Tag: Brooks

Posted on

Steps and Strides

The view during my first three miles.
The view during my first three miles.

Today was workout 21 of 61, and I ran 3 miles, 5 strides.

The three miles is old hat this point, but we’ve upped the strides this week. That last stride just about did me in! I wanted to give it my all, and I did, but rather than running through the tape, I pulled up at the final split second. I felt disappointed as I heard the last chime, but I gave all I felt capable of at that moment.

All day I assumed the last stride was slower than some of the others, but now I’ve checked – it was fastest! By far! Goes to show, perception is not always reality.

Still, I plan to work at  running through the tape. It’s easy for me to do when I’m somewhat tired, but when I’m truly fatigued, I stop short. If I ponder this long enough, I can probably think of many life circumstances where this was true as well.

Me on Snapchat, after mailing my manuscript.
Me on Snapchat, after mailing my manuscript.

In other news, I hit a writing milestone. Yesterday I polished a children’s book I wrote years ago, and today I sent it out into the world! Very exciting.

Knowing that it takes anywhere from 3 months to 6 months to hear from some publishers, today’s step motivated me to write more. Several things can happen at this point:

  1. No response
  2. Form letter rejection
  3. Personal rejection/ editor’s encouragement
  4. Rejection with request to revise and resubmit
  5. Acceptance

Obviously I’d prefer options 3-5, but I feel liberated. My only choices are to wait or write. Having this story circulating, no matter her fate, is freeing. I choose to write.

Posted on

7 more miles in faithful pinks

I ran 7 miles today. It’s not my first time, but it’s still a milestone. It’s the longest duration (1:22:45) and tied for my longest distance at 7.27. I mistakenly thought 7.22 was my longest, or I would’ve held out for another hundredth of a mile.

Either way, I felt accomplished by the end. It was a challenging run, to be sure, and hills of mile 5 showed in the mile 6 split. We came in strong on mile 7, and claimed the win.

Nike Zoom Pegasus 29 – my “old pinks”

The biggest news: my feet held up. I ran in my old Pegasus 29s, which have over 500 miles! Not surprising, I had overall leg fatigue and my foot started to peter out at the end, but nothing like the pain and discomfort I felt with new Brooks Launch. This means those Brooks are as good as gone.  I wish there was a way to give running shoes a 20 mile trial period before committing to them.

It’s clear a life of running is in my future, so my approach to shoes will be a little different moving forward. I’ve scoped out some  potential replacements, and I’ll get a new pair before my next milestone, an 8-mile run coming up soon.