Too Good to be True

Happy Long Weekend! I hope everyone is as excited for their long weekend as I am. Mine actually started yesteday when we arrived back at the beach for 6 days of fun and relaxation, oh and my birthday!

When I first started making my marathon training plan a few months ago, we already had this trip planned, and I knew with our plans, and the swamp-like conditions I would have to be very considerate when planning this week in my schedule. As we all know, you have to be flexible when training, but I don't like to deviate too far from my plans so I made sure I built my schedule to fit my vacation.

The first thing I did was move my typical days around to fit our travel and party schedule ;) Normally I run Monday-Thursday, Rest Friday, Long Run Saturday, Off or Cross-Train Sundays. But this week since Thursday was our travel day I made that my rest day and opted to do my long run today. It worked out great, since last night I was tired from traveling and the time change, and I knew I would be getting in bed early last night and still waking up on Eastern time this morning. Ideally I wanted to try and do 12 miles today, but since I wasn't sure of the exact distance of the route I had available I told myself I had to get in double digits (10) no matter what. Well thank God I had already made that deal with myself because the route was a lot shorter than I thought and I had to do some extra loops to make sure I hit 10, which I did.

5:30am, CDT; 79* 92% humidity. I appreciated the cooler temps, and it stayed overcast the whole time which was great not to have the sun as a factor, despite the nasty humidity and all the sweat from it, the weather was picture perfect for a summer run.

John biked with me for my whole ride this morning, and it was nice to have a buddy out there today, I didn't use my ipod except for the last mile when he went ahead. The first 3 miles were back on a narrow road sandwiched between the intercoastal and a canal so there is very little air movement and a ton of humidity. Once we turned onto the big road at mile 3 I stopped to pass my camelbak off to John and it was rubbing my still raw spot from last weekend, and it was amazing how much lighter I felt. I had planned to do a minimum of 4 miles at gmp, and was planning to do it in the last 4 miles. As soon as we turned onto the big road, it felt sooooo much cooler. There was a breeze, it wasn't as sticky, and between that and ditching the camelbak my pace just got faster, so I decided that I would do the middle 4 miles at gmp and do the last 3 on the nasty road as fast as I could. It worked out great, I ended up hitting 5 miles at gmp, and the last 2 weren't too far off either, I could have pushed them harder, but I had a nagging pain starting to creep up.

10 Miles-  1:38:42
Mile 1-  10:08
Mile 2-  10:12
Mile 3-  10:07
Mile 4-  9:40
Mile 5-  9:41
Mile 6-  9:39
Mile 7-  9:41
Mile 8-  9:44
Mile 9-  9:57
Mile 10-  9:55

Despite the fact that I always want to be faster, I was pleased with this run. I hit a few gp miles and felt good throughout, I felt in control and stronger then I did last weekend. The weather is not going to make anything easy this summer, so I can't expect to see times I saw in perfect March weather right now. I didn't have high expectations for this run, so I came out pleased with the results.

I was actually feeling great that I assumed I would hit gmp for the final 2 miles as well, but once I saw a couple seconds off on mile 8 I already knew why, I had some lingering pain in my foot, and as soon as I got home and kicked my shoes off I knew I would have to make a change before next weekend....

I guess the positiveness of the shoes was very short lived. These new shoes ripped up my foot today, and it is still only my right foot. When we get back to town on Tuesday I will be taking my shoes back to the store and trading in. I am walking in there Tuesday and I already know what shoes I will be leaving with, I am not going to listen to any further recommendations, I know what I need and what I want, and while they may be 'shoe experts' no one knows my feet better than me!

I am REALLY nervous about being so demanding and requesting a replacement shoe after I have already run in these for 60 miles. I know most specialty running stores will take your shoes back if they don't work for you, but I have never done anything like this before so I am afraid they won't and will make me buy another pair, and then I am stuck with a brand new pair of shoes that I won't wear. Has anyone ever done this before?????? Please give me some advice!!!!!!!!