Easy Run

I am happy to say that this post will be a very positive post!

First things first... Last week, as I was griping about, my tendon pretty much decided to rebel and emancipate itself from my ankle. It took a bit of rest and I had to convince it that it was better off helping me out instead of going rogue, and it seemed to listen. On Friday, I went for a nice 3 mile run at lunch, keeping a beautiful chilled pace (6.0-6.5 throughout). It actually did feel "easy".

After Friday's run, I decided to go to Ogdensburg to pick up stuff that I had shipped to the UPS Store. I was super stoked to pick things up... I had ordered two pairs of Saucony split shorts, my Garmin Forerunner 210, and my boyfriend's GoPro camera (early V-Day gift). After cursing the skating rink of a parking lot, I hobbled into the store and picked up the items for the low price of $15 (considering the $200 I saved shipping to the store). After slipping and sliding my way back to the car, I realized that there was a shady little sports store beside the UPS Store called Olympia Sports. On the hunt for a good pair of running pants to bring to Scotland, I figured it was worth a gander. The lake effect snow had already been coming down a bit in Ogdensburg and I was not a fan of the idea of trekking down a one-lane hilly state route to I81 and through the treacherous snow, just to get a Dick's Sporting Goods. I went inside and took a look at their shoe collection. While not as extensive as other stores (and with an obvious focus on "flashy" Nikes that the homies would love), I did notice about 4 pairs of Saucony shoes. I know I sound like I'm a brand loyalist by always making a bee-line for their products, but for some reason, they just seem to fit me the best, whether it be shoes or shorts. For the record, I have owned New Balances and Asics as well.

Anyway, I took a look at some of the supports of the shoes and noticed most of them were more stability shoes than anything else. Then I saw it. The one neutral shoe. It wasn't the Echelon or any others that I had tried on at the Ottawa Running Room. It looked slightly wider than the Echelon (one major issue I have with my current shoes is that they feel too narrow through certain spots), so I figured it was worth a shot. The shady little sports store even had a 10.5 Men's. I tried them on and felt it was just too good to be true. No way could these fit. I've battled for nearly a year trying to find a good replacement to my current shoes and you're telling me that the sketchy Ogdensburg store has the one pair that fits? I even put my orthotics in just to be sure. I had found my match. Riding on a high from the shoes (and the fact they were $70!!!), I went on a bit of a sports binge. It felt like this little store had EVERYTHING. I bought a pair of Champion running pants, 3 pairs of new socks, a pair of Adidas track pants, and an Adidas sweater. I am so excited to use my new gear in Scotland! I feel completely decked out now... clothes, shoes, and my Garmin (I have yet to test it still).

Saturday night was my early V-Day dinner with the boyfriend. Since I'm leaving for Scotland tomorrow, we unfortunately miss my birthday and Valentine's Day. I had a long day trying to non-rev (fly standby) my way to Harrisburg. The flights were not too bad loads-wise, but I had to go via Chicago, meaning that it was going to take me about 9 hours just to get there (and an addition 1.5 hours before the boyfriend met me in Harrisburg). I could've driven faster! Luckily I had loads of lectures to do for school, so I got something accomplished. For some reason, I don't raelly recognize that even though it's a Friday night, if I have to be up at 7:00 am the following day, I need to go to bed early. I stayed up until 2:00 am because "it was a weekend", meaning I got around 4.5-5 hours of sleep. Boo. I caught a nap on a flight for about 20 minutes, but I was really starting to drag. By the time we arrived at our uber-sketch Holiday Inn at around 7:00 pm, I was ready to crash, not run. Luckily, I had just given my boyfriend his GoPro and he was in no mood to nap after getting his toy, so it meant I basically had to go for a run. The hotel was inundated with Hispanic people there for some sort of conference, so of course all the teenagers were at the gym having a hang out and messing about. I managed to get on a treadmill that faced outside so I could tune them out. The reflection of myself in the window was sort of inspiring (it was at an angle where I could see my full stride, which spurred me to run a bit harder), so I kept up a very nice interval run for a little over 2.5 miles, before time constraints made me quit. I lunged down the hall (literally doing lunges) back to my room to squeeze the last few bits of the workout in. I eventually ruined it all (and then some) by eating at The Melting Pot... but it was soooo worth it.

Plan is to perhaps run tonight (but maybe just make it a weights/x-training day), and do a combined run/x-training day tomorrow before my flight to Toronto. Since I have around 8 hours to kill before my wake-up and my flight departure to Scotland on Wednesday, I'm going to have that be my random long run day.

My biggest debate right now is whether or not I should bring my new shoes and risk having them be a bit sore (they're not broken in), or take my older shoes and risk my ankle getting sore. Leaning towards the older ones, but I guess we shall see.

Anne