The shoes

My new shoes came today! I've been wearing them around the house a little to break them in. I'm so glad I ordered them. I compared them to my old shoes and discovered a couple interesting (to me anyway) things. First, I didn't think my old shoes were particularly worn. But when I compared them to the new (identical) pair, I realized the tread was worn nearly off in places. Secondly, the places where the tread was worn down so much were in the mid-foot. I've always been a really heavy heel striker. Since reading Born to Run I have been somewhat consciously trying to shorten my stride and land mid-foot. Apparently, it's working.

The bad news is my ankle has really been bothering me. I tried to run yesterday and only made it a mile before I had to stop, mostly out of fear that I was going to injure it further. I am weighing the pros and cons of resting completely until next Sunday. I'll evaluate this Sunday (my last chance for a longer (>30 minutes) run) and again in the middle of next week. At this point I feel like the risk of severely injuring it outweighs the loss of fitness I may experience. I know I can finish the race even if I don't run again until race day. I've been training for 6 months. If I do decide to stay off it for the next week or 10 days, I'll have to try to get to the gym and either ride an exercise bike or swim a few times to maintain my fitness level.

Why do I always do this???

So in July when I ordered my new shoes days before the Chaska triathlon, I did a little mental math and thought, "Hmm, I should probably just order another pair of these right now and alternate them for the next three months." Because, with the mileage I was going to be putting on training for the marathon, three months is about the most I could expect out of that pair. I knew without a second pair I'd be cutting it close on marathon day.

But...

I didn't order that second pair. In fact, I didn't give it a second thought until I did my 20 mile run. And my shoes still felt great at that point. They weren't showing much wear, my body wasn't showing any of the tell-tale signs that it's time for new shoes. I figured since my mileage was only going down at that point my shoes would hold up fine for another month.

What I didn't factor in to the equation was the toll the trail half-marathon I ran the weekend before last was going to take on my shoes (on my whole body, in fact, but that's another post.) My shoes have not been the same since then. Besides being filthy, I don't think those shoes were designed for the lateral forces they were put under during that run. They feel stretched out and sloppy. They also have the flat feeling of worn out shoes.

So, I ordered another pair yesterday. I'm hopeful they'll be here tomorrow or Wednesday. Yes, I probably could have gone to a running store and gotten another pair right away, but they would have been considerably more expensive and would have necessitated taking one or two kids into a shoe store. Worth it? Maybe. My training plan has only 4-5 really short runs over the next 12 days. Plus I'm babying a sore ankle. I'm really hoping the new shoes get here soon and get reasonably broken in before 10/2.