My New Shoes + Freedom!

After running with Mindy on Friday, I decided I needed to go buy some new shoes right away. I went in to Salt Lake Running Company (my favorite store), not even intending on trying any on. I was just going to grab a pair of Nike Frees and get out of there. I even brought George with me, I was so convinced of this. Of course, when I got there, I saw that they didn't have my Nike Frees. They had the new model, and one that was slightly different with a tong. I just asked him to check if they had the new model in my size, and they didn't. Of course. Dang big feet! He offered to call over to their other store to see if they had any in my size, and they didn't. So I decided to just go with the ones with the tong. They did have those in my size and they were all black with white details. Cool!

After I tried those on to make sure they worked, I asked the salesman about having 2 pairs of shoes to switch off. He said it's a good thing to do, but that it's a good idea to have 2 different kinds of shoes because that way you're working different muscles. That made sense so I asked him what shoes he would recommend to go with the Nike Free, and should my Nike Frees be for speed work or distance? He said they would be my distance shoe, and to try the Saucony Kinvara for my speed shoe.

It seems like I've tried the Saucony one on before and didn't really like it, but I was willing to give it another try. This time when I put it on, it felt comfortable. And when I went and tried it out on the treadmill, it felt fast! I've heard people say shoes are fast before, and thought that was kind of silly. But that was the best way to describe how these shoes felt. They're also florescent green! (Dang, now I just found them here for $68 and with more colors to choose from! Oh well.)

I got both pairs, and my budget said, "Ouch!" But I was excited to run in my new shoes the next day!

Background music.


Saturday was my long run so I took out my black Nikes and did 12 miles in 2:12!

I ran up City Creek until I got to 6 miles, which took me about 1:15. It was slow work getting up there, but I enjoyed it. And I really enjoyed the view once I got up there! I found a bathroom just before my turnaround, and it was right where I needed it. It was off the road a little bit and a jeep trail continued on past it so I took that trail instead of the paved road I'd been running on to finish out my distance. That was really fun, even if it was just for a few minutes. I really need to start trail running more! When I stopped, I just felt so excited about how far I'd come, what I had accomplished, and just how beautiful it was up there!

These pictures from my phone really don't do it justice. It was such a beautiful morning!

Then I got to run down, down, down back into the city and home!

It was so much fun running down, and being able to go fast for so long! I felt so good, and so happy to be out there running. Then the 2010 world cup song (That you should be listening to right now...) came on my ipod and I got really emotional as I was running past the temple. I think it was a combination of listening to this powerful song, feeling the spirit as I looked at the temple, feeling so free and grateful that I'm getting stronger and able to run, and the endorphins I had from running. I was seriously fighting back tears and hoping no one would think something was wrong with me! I highly recommend adding this song to your running playlist.

The last mile or so was hard. It's always the hardest isn't it? It seems extra hard because that's where the ground flattens out after running downhill for so long. I got home and got a shower before making breakfast for my family and my brother's family who were stopping buy. Then it was a quick nap before taking the girls to their ballet rehearsal. We brought 2 girls home with us to play when that got over, and right after they left, we baby-sat our 3 little nephews for the rest of the night. Whew, what a day!

It felt really good to have 12 miles done!

Sunday was rest day.

Monday was the day to try out my Sauconys!

It's my recovery week this week so I decided to just do a 30 minute, not too hard tempo-ish run real quick before my swim. I ran my first mile nice and easy, feeling really good. When my Garmin beeped, I was shocked to see that that mile had taken me less than 10 minutes! It usually takes me more like 12 minutes to do my first warm up mile! So, I decided to try to keep it under 10 minute miles the whole time, but to keep my heart rate in zone 2. I did it! I finished the 3 miles in almost exactly 30 minutes! And it felt really nice and easy! That was awesome!

I told Pete about it, and how I think it might have been the shoes and he said, "You're like a little kid who thinks getting new shoes makes them faster." I know it seems funny, but I think that might have been exactly what happened!  I don't know how to explain it other than, because of the shape of the shoes, it feels like they're launching me forward.

I swam 2500 yards strait after that, and was able to finish in 47:10! I know that's not really super fast, but it's good for me! And that's counting the 30 seconds I stopped to stretch after the first 500. I was happy with it, and it was so awesome to be done with both my workouts by 7:30! I'll have to do that more often.

I haven't tried my Sauconys again because I got the stomach flu Tuesday right after my easy run with George to the ducks and my short, hard bike ride. It was weird because I would kind of feel sick, but then I'd be ok. I even had a few visions of throwing up on the side of the road during my bike ride, but for the most part I felt fine. The last mile or so, I started to not feel good again and I ended up just getting into bed without even showering when I got home. I slept for like 3 hours, then woke up and had Pete go pick Elle up at 2. She had gone home with a friend after school which turned out to be really nice for me since George was sleeping so I could just sleep. Then I was really sick until about 7 or 8. Yuck.

It was awful, but I'm so glad Pete had been able to stay home that day so he could take care of me and the kids. The other kids were all sick too and they just watched TV all day, but George needed attention. Elle got sick at around 5, and I felt bad for letting her go to her friend's house. I hope they don't get sick!

I just had to lay in bed for like 8 or 9 hours, and it really made me appreciate my health and made me feel so bad for people who have to stay in bed for days, weeks, or months! That is one of the main reasons I like to run - because I can! I almost feel like I would be wasting this precious health I've been blessed with if I didn't. I really do feel that "when I get older, I will be stronger." At least up to a point. :)

It was a hard day, and I was so glad to be feeling so much better Wednesday! I realized I wasn't 100%, though, when I had to lay down after going down and up the stairs. I took the day off from training, and went on a cleaning rampage because my house looked like a war zone after me being out of commission for a day! I didn't realize I cleaned that much every day!

I thought about getting back to my schedule today, but when I got up at 5:30 for swimming I still wasn't feeling great so I got back in bed. I'll take one more day off, and hopefully feel great for my long run tomorrow!