New Kinsei

Hit the treadmill in my shiny new Kinsei last night. Easy 4 miles while watching Jack Bauer get duped again. After 5 really bad days in his life, he should know that everyone is trying to screw him, but I digress.

I wheezed a lot less this run. I guess that's good. Not wheezing at all would be better. I used a different inhaler this time, atrovent, because the albuterol stopped working. Atrovent is effective, but you have to use it several times a day. It's a pain in the ass. It tastes like ass. I'm not speaking from personal ass-tasting experience; it's metaphor for tasting really bad.

Back to my shoes. As a mini-torture test, I wore socks that previously gave me blisters. My feet felt great all four miles. The run was short, slow and on the treadmill, so it was hard to make a true assessment. I'll get a better idea as the week progresses.

I'm planning three 5-mile runs and eight on Sunday. I can't wait. I had to leave my running stuff at home to force myself to rest today.

That was too bad, because I like to look at my new shoes. They're very sparkly.

Therein lies the value of new shoes for me. Granted, they have fresh cushioning and support, thereby softening and correcting my stride. But more importantly, I want to run in them because they're very sparkly.

I want to try them on the treadmill. I want to try them on long runs. I want to hit the track with them and run my favorite hill. I want to show them to my running friends so they can look on in envy or roll their eyes in disdain. I want to race in them and try them on my favorite courses to see if they make a difference.

For my money, new shoes are good for a month or two of good hard effort just because they're new. Pairing them with different sock and insole combinations can tack on an extra motivating month or two. That's 250-500 miles of motivation. Even at the ridiculous price I paid, they're probably worth it. And they're very sparkly.

Long run and weekly wrap up

Long run was pretty easy this week: 8 miles at marathon pace. Ran our canal course and it was 43 degrees or so with no wind. Nice.

Had some blister issues. On Thursday I used some new socks my wife bought, Champion C9 with a thinner sole. They caused a blister on my left pinkie toe in less than seven miles. The blister was pretty painful, so I switched back to my generic Coolmax socks from Target. I'll stick to these for the race.

Left piriformis is tight, per usual. No issues on the right side.

Final tally: 5.4 miles speed work, 5.7 tempo, 2.8 easy, and 8 long.