A few photos of this week's marathon training

Last Wednesday, after a farewell run with my Brooks Pure 1's, I headed to my local Fleet Feet (did I tell you how much I love my Fleet Feet??!) and got a pair of Brooks Pure 2's.  When I got home, there was an Amazon box on the front porch with my new rain boots.  Yay shoes! 



I have now gone for 3 runs in the shoes.  An easy 5 miler, a hilly 6 miler, and a wild little 4 miler.  So far, so good.  I am still experiencing a little soreness in my left bunion area, but this comes and goes for me.  The tenderness in my footbed has subsided, so I think I am just going to have to get used to the idea that I cannot put 500 miles on my more-minimalist shoes.  Sigh....

As for meeting my goals last week of hills, strength training, and running my LSD slowly, I actually succeeded!  Part of it was that last week was a cutback week so I had no long run (automatic check!).  But I did manage to do 2 sets of arm strength training and 1 set of legs.  Mind you, I am still working on getting back to a decent regimen so I set a goal of doing 2 strength training sessions per week to ease into it again.  I also had one hilly run this week--which is easy when I just walk out my front door to run:


Today, I convinced Adam to go to the Greenway with me.  He could walk with Luxy (the 10 year old Boston) and I could run with Torrance (the 4 year old Boston).  I was only going 4 miles which a nice run for Torrance.  She has done up to 7 with me, but I think 4-5 is a good distance for her.  We went all sub-8:00s!  She was pulling the first 2 miles and then I pulled the last 2. 


Adam and Luxy managed to walk 2 miles while we ran so it was a good day for all of us.  The most senior animals (Josie the 15 year old lab mix and Duncan the 16 year cat) stayed at home, but I'm sure they appreciated a few minutes of peace without the BTs running around like Tasmanian devils.

We stopped at the bagel shop afterwards to pick up a dozen and because they were going to be closing soon, I got an extra free bagel! I decided to try the French toast flavor-yum!  'Free' food is always delicious.
This week, in addition to today's run, I have a 6 mile tempo, 3 miles easy, and a 16 miler.  I am hosting a Super Bowl party so I am hoping that moving my schedule up will make it possible to do Sunday's long run on Saturday.  Not that the Super Bowl foods require too much work, but I get a little carried away sometimes so I want to be able to relax and enjoy the commercials too!