A little of this, a little of that

Where have I been, you ask? Oh, wait, there’s no one here to ask that question. I guess I’ll have to do something about that. Like maybe blog with a little more regularity.

So I’ve been running, among many other things. I just began a ten-week training schedule for the Manchester Half Marathon in November. Can’t believe I’m doing another half, but my sister-in-law kind of talked me into it. As my mileage increases I’m already noticing lots of tweaks and pains (mostly in my right leg) which annoy me mostly when I am just walking, not running. I can live with them, but then I get thinking about my form and my shoes and all the things that could possibly be contributing to my discomfort. I just finished reading “Born To Run” by Christopher McDougall which I highly recommend. It gets you thinking a lot and makes you wonder what good (if any) the modern-day running shoe does for us. There is a lot of debate over this subject and it’s certainly worth examination from every angle. Already the running shoe industry is trying to cash in on the “less is more” design for the ideal shoe (less cushioning, less motion-control) with the theory that the more material we put between our feet in the road, the less our foot is able to carry out its proper function, thereby causing runners more injuries instead of less. Personally I very much like the idea of staying in my current pair of shoes until the cushioning is all but destroyed because that fits nicely into my very lean budget.

I’ve got my “long” run today which is a scant 5 miles. Of course that will be increasing by at least one mile every week until the race. My overall weekly mileage is what will be key in this training schedule. This week I will have put in 17 miles and at the peak of my training my longest week will be 30. I’m hoping to beat my PR of 1hr, 12min which I think is completely within my grasp. I didn’t run nearly enough miles last time and had to deal with various illnesses as I was training during peak cold/flu season. Hopefully I will stave off both illness and injury and crush my previous time. We’ll see how it goes.

As I write this my husband is off on his long run, a mere 20 miles. He certainly serves as inspiration for my own runs. When I think of how far I need to go for each run, I just look at how much further he has to go and suddenly mine don’t seem so bad. Here he is all smiles with our good friend Curt having just finished a 10 mile trail race (Moose on the Loose)  in the blistering heat and humidity. These guys sure know how to have fun! I’m so glad that my race is in November-gotta love cool running weather!