Today I did some crying.

Let me back up a little. Last week was rough on my running. Rough as in I ran a whole 12 miles.  I was a bit sick, and I've been dealing with some foot pain. The ball of my left foot has been very sore. This has been happening on and off for a few weeks now. This week it just seemed worse than before. In an attempt to get answers I went to a local running store and left just as confused as before. Basically, I still didn't know if it was my shoes or not. I took a few days off and felt much better this morning. As soon as I put my running shoes on my foot instantly was sore in that one spot. I ran anyway and regretted it for the rest of the day. You can see my profession of my love for my Brooks PureFlows here. After today I assumed the pain was caused by my shoe and took myself to another running store for more help. This time went a bit better, the guy was pretty certain that my shoes were just worn out. I was shocked because they only had 275 to 300 miles on them. I know that's about how long they're supposed to last, but my first and second pair of PureFlows had many more miles than that on them before they were replaced and I never had any pain.

I let him show me some different shoes, I really love the PureFlows but just can't justify having to replace them so often, but I didn't really love any of them. I left bummed which quickly turned into a crying fit when I told Paul about my new shoes that were already worn out. I was so sad because shoes are expensive and I definitely can't afford to replace mine every couple of months. And we're getting ready to go to DC and I had all these big plans to run all over the place. I couldn't do that if my shoes were hurting my feet so badly. Paul must have felt sorry for me because he told me to just buy new shoes. After doing some research (I started a few days ago) I decided to try something new in the hopes of finding something that will last longer. I decided on the Altra Torin. Altra shoes are appealing to me because they are zero drop which means the heel and forefoot are the same distance from the ground. This allows for a more natural foot strike. They also have a foot shaped toe box, it's wider and more roomy than traditional shoes. It allows your toes to spread out in the shoe which in turn allows the foot to maintain proper anatomical position. These features are supposed to prevent forefoot pain (ding, ding, ding), excessive pronation, IT band injury, runner's knee and shin splints. Altra makes a few different shoe options, I went with the one with lots of cushioning. They felt really good on my feet and are still really light weight. I haven't run in them yet, I'm hoping to do a short treadmill run tomorrow to test them out, but I'm hopeful that I'll like them. Only time will tell I guess.

I did try on some other shoes but I just don't like the feel of the traditional running shoe with the big wedge of a heel. So, keep your fingers crossed that the Torin works out for me. They aren't the most attractive shoe I've ever seen, but I don't really care at this point.

Best Day Ever!

Ok, so it's not really the best day ever, but so far it's been pretty great.

When it comes to running when I'm sick I follow the "neck rule", if I have symptoms below the neck (body aches, fatigue, chest congestion, stomach bugs, ect.) I don't run. If my symptoms are above the neck I'll still usually run but I tend to keep the distance short and the pace easy until I've recovered. If I'm sick and feel like garbage I just take the day off, regardless of the neck rule. The first couple days of this cold I was exhausted and didn't run but the last couple of days I've just had a runny nose and scratchy throat so I've stuffed my pockets with Kleenex and hit the road.

Even though I am sick today's run felt great. I felt like I could run all day. It's been a while since I've had a run like that, too long. I ran with my mom and the pace was really easy. I think that was the key to today's success. Either way, it left me feeling good. And then these little beauties arrived!

The new Brooks PureFlow 2s!

Paul ordered them for me for Christmas and I've been not so patiently waiting. I'm bummed that they got here right after my run, but you can bet I'll be testing them out tomorrow. This is my third pair of PureFlows and I think it's safe to say that I'll be wearing these on my runs until they stop making them. They better never stop making them. I wear them for all my runs, I'm not fancy (rich) enough to have different shoes for different runs and these work perfectly for all of them. I even wore them for the marathon. The first version of the PureFlows is pretty cheap now because the new ones are out. If you've thought about trying them now is the time. They're great for forefoot strikers without pronation issues. I can't say enough good things about them.