That’s how I would describe my new running shoes, purchased on Saturday afternoon. After much hemming and hawing, I finally sucked it up, realized that my foot would only get worse, and bought some new shoes. I went to Falls Road Running, which has been labeled as the best running store in the area. I have to say I was mighty impressed with my inaugural visit. It’s tucked away in a pseudo-shopping center in Mt. Washington off of Falls Rd and I found it only by exploring the area a little and coming upon its small sign. The store itself is crammed into several rooms and when it’s busy (which it probably always in on Saturday afternoons), it can be hard to move around because the doorways connecting the rooms are narrow. However, these are trifling matters because you’re there to buy running stuff.
So I got there and a salesperson came up to help me because I must have looked like I had no idea what I was doing, which was the correct assumption. He put me on a machine where you stand on these pads and a computer shows you where you put the most pressure on your foot. He also had me balance on one foot to see what sort of stability I needed in my shoe. I tried three different pairs on and eventually settled on a pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7’s. From the title of this post, you can surmise how comfortable they are. It’s a whole different running experience from my Adidases. While they were comfortable, there wasn’t a whole lot of cushioning or support. My new shoes have a gel insole that molds to your foot shape, as well as additional support in my heel and arch to keep the arch pain away. And since I registered for the Baltimore Running Festival, I got a 15% discount on them. Not bad all in all.
So I got to try them out yesterday for the first time. Normally I use Sundays or Saturdays as my long run days, but since these were new shoes, I just did an easy 3.5 miles. While I’m confident that I won’t get blisters like those I had last week (they’re all but healed now; I had to pop one over the weekend but there’s no soreness or redness involved so I think I’m in the clear), I thought it prudent to wait until next weekend to do anything longer than the usual mileage. So, tonight after work I’ll get another 3.5 miles in.
In terms of running this week, Annie’s dad is coming to visit on Wednesday and Thursday so I don’t know how much running I’ll get in on those days. Wednesday evening we’re going to the Orioles game (against the Rangers, which would have at least allowed me to see Mark Texeira, who I think is a great player, until they traded him to Atlanta. Thanks Texas.) and then Thursday night we’re going to Obrycki’s for crab. So, I’m thinking I might have to get up early Wednesday morning to get some miles in and then take Thursday off before pushing through Friday to a long run on Saturday because we’re going to visit my parents for the day on Sunday. That’s the basic plan I just made up right now as I type. We’ll see how it goes.
One final note: I signed up for the Phidippidations Global Couch to 5K Program. Basically, it’s an online program that you can register for. It’s being held on the weekend of October 13-14, 2007 and all you have to do is register and run in a race on that weekend. They also have the Global Half Marathon for that weekend, but I’m not quite at that level yet! So the Untied Way 5K that I’m running as part of the Baltimore Running Festival will be my Couch to 5K race. You can go to the website and see everyone who’s registered (you can find my entry by organizing the list by city and finding Baltimore).
Go to: Worldwide Half
I found out about this by listening to the Phidippidations podcast that I read about in July’s Runners World magazine. I encourage you to check that out too. Here’s the link to the producer, Steverunner, website:
Phidippidations
Alternatively, you can download the podcast off of iTunes. I’ll write an entire post about Phidippidations another time.
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