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.