Y5K #2

So, rather than make a separate entry for every 5K related thing that I do, I'm thinking I'll just try to post an update once a week or so, recapping the latest developments. Since last I wrote:

• Last Wednesday, I hit the treadmill for a set of 5 minutes walking and 1 minute jogging. (with 5 minutes of walking to start and end) And my right foot really was bugging me quite a bit. Not until I first did some jogging, but then throughout the rest of the workout. So that kind of bugged. Made me wish for warmer weather so I could run outdoors.

• Friday, after getting back from Natalie's graduation in Provo, the day was looking nice, so I headed out for another 5/1 set in the neighborhood by my house. And really had almost no foot pain. Don't know what's different about the treadmill, but something seems to be different.

• Saturday morning, I finally made it to Salt Lake Running Company to get some new shoes. I sometimes get nervous about trying new things, so I called Julie and got her to accompany me over there. And wouldn't you know, she happened to know one of the guys working there. (Of course she did). Anyway, that made it nice to know that I was just getting worked by a salesman. I mean maybe I was, but at least it was a friend of a friend. :) Anyway, he had me run on their treadmill and we looked at the video and he showed me that I overpronate which probably exacerbates the foot pain that I have. Which I kind of suspected from digging around online about the location of my pain. After that he picked out several pairs of shoes for me to try on, and when I found one I liked best then we tried out some inserts. None of the inserts really felt that comfortable, in fact the most comfortable one was actually one that he'd put in the wrong shoe (left insole in the right shoe). Not sure what that says about me and my feet, but in any case, I opted for the time being to just stick with the sock liners that came in the shoes. Oh, and I even learned what the 2nd pair of eyelets at the top of the shoe are for. Something called butterfly lacing. Who knew?

My new shoes.

• Monday (today) I hit the treadmill in the exercise room again, to test out my new kicks on a 4/1.5 minute walking/jogging set. And while I did still have a little pain, it was nothing like what I was feeling with the old pair. So that was nice. I was able to run relatively pain-free and felt like I got some good exercise. Still total distance came out right around 2.2 miles. Same as what I did with the 5/1 sets, but those were actually a couple minutes longer total. (I do 4 sets of each plus the 5 minutes of warm-up/cool-down walking on the ends).

Anyway, it was nice to finally get some new shoes and to have been able to stick to my training schedule so far. By the end of this week, I'm supposed to be up to 1 minute of jogging for every 3 minutes of walking, so that should be interesting. I'm optimistic. Now if only spring would get here instead of forecasts with highs in the 40s and morning snow.