The Daily Log 1/6/09

Distance: 4.04 miles
Time: 35:48
Pace: 8:52/mile
Weight: 194lbs
Terrain: Rolling Hills
Temperature: Cold and calm
Gear: Long-Sleeved Adidas Climacool Shirt, Adidas long training pants over Nike running shorts, Reebok Stocking Cap, iPod Shuffle, Nike Air Zoom Vomero Shoes
Hydration: None
Fuel: None
Medical: Shins
Recovery: Stretches, ice, Aleve
Shoe Mile Count: 297.45 miles
Days until Marathon: 12

After two days of rest, I had a bit of cabin fever. Yesterday was a bad day, with Meadow figuring out how to escape from the back yard. Might not sound like a big deal, but she has the energy of a nuclear power plant, so the yard had been a life saver; now I need to figure out a way to keep her in it. In addition, my work computer crashed which obviously slowed me down work-wise too, so it was rather stressful all around.

My point in sharing these apparently trivial events with you is that I've realized how much running balances me out. I'm usually more mentally relaxed the days that I run, and the longer it's been since the last one, the more tightly wound I feel, so I was really looking forward to logging a few miles today.

All that being said, much as I was grateful to be back out there, this wasn't the most comfortable run. My legs felt worn down, and both shins were sore (the right one in particular). It wasn't dreadful. I ran at a pretty good clip and by the time I was done, I was feeling pretty good, but it caused me to start questioning once again whether a new shoe purchase might not be such a bad idea after all. It's difficult to feel the decrease in cushioning when you run frequently with the same shoes, but I do feel somewhat more aware of the impact of the steps now. Of course, this could just as easily be explained by the buildup of the mileage itself as any deterioration in footwear. We'll see.

Six more training runs left. Only two of those will be longer than four miles; a 6 miler tomorrow, and 8 miles on Sunday. My heart wants me to do more. Fortunately, my brain and my legs aren't listening.

Please visit my 'Make Cures Happen' fundraising page and make a donation for research into leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Also, check out my blog entry for more.