Monday, June 15, 2009

freak storms, bad falls and solitude

“when you are at peace with yourself for some reason everything and everybody is at peace with you… check your vibration.”

lots of fun adventures have been had since last thursday. thursday night, i was caught in a freak hail storm in the middle of the run and got to hang out in front of a domino's pizza for a bit until my awesome coop-mates drove all the way out to westlake to pick me up (thank you again!). friday morning found me swimming in the healing water of barton springs with lindsay. it wasn't until the last 1/4 mile of my swim that i started turning purple...a new record for me. later on friday, i found out that i am not anemic...despite being a vegetarian endurance athlete (yeah!).

saturday morning i went out running with some people, and a couple hours in, took a nasty fall on the trail, which re-opened the scar on my right knee for the second time in a month. if you looked at my legs right now, you'd think i was a mountain biker. that run ended up lasting close to six hours, with total time out on the trails close to 7 hours. it was a lot of time on my feet, and yet i wasn't really tired. so i went shopping.

i'm a running shoe snob, and i will admit that when some of the people i was running with saturday morning told me that they got shoes at marshall's, i was a tad surprised. however, it turned out to be the deal of the year. marshall's had montrail and asics trail running shoes at over 50% off (!!), but what impressed me the most was that the shoes they had are good running shoes.

i had been wanting to start trying trail shoes for awhile, so i decided to give this a shot. for $75, i got a pair of montrail hardrock's and a pair of asics trail runners. both shoes got top rankings in 2008 from outside magazine as good trail runners. within the ultra community, a lot of people swear by hardrock's. i actually ended up getting the men's model because they had it in my size. the shoe was actually unisex until the marketing people decided they needed to take the same shoe, make it in smaller sizes and put some pink on it so that more women would by it. i'm of the opinion that my trail shoes are going to get covered in mud, dirt and goodness knows what else, so whether my shoes are gray and blue or gray and pink doesn't matter because you won't be able to tell anyway...and i don't think color will make me any faster or slower, but maybe i should test that theory...i'm taking these out for a spin tonight.

the asics are a little lighter than the hardrock's and have a narrower heel, which i needed. they are actually a women's specific shoe, so the fit in general is a bit narrower. they're also red (and gray). unlike blue or pink, i think red does make you faster, but i digress. i took the asics out for a 17-miler yesterday (sunday) morning. they felt great. the run actually made my knee loosen up too, which was good (it was a little stiff from the previous day's fall when i woke up).

my roommates were all out of town from friday night to late saturday night this weekend, which meant i was home alone. and you know what i discovered? i am really productive when i'm by myself, and the quiet is really calming. i got a bunch of homework done, errands run and went to bed early. i wasn't in recluse mode as i was running with people and went out for ice cream with drake. i just kind of slowed down though, didn't feel rushed to get things done, and yet still got more done than normal. i could get used to this.

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