11.83 Miles, Sunday Long Run

Beautiful day. First run on the new Pumas purchased at Solepeppers. Been dying to head in to get some shoes, easy decision yesterday as I received $63 in the mail for doing an online survey a few months back. Nothing better than cash in the mail that was not expected. Had a great experience at the shop, Alan was there helping another client while I was fitted with Alan's weekend guy. Definitely patient as I waded through most all of the neutral, low profile trainers. Finally decided on the Puma Tenos V. They just felt the most natural, almost sock like. They definitely fit a little small, but they seemed snug and comfortable around the store and the building.

Unbelievable run today. Did the first 4 or so with Bryan; basically a full Davidson Loop including the singletrack at the end (not the hill). This felt smooth. The shoes felt extremely natural on my feet. Definitely flexible enough to feel the trail and the road; had the same minimalist feel as the Precision 8's, but with more cushion and a bit more motion control. The posting was very minimal so much so that I did not notice it. They definitely felt like light-weight trainers.

The problem started at about mile 5 where I noticed a spot on the second toe of my left foot. I suspect that the toe-box was a bit too small and the socks a bit too thick. I ended up stopping and inverting the socks while drying out the foot for a few minutes. I could have developed a little moisture as I wore them with the same socks for about 1.5-2 hours before the run when I took the boys down to Louisville Elem. for a little b-ball practice. So, hopefully this was it because the shoes just felt great.

After my little foot break I continued down from the Mesa, behind Home Depot and then over the foot bridge. I basically tacked on the loop behind Costco, up to the newish Superior trail and then wound my way back to Louisville via the Coal Creek Trail. Just because I felt great, and the foot was feeling better, I tacked on a 2.5 mile marathon pace (someday hopefully) interval at about a 7:45 pace. This felt excellent with a avg hr of only 167 (not bad considering I max out in the mid 190's.

Overall an excellent run. No real knee issues. A drastic difference from my ten miler last week when I limped in with IT problems on my left knee. Today, the left knee was perfect and the right knee was only slightly tight. I definitely had many miles left in me. The shoes made it real easy to maintain my form, really had a nice short stride at a 176 strides per minute. Still need to get this higher, but today was a great improvement.

Just missed 30 for the week!

28.9 miles in 4:03:36 hours. Last week as 28.5 miles in 3:56. Overall excellent week. Took Saturday off after 4 days of commuting on foot. Felt excellent by Sunday morning and actually felt great Saturday as well. Starting to feel like the higher base-mileage is starting to pay off.

100.8 miles for January in 13.56 hours of running. Not a bad month, certainly a good way start a nice base for the spring and summer.