new shoes.

This week I was out of town and missed our team meeting at Fleet Feet in Greenville. I convinced my mom to take me to Fleet Feet in Huntsville so I could get new shoes. I was looking at my old shoes last week, and although I feel like I just got them, they were already pretty worn down. They were starting to hurt my feet and I knew that they were really the correct shoes for me. The guy at Fleet Feet in Huntsville was very helpful and finally got me in the perfect pair. He also suggested insoles which help support my arch more. These new shoes feel so good I never want to take them off! I really tested them out this morning on our long run. They felt great and I can't imagine not having them now!

There is still a little mix up about out schedule. We are now on week four. That's right, week four. I am so good that I went from week one to four. Not really. This morning we were going to run either 6 or 7 miles depending on what we felt like. I stuck with the 6 miles since I will also be running tonight in the Candlelight 5K Run. The group I was running with  wasn't real sure the course for the 5 mile loop around Furman and so by the time we finished running we were under an hour and we all felt that there was no way we ran 6 miles in that amount of time. So we ran another mile and so I think we probably ran around 6.5 miles. I felt pretty good today, although towards the end I started getting very hungry and a little weak. I'll have to start thinking about options to refuel on these longer runs. I think my few days of rest this week really helped me out. I definitely need to take a couple days off of running a week just to let my body recover.

Tonight I am going to run the Candlelight 5k Run with my cousin, Christian. I'm thinking he is definitely going to give me a run for my money. I am going to really go out and see what I can do. I need to push myself a little harder than I have lately, just so I know what I am capable of. The summer going into my freshman year of college, I was in the best shape of my life. I ran a 5K race in Athens that summer and finished in 26:03. If I can even get close to that, I will be very happy! So we'll see. I've been running my training runs at about 10 minute miles, so shaving off 4 minutes doesn't seem that impossible! I'll let you know how it goes.

Every time I talk about new shoes, I hear this song in my head. "Hey, I put some new shoes on, And suddenly everything is right, I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling, It's so inviting, Oh, short on money, But long on time, Slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine, And I'm running late, And I don't need an excuse, 'cause I'm wearing my brand new shoes." Lyrics from Paolo Nutini's song New Shoes.