Grab Hold and Don't Look Left

It's the little things. The little things that add up. Every hundred pennies make a dollar, and with a dollar you can buy some GU. Every few thousand steps accumulate into a mile, and if you can figure out how to run one mile you can sure as shoes run twenty-six.

The minutia have been falling off my radar. I'm zoomed out on the big picture, when really I need to be examining each pixel. There are a little over a 160 days until my full marathon, and that's all I can think about. Yet, I'm still overlooking fundamentals that are going to make me succeed.

Building blocks like form, stretching, proper warm ups and things of that ilk. Do you ever get a little cocky and think Two miles? That's a waste of my time. Truth be told, that's my line of thought lately. My training schedule usually has a two miler mid week, and I've been either skipping it or not taking it seriously. After my 10k this morning, I realized that those two miles regardless of how short it may seem, could really benefit my training. I could use those as form-miles, or to interval train or a million other things that could make me not just better, but great. Great runners don't skip training do they? Great runners also don't phone in cross-training, but we shall save that epiphany for another post.

Yesterday, we didn't have anything set in stone and after my awful performance on Sunday I knew I needed something. So Goliath, my friend Amanda and myself went for a little stroll. It's so odd walking. How novel? It's actually quite relaxing. We walked to Goliath's favorite spot, hoping to catch some geese. Sure enough, there were four. Four meant, four times the effort for Goliath. He jumped in and I swear he ran on water, or well maybe rocks just beneath the surface. I may never really know if wants to play with the geese or eat them, but it's pretty funny watching him try.

Has anyone seen my dog?

We had our fun yesterday, so today was the real work. I think G-Money knew that too, because the second the leash clicked he was ready to roll. There were six miles to tread, and man did we. At our split, I was ready to be finished. Maybe that's why my training has been so successful on my trail, when I split I HAVE to go back. Running loops makes it too easy for me to quit, or make excuses.

Do not lecture me but, I have been running in retired shoes. OH MY GOD! GASP! I know, I'm awful. What is an injury prone runner doing in shoes that in effect caused injury? Well, my new Bowerman's have been killing my feet. For the life of me, I can not figure out why. They are the exact same shoe, just a newer model. Nike says there were no major changes, so why oh why do my feet ache after a mile? Today, I decided to give them one last shot before I gave up and splurged on a new pair. As expected the outer edge of my feet started aching at mile one, and was unbearable by mile two. Well I sat down, and untied the shoes. Instantly the pain dissipated. All this time my shoes were too tight, the last four miles my feet felt like feathers. Like I said, it's the little things.

Today's Mileage: 6.2
Time: 53:22