New Running Shoes with a Little Help

Clearly I have been neglecting the blog again.  Oops.

So after Seattle, I did a 5k one weekend (early july?  JP Blecksmith Memorial 5k).   It was pitiful.  Now looking back on it, I realize a couple of things.  First, my legs were a lot more tired than I thought from mountain running.  It took a bigger toll on me than I expected (much much bigger...it took until mid-August to figure this out).  Second, I was injured.  Feet tendons were sad from too many mountains (someday, if I ever learn to write half decently and end up with a book, it is going to be called that..."Too Many Mountains").  I had sort of kept running, while being as careful as possible.  Third, pure mountain running is not the same as flat road running and the "training" (if you could call it that), didn't translate very well.  So just after the race, I got new running shoes.

I like lightweight running shoes with thin soles.  It feels good to run in them.  Until my feet fell apart from too many mountain descents without appropriate building up to it.  So I went to the running shoe store looking to get a new pair of pretty lightweight shoes (my shoes up until this point weighed under 6oz...suacony a4s and vibram five fingers) that were hopefully enough support I didn't have to stop running (yes, sometimes buying running shoes solves injury problems...mostly).  Fortunately, a friend from rock climbing who also happens to be a women's high school xc coach works at the store and is smarter than me.  I went into the store looking for a specific shoe.  Conversation went like this:
Him: "Ok I'll go get your size, I'll be back in a few minutes."
A few minutes goes by and he appears with lots of boxes...what?
Him: "You can choose from these."
Me: "What?  These are heavy!  Don't you have lighter shoes?  I'll get injured in these!  I get achilles tendonitis and plantar faciitis when I wear heavy shoes!  It took me all of college to figure that out!"
Him: "You are injured now, and shouldn't be running.  If you have to buy a shoe today, you need a more substantial shoe, so you get to choose from these.  And btw, take a week off, at least."
Me: "ugh."

But, his experience with working with stubborn women runners (this is a difficult to learn, very refined skill - he gets a lot of credit for it) was very apparent when he sadly laughed at me and said well come back when you aren't hurt.  The normal runner person next to me who also getting fitted for shoes must have been very confused, or maybe entertained.

The bottom line is I got more substantial shoes to wear (Saucony Peregrines) until my feet tendons heal.  Its uncomfortable to run in heavy shoes that seem awkward to me compared to my Saucony A4's, but I'll take that over not running due to injury.  My friend is smarter than me and running in the Peregrines is working a lot better and I can run pain free.  Feet tendons don't heal quickly (Becki informed me of this and now my experience is confirming her warning), so I'll probably be running in Peregrine's for awhile, and just racing in A4s.  Plus...I can't help thinking...if I get used to Peregrines...they'll probably be pretty helpful during a mountain 100 someday...