So I've been wanting to try on the new Under Armour running shoes for a while now just to see how they fit and if they're actually any good. 

To my beloved turquoise Mizunos,

You have been so good to me for the past six months, getting me through a half marathon, my knee rehab and my return to running. Sadly you are old and worn out and now I must let you go. I'm sad for us to part ways and I will miss our time spent together on the road. I apologize for replacing you with a new flashier (and way cleaner) version. It must be hard for you to know that your twin is going to be going with me on my long runs, tempo runs, short runs, all my runs from now on and you will be demoted to my cross-training shoes. It was a tough decision, but I promise, it's not you, it's me.

-- Jess

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Last night I picked up my new Mizunos and they are all kinds of bright colors. I've been running in the Wave Inspire for a long time and I've had blues, oranges, yellows, but none of them as electric as the blue/purple comb on my new ones. I know you're supposed to break in your shoes before races, but I'm breaking that cardinal rule. I've got a 5K on Sunday and probably won't be able to get a run in before then.

I also finally registered for the Celtic Solstice 5 Miler in Baltimore in December. I'm really looking forward to it.

And I put together a marathon training schedule last night. I haven't registered yet, but I've got the schedule. It starts in earnest on Nov. 17th. So from now until then I'm not going to follow anything really, just going to do some runs when I can.

Lots of catching up to do.

Soccer on Wed. night was tons of fun. It was a pretty close game for a while, but then we ended up losing 3-1. It was a bummer, but we still had a blast.

The only bad part was that my friend and I were running late because we got out of work late so we didn't really have time to warm up before heading into the game. As a result, I tweaked my right quad.

I was playing defense in the first half and felt a dull pain a little bit during half time, but I stretched it out and figured I was good to go back on D for the second half because we had plenty of subs. I played for a while and then got subbed for which was good news. But then one of our mid's needed a sub really badly and no one volunteered to go in so I said I would.

Bad decision. I spent the night with an XL Icy-Hot patch slapped on my quad and a bag of frozen veggies on my right knee (I got decked by an opposing player and have quite the bruise to show for it.)

Thursday morning I lifted upper body at the gym and thought about walking on the treadmill to keep the quad loose. It felt OK so I thought I'd try a light jog. Bad decision number two. I stopped right away though and stretched it out.

The quad seemed to get better as the day went on and then this morning I thought I'd take it for a spin in cycling and see how things went. Surprisingly no pain at all. (Could be because I slathered on some Bengay last night to help...nothing like the smell of Bengay in the evening haha)

Cycling was awesome. I got such a stellar workout. It was a great way to blow off steam because my personal life is stressing me to the max. I don't like posting too much personal stuff on here, but suffice it to say the male gender is not on my good side right now (sorry fellas!)

As far as the new shoes decision. I think I'm going to go out for my 9 miler tomorrow morning in the ones I have now and see how it goes from there. I may just buy the new shoes anyway because I'm going to need them eventually. More on that decision to come.

I feel like this morning's run was the first solid one I've had in a while. Things felt pretty good and I was able to push the speed on the treadmill to 6.5.

I did my usual warm up and then started pushing the speed by .5 every five minutes. I topped off at 6.5 from minutes 15-20 and then brought it down to 6.0 til 25 minutes and then dropped it to 5.5 to 30 minutes.

I kicked it back up to 6.0 from 30-35 and finished off the last five minutes at 5.5.

The only thing that bothered me was my left heel a little bit in the beginning. It faded after about 5 minutes or so, but I'm wondering if this might be an early warning sign that it's time to get new shoes.

My biggest fear with the upcoming race is that my shoes will bonk out the day of the race and that would probably be the worst thing in the entire world.

So what do you guys think. Time to go cash in for a new pair of Mizunos?

Today was quite the exciting day. Time to retire the old running sneakers in exchange for a brand new pair. There's nothing quite like lacing up a new pair of sneakers and christening them on their first run. Tomorrow will be an exciting run!

I decided since I'm in marathon training, I obviously needed a good pair of running sneakers, and instead of just going to a sporting goods store and wandering among the shoes pretending I know exactly what I need, I went to a store specifically for runners. The guy who waited on me looked at my old sneakers to see how I pronate and to determine whether I have a high or low arch (mine is slightly higher than normal). Then he made me walk to the other side of the room and back so he could see my stride. Based on that little bit of information and my foot measurement, he went into the back room and brought back two pairs of sneakers - Aisics and Mizunu (not really sure on the spelling there). He let me lace up both pairs, go outside the store, and run up and down the street a couple times to see if I liked one or both pairs.

The decision itself was pretty easy. The pair I chose felt like an extension of my foot. It supported my arch perfectly, even though it isn't a "stability" shoe. Gray with some yellow. The Mizunu. Perfect. I literally cannot wait to hit the road tomorrow. (Unfortunately it was raining all day today and it was a cross-training day). Hopefully, the weather will clear up, and I will have some optimal running conditions for the first run in the new shoes!

What made today even better was that after I got my new shoes, I decided I should probably invest in some good running apparel. I have a few of the moisture-wicking tops, but not very many. So I hit the store, and lucky for me, there was a clearance on them! I got three new tops for $9.97 each! What a steal!

What a great day!

Three miles tomorrow!