The great shoe dilema

Mizunos or Newtons? Newtons or Mizunos? This is a question that has been running through my brain almost around the clock since my last 20 mile run. My head has said run in the Mizunos for Chicago. You ran all of your long runs in them. So what if they are approaching old age. You’ll be fine! My ankles, and knees have said run in the Newtons, and by the way, get some new orthotics! So, I decided to listen to the ankles. They after all, will bear the brunt of 26.2 miles in 13 days. I got new orthotics a size smaller so that they would fit better in my Newtons (which run a little small), and decided to finally get the metatarsal support too. Holy awesomeness Batman! I tried them in my Newtons Friday afternoon and walked around a bit, and then ran my part of the Ekiden relay in them Sunday. No knee, or ankle soreness! Hmmm, can I run a marathon in shoes that have only gone 10 miles as their longest run? I’ve been running twice a week in them for a couple of months. They are definitely broken in, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to wear them, which makes me kind of excited. This is the first time that I’m thinking about running a race in shoes that I haven’t done my long runs in. That makes me a little nervous, but I feel like I run better in the Newtons than the Mizunos. I really do think the Newtons are going to win, but something tells me the conversation in my head isn’t over. That’s the fun part of the taper right? So ready to be done tapering!

Now if I could feel like I’m not coming done with something… Oh taper, you drive me batty!

When Tuesday becomes Monday

Yesterday wasn’t the best day of the week so far, which was sad considering how awesome Monday was.

 My Chicago bib number & participant guide came in the mail Monday!!!!! 🙂

Well, at least until I got into work and discovered for the second time in 3 weeks there was no air conditioning. Grumble, grumble, grumble. If it were actually fall this might not have been a problem. However, summer is still here. Monday it was 93 in the afternoon, and Tuesday it was 95. Sigh… It took calling the maintence people twice over 2 days to actually get them to come out (I guess not having AC isn’t a big issue for them). My student’s were rock stars, and put up with temps in the mid 80s in my room all day on Monday, but after 10 minutes I was sweating on Tuesday, which is not a big deal, but I was inside, and I wasn’t running.

So, the maintence guy finally shows up (apparently we are suppose to e-mail rather than call. Thanks for letting us know…) and asks if I would like for him to take a look at it right now, or if he should come back later. Dude, it’s 95 outside, the sun is on my room, and I’m already hot & sweaty after 30 minutes. Guess which one I choose? After making the fun dieing noise for him, he said the compressor was giving out, and started looking at things. Then he noticed one the heat buttons was pushed down slightly (the unit was not installed correctly however many decades ago it was put in so part of the cover actually sits on top of the low heat button). I must have let someone climb on it. No, I had not thank you very much. Oh, well I must have let someone push down on the cover. Again, thanks for trying, but no. How about we blame someone else. And then it pops in my head that they had been out to fix the stupid machine 3 weeks ago. The cover had come off, and then slapped back on. Hmmm, wonder if that would be considered pushing down hard? In which case maitence men you messed up my AC by trying to fix it the last time. These people drive me crazy!

To top it all off I can’t wear my good pair of glasses any more :(. After 3 years the anti-glare coating is coming off, and ruining the lens. I can’t see out of the right lens anymore, and the headaches are driving me nuts. So, I’m currently wearing an older pair until I can get to the eye doctor Friday to get a new prescription because nothing can be done to save the lens. They have to be replaced. At least the guy at the store I bought the glasses from was super nice, didn’t blame me, and gave me an estimate. While I was there I asking about prescription running glasses, and he was super nice and answered all of my questions. Apparently I am just too blind. Because of my prescription, and because of the shape of most athletic glasses I would end up getting really dizzy trying to wear them (he said that he got some, and his prescription is no where near as bad as mine & he gets dizzy from them). That doesn’t sound like a good combination if you ask me. So, now I’m thinking about getting some contacts to wear while running, and then getting a pair of sunglasses for running. Having a headache from squinting while running is getting old.

I could use a little Westside Creamery treat right about now:

a little post long run treat on Saturday salted caramel ice cream!

And look what I found at Antico while waiting for my pizza!

love Alton Brown!
Needless to say my run this morning was not the greatest. It’s alright because I made it up everyone of the crazy hills without stopping this morning. Here’s to a better Wednesday! May it have never heard of a case on the Mondays…

The last big run!

Saturday was a big day for the Team in Training Georgia Chapter’s Chicago Team. Why? Because most of the team was running their very first 20 miler. That’s right folks! We ran 20 miles on Saturday. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t really worried about the run. With one 20 mile run already under my belt I wasn’t worried about the distance. I was a little worried about the course. We ran out at the river, which is a 20 mile course that I’ve never done in my 3 seasons with Team in Training. I hope I don’t have to do again! Holy hills! I thought the other 20 mile courses were hilly, but this one had some doosies. There were a couple that were near impossible to run up. Jaclyn and I decided we were going to take it easy and not push. She was getting over a cold, and I had spent most of the week cursing ragweed, and trying to regain the ability to breathe through my nose. It was slower than my first 20 miler, but it still felt great, and I really think that’s because we took it easy. There was no reason to push with the summer heat & humidity coming back. Now it’s taper time! I can’t believe there are only 3 weeks till the race!

The team before the run. All smiles & we smell pretty good too 🙂

At the 3rd waterstop. Cruising along before the hills…

30 seconds before this was taken I mentioned how happy I was that our coach had stopped taking our picture… This is what I get for opening my big mouth 🙂

Done!! Chocolate milk  in hand! Life is good 🙂

Most of the team post run. We still look pretty happy even if we don’t smell as good… 🙂