Christmas in July!

This week I discovered the best part about training for a marathon... You can say to your husband/person you share finances with, "Honey, I need to go buy a new pair of hundred dollar shoes," and there's no questions asked because it's a legitimate need! Ok, so the shoes are running shoes, not a new pair of cute heels or anything, but still! Yes, this week was new running shoe week. The guideline to replace running shoes is roughly every 6 months, or every 300-500 miles (I've seen a few different ranges). I figured my current shoes have a little over 300 miles on them and they're about 7 months old, so it was time to get a new pair that could be well broken in by the marathon.

When I bought shoes back in December, I went to Dick's Sporting Goods, and one of the salespeople helped me pick out my Asics 2140's. I have really loved these shoes, and haven't had any problems with them. This time though I wanted to go to an actual running store and have someone who specializes in running help me make sure I had the right shoe. So, I took my old pair of Asics to The Running Depot in Crystal Lake and told them I was training for a marathon and needed a new pair. The woman there looked at the wear pattern on the bottom of my shoes, and said that it was right down the middle which is good. She asked if I had any problems with the shoes, I told her no, so she suggested I go with the Asics 2150's, which is just the new version of what I had. Basically, if they're working for me, why switch? She checked the fit of the size I had been wearing, and that was correct too. I just have a brand new version of what I already had, in a new color, and the assurance that those shoes are a good fit for me!

My plan was to wear my new shoes for my shorter mid-week runs for the next couple of weeks in order to break them in and continue to wear my old pair for long runs until the new ones were broken in. I did wear them on my Thursday run, but in my 6am delirium this morning before my 12 mile run, I just put on whatever running shoes were by the door and set off for the trail. It wasn't until about a mile into my run that I realized I had put on my new shoes. There was nothing I could do except hope for the best, and that's what happened! I managed to get through 12 miles with no blisters (but man are my legs sore...). I guess these really are the shoes for me!

Miles this week: 24 miles
Weeks of training finished: 19 weeks
Total miles of training: 263 miles