Thanksgiving Thoughts

For the second year I did the somerville RRs 'gobble gobble gobble'.  I did the 4 miles in just under 7 min/mile pace: 27:54.  Not bad - but certainly not great.  I'll be heading back to davis sq for the jingle bell run.  Thanksgiving was wonderful - went to our friends in Concord.  Friday was lazy.  Saturday was lazy and Sunday was lazy.  I spent much of the time obsessing about doing a 50 miles in 50 hours type of thing some weekend - and the different ways I could possibly split up the mileage.  I think this is going to happen - although I may try a 30 mile in 30 hours type of thing first.

What else did I do.  Some planks - I read an article that says you should be able to do 2 minutes easy.  I can do about a minute, and the sides are harder.

Shoes and Injuries

So here is a picture of most of the shoes that I've used for either this year's or last year's marathons.  From left to right.

• I started last year with the brooks ravenas.  These felt wonderful, and light, but seemed to aggrevate my plantar fasci pain - which plagued me all last year.  
• I ended up running in the Mizuno's which were great: light, responsive, comfy - the only problem was that they aggrevated my left outer ankle in a weird way - which pretty much shut down my spring running last year for multiple months.  
• Not shown are my brooks adrenlines - not shown because they are still being used and are in my locker at work.  These shoes were solid for most shorter runs.  They were not very comfortable and not very light.  Whats worse still, they seemed to not fit right - and on longer runs they caused two kinda bizarre injuries - the aggravated the front of the foot on a 10 miler and resulted in nice black toe nails on my 17 miler.  I ended up not using them much as the training went on.
• I then switched to the Hoka constants.  The constant 1 (grey) was my go-to shoe.  Not super light - but solid stability and cushioning.  These got me through my longest runs of training - and I ended up doing at least half of my total mileage in these suckers.  I did the marathon in them as well - my left knee went at mile 22 - but I'm not blaming the shoes.  
• I bought the NB whatevers after the brooks issues.  These about killed my feet.  Major pain along the bottom of my right foot.  I did about 8 miles in these once and decided I must not ever run in them again.  I made the mistake of grocery shopping in them - and they killed my foot again.  I'm sure NB have some fine shoes - but I'll never buy them again, and certainly regret this purchase.  
• Finally I got the constant 2s.  They feel a little worse than the constants - and the fit is bigger - not as snug - which may be why the feel isn't as good.  Maybe good shoes - but should've sized down - thus highlighting the perils of online shopping. 

So that is the run down.  I basically am using the brooks and old hokas now.  I'm not sure what to do with the new hokas.  I think I may just eat the cost for them and the NBs.

Today - I have run 4.6 miles - normal loop.  Nicer day running than it seemed like it was going to be.

Fall Update

So I made it out for 3 runs last week.  A good 4 miler with Larry Tuesday, a slow 4.5 'old-man' run on Thursday and a slog up the hill in arlington Saturday.  The weather has been perfect - the runs kinda boring - just trying to make it out 2 or 3 times a week.  I keep wanting to go longer - but haven't really had the motivation.  Have had a lot of work/home stress between visitors/trip to CT/job related anxiety/election anxiety.  Lots going on, on all fronts, and much of it not so good.  Hoping things slowly settle down.

I did mange to get out for a good run yesterday on my own.  Average pace was 7:39 - over 4.7 miles - and I did the longfellow bridge mile in about 7:05 - as a little pickup.  Felt really good.

Getting back to normal

So I had knee pain last Wednesday, so I took the last week off.  I did manage to squeeze in my strength work out last Friday.

I went out yesterday and did the normal loop for the first time since the marathon.  Knees felt fine.  Weather was gorgeous, and I was able to run just under 8s, with negative splits.  Things have been a little crazy here, so the run is a great way to ground myself and stay calm.