I made it to the gym this morning for intervals in my new shoes...and while I was running, this song came on my ipod:

Hey, I put some new shoes on

And suddenly everything is right

I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling

It so inviting

Oh, short on money,But long on time

Slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine

And I'm running late,And I dont need an excuse

'cause I'm wearing my brand new shoes.

It was quite funny! I just kept thinking how could this possibly get cheesier?

Anyway, I love my new shoes! I thought I would like them, that they would be 'okay,' that they would grow on me over time...but I didn't think that I would love them the first time out! Now, I just need to wait until tonight/tomorrow morning to see if my shins like them as much as I do. Now, I have another shoe to search for on ebay!

Overall, I didn't have as good of an interval run today as I did last week...but then those really good runs are usually rare. It was a pretty good run though. I kinda ran out of steam by the four mile mark, so I didn't quite make it to the 4.5 planned run.

I think much of that might have to do with my schedule this week. We have one car in the shop (hail damage) so I biked it to work on Tuesday...it was 92* when I headed home. Also, the air quality here is really bad this week. They are recommending that the elderly, young, physically active, and anyone with respiratory issues stay inside. So, of course, I tried to go for a run yesterday morning, only to turn around after a half mile when I realized they weren't lying. So, I had only run about 2.5 miles Mon - Wed this week. I just hope the air clears up some before Sunday...I don't want to either give up my long run or move it to the treadmill!

New Shoes!

I went shopping this weekend...and bought some new shoes. I got Mizuno Wave Precision:

They are lighter than the shoes I have now, and are a little less cushioned but I am planning on using them for treadmill days only (at least for now) and maybe for races if I like them enough. Now I have three pairs in my rotation...these for speedwork on the treadmill, my newer Nike Pegasus for long runs, and my old Nike Pegasus for short easy runs.

Wonderful Intervals

Pretty much all the speedwork that I have done so far has either been random fartlek style while on my outside runs (nothing major though) or on the treadmill using a Nike workout (I really like Serena Williams Intervals). All the Nike workouts are half an hour long. Well, I was playing around with the Smart Coach on Runner’s World online earlier this week (I think I had it set for a goal 10K in 16 weeks?) Anyway, the interval training it had for my first week was 5 miles with 3x800 @ 4:50 with 400 jogs and warm-up/cool-down. So, since I had 4.5 on my schedule for today (and I hadn’t done any speedwork yet this week) I decided to give it a try…it felt GREAT!! Now don’t get me wrong – there were some times that it was really hard to keep pushing through the intervals, which were longer than I am used to. But by the end of the cool-down I was ready to keep going.

First of all, it is still really weird to me to say that running 4.5 miles felt great. Besides the fact that it was speedwork! And I did kinda want to keep going, but I stopped myself so I wouldn’t wear myself out too much…I want to make sure my long run this weekend goes as planned since I didn’t really have one last week. I have 7.5 on the schedule, but I am actually hoping to hit 8 miles. I have been feeling really good lately, so why not? My scheduled increases are pretty conservative after all.

I had an interesting neighbor this morning on the treadmills…well, there were actually a couple empty treadmills between us. He kept making crazy noises “argh” “grrr” and yelling “Come On!” I guess he was trying to push himself, but I have never seen anyone get that into it at the gym before! I could hear him and I had headphones on! I guess it was working, cuz he sure was running faster than me…

Lifetime Torchlight 5K Urban Run - Race Report

Wow – this race was not quite what I was expecting! Since there are no official results, I didn’t have last year’s results to check out beforehand. I figured it was a little bigger than what I am used to…maybe about 1,000 runners or so. Ummm, try more like 5,000!! But, I stuck to the plan and pushed the doublewide through the crowd. I think it was harder to get it through the registration area to pick up my bib and shirt than the actual race though. But we finally made it through and got to the start. We were about a block away from the actual start line, and there were at least another block of runners behind us (I believe the road is four lanes across).

The course was nice…started out going down Hennepin (major artery through downtown Minneapolis), then cut through some of the smaller downtown streets to the Mississippi River. We ran along the river for about a half mile and then took the historic Stone Arch Bridge over St Anthony Falls. (I really need to go do some running along the river!) I wish I could have looked around a little more, but I was too focused on trying to navigate the stroller and not crash into too many runners. There was one guy that darted right in front of us 3 times! (I didn’t try to avoid him the third time…some people just need to learn a lesson). I haven’t run a 5K since the beginning of May and I was amazed at how easy it felt compared to last time. If it wasn’t so late, so crazy busy and we didn’t have a ride waiting for us, I would have loved to head back to the river and keep going. The weather was beautiful! Best we could have hoped for in July. It had cooled down nicely for the evening, and there was a nice breeze blowing through. Also, the sun was low enough to be behind the buildings.

It was nice to get to see what a big race is like, without caring about my time. Although, there were no corrals, and people were pretty much in the order that they managed to get to the start line, so I am assuming it would thin out a little sooner (it never really did).

Plus, the kids were great! They didn’t fuss at all – even when the line of motorcycle police cut through the crowd right before the start (literally right next to us) with the motors revving and horns honking. They did a little chatting during the run (maybe they were telling people to get out of our way?) and when we got close to the end where we were running on a brick road which was a little bumpy one of them discovered (not sure which one) how to make that shaky voice noise (you know the one). I guess it wore them out though, they slept about 2 hours later than usual this morning!!

Stats
Race: Lifetime (Aquatennial) Torchlight Urban Run
Date: July 23, 2008
Distance: 5K
Official Time: 34:30ish (no official times)
Average Pace: 11:06ish
Overall Place: NA
Place in Age Group: NA

Evening 5K

So, I have my first evening 5K tonight. I was originally hoping to PR on this one, but have decided to chill out a little bit and run it with the kids instead. I haven't been running with the stroller much at all lately (since I usually run before they wake up), so hopefully I can make it through the heat pushing the stroller without TOO much trouble. Since it doesn't look like I will be running any "big" races this fall, I have plenty of time to try and beat that old 5K PR. I just hope they are good, since the race doesn't start until 7:30 - so by the time I make it to the end of the race and back to the car (it is a point-to-point route) it will be somewhat close to their bedtime.