Week Four

Tuesday evening run was good; Thursday I ran with Jamie and she and I took a longer route and she let me push myself at much faster pace than usual. I was still able to keep up a breathy conversation, so I didn't push the pace too hard, but it was difficult to rein myself back. The pace will be great for my next 5K this weekend, but I couldn't hold something like that for long during a marathon. I really need to run with a watch and teach my muscles to hold a slower pace.

Saturdays are notoriously full for me, and while I manage to to wedge in an hour or so of running somewhere in my day, it's rarely with the team in the morning. This weekend was the first one I've made it to with the team, and it was also the longest I've run - we did most of the Cotton Row route on the NE end of town, approx. 6.2 miles with lots of hills, which is great practice for Birmingham. That's going to be my biggest learning curve, elevation change. Having grown up in the North Dakota/ Minnesota Red River Valley where it is F-L-A-T, and now I have to deal with inclines and hills and the occasional small mountain.

Went to Fleet Feet yesterday. They did a great job, as always. Tried several shoes, and a pair of inserts, and inevitably ended up liking the Most Expensive Pair in the heap *roll eyes* I always have had expensive taste, even when I don't know it. At least I don't have a shoe fetish, or I'd be in deep financial trouble! If I put as many miles on these shoes as I anticipate, I'll probably need a new pair sometime in January, which will be just long enough to break in a new pair before the race mid-February. I might could make them last until February... just not sure yet how hard I'm going to be on them.