Tuesday's Training Update: How about that Cool Weather

Training the last few weeks has been fair. Last week there were some great cooler days, which makes running much more enjoyable. It was only 68 degrees when I went out for my tempo run, and I was excited to see how fast I'd run with nicer weather. I did my 5 mile tempo at 7:00 pace, which is slower than a 7.5 miler I did about a month ago. I just couldn't seem to get moving any faster, didn't understand why, then stopped and realized I was wheezing. Blah. My asthma hasn't acted up in a while, so I haven't been taking my medication. After the tempo, I refilled my prescription and hoped that I'd be good to go for my long run later in the week. Stupid asthma. Thinks it can slow me down.

My Achilles have still been tight when I wake up in the morning and the old shoes were due for an upgrade, so the day after my tempo I went shoe shopping. I hate shoe shopping. Oh side note, I checked the wear on my current shoes and the left shoe was worn on the outer heal, but only the left shoe. It just so happens that most of my aches and pains are on the left leg. Very strange. I've never had shoes wear differently before. Something to watch. Okay, back to the dreaded shoe shopping. Why can't running shoes just last forever? They're always changing, and you're expected to try them on in the store and just know if they'll be okay for a 20 mile run after taking a few steps in the store. The store I go to, Marx Running, will let you run on their treadmill to check out new sneaks. I can't handle all that attention though. I'd rather just try on the shoes and be done with it. So I went in and asked for the same shoes I currently had, tried them on, and they felt all wrong. Then I started to feel panicked (remember I don't like too much attention). Shoes are hard for me. I've tried most brands with little success, and have finally settled on Mizuno's, which seem to cause the least issues for my feet. Mark worked with me, and I settled on another Mizuno model that I was actually running in a few years ago. Phew. This was an important shoe shopping trip because the probability is high that these will be the shoes used for the marathon in October.

Saturday was great long run weather. Low 60's and just a little rainy. It was also an exciting day because I've recently found a new running buddy, Ana-Maria. We were running for the first time together. Are you at all wondering how I met Ana-Maria? Totally by accident on the Internet. We both read running blogs, found each other's blogs, and figured out that we were both training for BayState. Small world! We went out for a 20 miler, and wound up doing 8:18 pace. Definitely the most enjoyable long run I've had in quite some time. We talked most of the way, the time just flew by, and we did negative splits. It was a great run. I'm looking forward to running with Ana-Maria a few more times before the marathon.

During the long run we also ran into my mom a couple times. She is doing awesome! She ran 17.6 miles at 8:50 pace, which is faster than the pace I was running for my long runs last year (and she's only been running for about a year and a half). She's just doing incredible. At the rate she's going, she's definitely going to qualify for Boston (by a mile)!

Last Week's Training Log:
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 8 x 400 meter row intervals at 88 second pace + 50 minutes on the stationary bike
Wednesday: 5 mile run at 8:08 pace (82 degrees)
Thursday: 5 mile tempo run at 7:00 pace (69 degrees)
Friday: 60 minutes on the stationary bike
Saturday: 20 mile run at 8:18 pace (60 degrees)
Sunday: 60 minutes on the stationary bike