Updates And New Gear

I'm over a week back into running and my foot seems to be holding up pretty well. It was a little sore after my 11 mile run on Saturday, but that didn't last very long. In fact, as long as I am moving (walking or running), my foot seems to feel fine, it only really starts to bother me when I do a lot of standing around. I did buy a new pair of running shoes, Saucony Omni 13s. They are a stability shoe with a solid mid-sole and good arch supports to help prevent over pronation while running. I wore them for the first time on a 5 mile run yesterday and they felt great. I'm hoping to break them in well enough for my next race.

The return of cool weather was welcome after a few days of 90 degree temperatures early last week. The one down side has been the relentless wind over the weekend that kept me off of my bike. It is hard to imagine, but the outdoor triathlon season kicked off in Iowa over the weekend with the Hickory Grove Triathlon. Had I not been planning on running a marathon in June, there is a good chance I would have signed up for that race but with the weather that we had, I'm glad I didn't. Brrrrrr!

I'm still really bummed about missing out on running the marathon, but have been putting my triathlon training program together for the summer and that has lifted my spirits some. I'm hoping for some warmer weather in the next couple of weeks to get the local lake temperatures up to allow for open water swimming. I purchased a swim buoy to use while swimming in open water. It will help me be more visible as well as contains a dry storage compartment to take things with me out in the water. I'm hoping that I can also attach my Garmin watch to it for more accurate estimates of the distance that I am swimming.

It is less than 2 weeks until Erin runs the Dam to Dam and she has been crushing it lately. The past 2 weekends she has completed long runs of 11 and 12 miles with ease. I'm very excited for her to run this race and continue to build her running confidence. As a side note, she has also discovered my stash of sports beans and fallen in love. Gels and endurance chews have never really sat well with her while running, but the sports beans seem to do the trick. She is lucky I'm willing to share.

I have a lot of coworkers that will be running the Dam to Dam half marathon this year as well, including my Thursday running partner, Megan. It is going to be a very exciting weekend and I'm hoping for good weather.