Row Row Row your Boat, Gently Down the Stream....

Friday I took the day off so I could go to Lucas's first scrimmage of the season. I just love to watch my boy play football and I had a great time. Mike uploaded some video to youtube with some footage of my baby kicking ass. Awesome. (He is #55 in green and white).

That afternoon we ran some errands, then Mike and I went to Madison with my sister Michele to pick up her new pink bike, a Specialized Dolce - Sweet bike. I wonder if I could switch it with mine and maybe she wouldn't notice?? I will have to think on that.

Saturday morning I got up early to get Lucas off to football practice, then took off and ran a 6.5 mile route on my own and let Mike sleep in. He went out with his buddy and got in late. The route was different than normal and I looked for some hills which wasn't a problem since our neighborhood has plenty of them. When we got back to the house, we went to pick up a leopard gecko and some crickets to feed it. We had a tank set up ready and it was my nephew Jake's 8th birthday. He has admired our lizards (We have 4 currently) for so long I am glad I was able to get him his own. I think he liked it. His party was nice and Michele made great ice cream cake - yummy. (The lizard was a hit)

After the party we took a road trip to Endurance House in Madison. We were needing some new running shoes and we decided it was time to do their video evaluation of our stride and get recommendations for shoes based on our stride. It was pretty cool. They put you on the treadmill in flats and had you run. Then they slow the film down to watch the foot strike and load transfers, etc. I wish we would get a copy of the video, but I didn't even think to ask until we were gone. After watching my video, the guy said the mechanics of my stride were great, no pronation or other issues. He told me basically I could wear just about any shoe, but he brought out his top 4 recommendations - a Mizuno shoe, the Brooks Adrenaline, the Asics Nimbus, and the Asics Kayano 13. The arch it funny in the mizuno. The Brooks was OK, but felt like there was a lump under the ball of my foot. The 2 Asics both felt good, neither one really felt better than the other. I am just coming out of the Nimbus 7 and I have liked it, but I decided to give the Kayanos a try. One thing I found interesting was that he put me in a B width shoe and they felt fine. I have been buying D's because of my gargantuan Flintstone feet, but he said I didn't need them, they were supposed to fit snug for running. Go figure. He also said my occasional issues with forefoot numbness were possibly because I lace my shoes too loose down low and too tight up top. (I tried lacing them the way he said for today's run - no problems whatsoever....)

Today was another rainy day. it broke briefly about noon and Mike and I drove to the top of the hill and parked in the school parking lot (so we wouldn't have to get our new shoes muddy walking through the dirt road or soaking wet tromping though the grass). We ran a 4 mile loop to test out the new kicks and they felt so good we did another 2 mile loop back to Crosby and around. The shoes rock. And the run was fun. I have 26 miles in for the week - a marathon. I have been trying to follow my Runner World half marathon plan. I seem to run the tempos too slow and the long runs too fast. I guess it gives me something to work on.

Tomorrow is a much needed day off (from training anyhow). After work, I am headed to Studio 107 to wash that gray right outta my hair and get a fresh cut. I decided not to go to Stripper Girl at Salon Gianna this time and go see Jenny from the Tri Club. I like her and I bet she does an awesome job.

It has rained and rained and rained this week and no end in sight in the near future. It rained all day yesterday and all day today. We are supposed to get another ton overnight tonight. The Madison area is flooding like crazy, we just saw a house that is under a ton of water on the news. If this keeps up I am going to need a boat to paddle to work. I know my plants were thirsty but JEESH - Enough is Enough!!!