The Last Straw

 Advice from a Butterfly:

• Get out of your cocoon
• Take yourself lightly
• Catch a breeze
• We can’t all be monarchs!

They have all of these “advice from” hats at this online puppet shop where I get puppets for the kids. The hats are for humans though. ;-)  Anyway, I thought some of them were cute.  

I got ready for my run today and went to the track. We sat in the van for a long time and the rain was just not letting up. I was sort of hoping to run in a little misty type rain because that would have been awesome. But pouring, drenching rain…not sure I wanted to attempt that. So I went to Fleet Feet instead. I have been tossing around that idea for a while and have talked myself both into it and out of it and then with the rain today, I talked myself back into it again. Fleet Feet is not an elitist running shop like some would recommend but that is out of my budget anyway.

I walked in and was greeted, thankfully, by a female. I had expected to be met with an Arnold Schwarzenegger type. But upon realizing that I wanted serious help with shoes, the young girl referred me to a fit looking Swedish man. But he was not intimidating and was very patient and kind with me. I looked it up on our local store’s website and he has a bachelors in exercise physiology and kinesiology. So I assume he knows a little more than the punk kid at the shoe store in the mall. He did some measurements on my foot. Determined that my feet are wide and my arch is tall, which basically means that I have one big huge hunking block of a foot - my terminology, not his. Apparently there was some “pronation” of one type or the other (not sure which) in my right foot especially. He had me try about six pairs of shoes and tried some “Superfeet” insole inserts. I tried Nike, New Balance, Saucony, etc. Some of these came in wider widths for above mentioned huge hunking block feet. They had me walk out and back several times as they looked at what my feet/ankles/legs were doing in each pair of shoes. So I ended up with the size 8 Saucony Progrid Omni 6 Moderate (this is my normal size, so they seem to run true to size). With the insoles, this was about a $140 investment. I had considered just buying the insoles and putting them in my adidas trail shoes that I really like. But I just keep seeing how important it is to get the right shoes. I am looking forward to trying these out as soon as it stops raining, but technically if there is a chance I might want to exchange them I need to stay inside and test them out. But how? I suppose running back and forth in the hall as I am still treadmill-less.

Oh so much to yap about today so moving on…I was reading a post at Going for the Gold and I was really encouraged by her background experience with running as well as her level headed approach to getting back to running. She had several links in today’s post which I found useful. Apparently, there is a slower version of C25k. I doubt that there are podcasts for this one though. And one link that she provided mentioned something about not stretching cold muscles, that one should walk or jog first for a bit and then stretch. Yeah. Didn’t realize this. I mean, all of this is new to me. So anyway, the link will take you to her blog and I am referring to the post about exercise.

I must say, there is a ton of inspiration around here lately. Wow. You guys rock.

I went over to visit with my daughter at lunch time today. She is still in good spirits and seems back to herself. I talked with her teacher for a bit and she was asking me how I have lost the weight. I never imagined that I would be on the receiving end of one of those wide eyed “you have to tell me what you have been doing!” types of statements. That felt really good, especially since she is athletic. She is a softball lady and I don’t know if she does fast pitch or not, but those fast pitch girls rule! I am always in awe of them. So anyway, she mentioned that she and some of the other teachers had started couch to 5k, but had quit. This is what I am missing in my life. Not the quitting part, the part about getting out walking/jogging with other people. I am probably not ready for it yet, but it would be nice some day.

Dinner tonight is Pulled Pork Sandwiches. The bread for these are biscuits made with sweet potatoes. This is the vinegary type of bbq and the sauce is a white bbq sauce made with reduced fat mayo and vinegar. I am a vinegar type of person. I don’t go for the thick red type of bbq sauce, so this is just how I like it.  We sometimes have it with kale and it has such a comfort food quality to it, I think. Not sure what I will have with it tonight. Hmm.

Just added c25k and new shoes report on my c25k page. Overall, I enjoyed it today. I wish it was like this every day. I want to be a friggin’ runner, she says while gritting her teeth!! Grrrr!