Well, if any of you have been following me on my Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts, you know that I recently purchased 2 new pairs of shoes. I purchased a new pair of New Balance trainers and my first pair of Hoka One One Tracers. I purchased the New Balance from Kohl's and was surprised by the amount of cushion when I tried them on. I went to Amazon to purchase the Hoka’s so I wasn’t able to try them on before purchasing. I ran a few short runs in the New Balance and found that my right arch would start hurting. But I could walk around all day in them at school and they wouldn’t hurt my arch at all. I kinda gave up on them once my Hoka’s came. However, these did the exact same thing! I have tried loosening my laces, inserts, you name it with the Hoka’s. I’m super frustrated because I paid a bunch of money for them and I don’t understand why they are hurting my foot. I’ve never had arch pain before. My MIL says that I just need to break them in some more. I’m going to give both pairs of shoes a few more chances and make some tweaks with my laces, etc. and then we’ll see what happens. Right now it’s not putting a huge damper on my training as I’m only using them for my short evening runs, but my old Asics are getting pretty worn down so these shoes need to get broken in fairly quickly or I’m going to have to go back to Asics and buy more shoes. Hubby is not going to be happy about that, but I gotta do what’s best for my feet. I’ll keep you posted.
Hoka’s New Balance (re-laced on the right side)
So besides the issues with my shoes, training has been going pretty well. I’m happy with it anyway! I’m running my long runs on Saturdays and Sundays. Speed work is on Tuesdays now with increasing distance and stamina with speed! AH!! Thursdays have been tempo runs, but since the plan is no longer calling for hill work, I am alternating weeks with tempos and hill repeats. This week was especially tough as my speed work was 4X800 drills and then I did 10 hill repeats on Thursday. My legs are definitely feeling it! It feels amazing though and I know all this work with speed, hills, and strength training is really going to pay off when my marathon comes around in November. The weather has been amazing as well recently. It finally decided it was time to be spring in Wisconsin and not winter any more! That makes me a very happy runner. It’s still a little chilly in the mornings, but I’ve been able to run in capris and a long-sleeve shirt, so I am not complaining one bit about that. I’ve also been using my new headlamp I purchased a couple weeks ago and let me tell you, that thing is bright! I love it! I can see where I am going and I think I am almost blinding the cars coming at me! LOL I’m just glad I am visible and won’t be getting run over!
Check out my new head lamp!!!
Last Saturday I ran in the Parkinson’s Half Marathon in Cottage Grove, WI. This was my first time running in this race. I am so running it again though!! It was a really nice course, mainly flat with one hill at the very end!! Not nice, but the last downhill to the finish was amazing!! It was an out and back course on the Glacial Drumlin State Trail and the weather was beautiful! My only complaint for the race was that towards the end of the race the temps started to creep up and I was getting seriously warm! The trail has trees on both sides for a great majority of it, but with it still only being April, there weren’t many leaves to shade the trail and the sun was out in full force! I loved it for the most part. I was definitely glad to see the finish line though, that’s for sure.
So as you read above I have been having shoe issues. Knowing this I wore my old New Balance shoes that I ran my marathon in last November. These shoes haven’t really given me any trouble besides one time where my calves were really tight and my arch hurt a bit, but nothing like my new shoes. Anyway, We arrived at the race really early for packet pick-up and to find parking. We were an hour early! But because of that my feet were in my shoes longer than usual before a race. My feet started to swell almost immediately when I started running. My arch began to hurt and my feet started to fall asleep. Both of them were numb by mile 4! I had to stop and adjust my laces. I loosened both shoes and kept on going. My feet still felt numb for about a half mile, but then they came back to life! I was so thankful. I was worried I was going to have to DNF this race! After making this adjustment I ran on at a pretty good pace until about mile 6-7. I knew I was getting worn and needed some fueling. I took a GU and drank some water. This helped and I was able to pump out the last few miles really nicely. I even had a burst of energy with some really good songs at mile 10! It felt fantastic! I started passing people and really just couldn’t wait to get to the finish line! After climbing the hill at the end and heading downhill, I saw my parents and pushed through. I saw my hubby and kids closer to the finish line cheering for me which always makes me smile and push that little bit further! I stopped my watch after getting my medal and saw a time of 2:21, not a PR for me but only 2 minutes off from my PR. Super happy about that for my first official race of the season. My official time came in at 2:21:11. Very nice and respectable time for myself!
Not the best photos but my phone got moisture in the camera part from all my sweating!!! I love the orange and black finisher medal though! I don’t have one with those colors yet!!!!
Ok now let me tell you about the spread at the end of this race!!! Cottage Grove is a very small city in Wisconsin. Probably about the size of the city hubby and I live in of Milton, so like 6,000 people. Very cute, quiet community. This is homegrown, small town living at its best! There were at least 6 long rectangular tables set up with goodies galore!! There was pizza, pulled pork, muffins, cookies, brownies, you name it!! ANd most of it was HOMEMADE!!!! And delicious!! I let my kiddos sample some goodies since I knew I wasn’t going to be able to eat too much of this rich food. They loved it!! I think for this reason alone I would do this race again!
Overall, I was very pleased with this race (besides my foot pain and falling asleep). I am super excited that race season has started. I love running and race season makes me love it even more! It gives me a purpose for my running besides just for fun! It also brings out my competitive side that has been hibernating all winter!!
I have some fantastic news to share about my New Balance shoes! I finally tried re-lacing them to allow for more room over my arch! AND, IT WORKED!!!! I took them out last Friday for a 3 mile run and NO arch pain!!! I was so excited that I took them out on my long runs this weekend! NO pain those days either!! I am going to re-lace my Hoka’s and see if that helps with them as well! I certainly hope so, but seriously, one happy runner girl right here knowing that I have at least one new pair of shoes for training that are not giving me pain any more!!!
Well, I think that sums up what has been going on in my training so far and my pretty awesome first race of the season!
I have a personal day tomorrow from school to celebrate EJ’s 6th birthday! We had his party this past weekend so be prepared for a blog about how awesome that was very soon!!!
Until Next Time!! RUN ON!!!
Laura
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