pushing on!". And it's suppose to encourage me to keep going until I reach the red/orange tab at the end of the chapter.

Except that somehow, after all the reading I've done in this chapter so far, I am not actually almost there. That's a lot of weird Greek letters and symbols to process after such a hard workout. And it's Friday. And the birds are chirping, a cool breeze is gently wafting through my open front door. Mer. Momentum is everything. And I have none right now.