Weekend Musings

Not a whole lot to report here. I did as I said and cut out most of my training last week. I think it did a body good. I got in a couple of runs during the week. On Saturday I went up to Columns for an hour and grinded it out for a few laps. Sunday, I went for a 6 mile run. My body didn't feel great but my pace was swift.

In other news, I purchased some new kicks. My readers may remember my love affair with Asics Gel-Kayano. I went through 6-7 pairs of these shoes and probably close to 2000 miles. Well the affair is over. In fact it was over in January. I visited my favorite store Big Peach to discuss going a different route. We determined that the stability shoe was possibly giving me TOO much stability thus forcing my foot outward. The outward motion contributed to my ITBS situation. So I switched over to a more neutral shoe and poof many of the ITBS problems have gone away. GRRRR...

Fast forward a few weeks and it was time to purchase another pair of shoes. I am generally pleased with my Saucony Progrid Guide. However, I wanted to review all my options. I ended up buying two pairs of shoes. The Saucony Progrid Guide 2 and the Nike Zoom Structure Triax. I have decided that unless I find a shoe I love this year that I am going to mix it up a bit. I hope to purchase a pair of Zoot shoes in the next few weeks. My thoughts are that since I am not perfectly happy, why settle? Each of the shoes are slightly different and will work different muscles. Barring any pain, this should make me a stronger runner.

On another note, I have a bit fit for this week. Heading up to All3 to check out the Retul system. I am a bit skeptical but I trust Matt. He has fit me before. Hopefully he can position me better while increasing my wattage. And if he can take some pressure off of my right hip and ITBS then great.

I am still pondering Gulf Coast. I think I want to see how I respond to training this week before making the final determination. Coach Dan has me testing this week so it will be interesting to see where my numbers fall. I certainly believe they will be UP from the last test. And in other news, I will be racing just outside of Chattanooga in two weeks. It is just a small sprint. Hopefully it will be fun.