Brooks Review (and some other stuff, too)

OK, I've been a bad blogger. I went out and got new shoes, ran in them, and never even posted about them.

The verdict:

Love them.

That's not to say that the Saucony shoes I had before are bad... maybe it's just the running with the orthotics in that make those so nasty. But the Brooks seem to have more stability in them. I ran about 3.5 on Monday with the Brooks (and the new knee brace, socks, shorts, and shirt... I was looking like it was the first day of school), and they ran great. The support was fantastic, the cushioning was unbelievable, and the fit was spectacular... even in the 12's.

So, since the last entry, I did 3.5 on Monday at a 4/1 interval, and 3.4 on Wednesday at a 5/1 interval. Wednesday was pretty dang hot down here, and I was soaked through by the time I finished the run, but it felt pretty good. I did take a wrong turn at one point, and I was slowing down more than I wanted to at the end of the 5 minutes, so I think I'll be staying at that pace for a while, just to work on the endurance necessary to keep it there. I figure that if I can build myself up to the point where I can average about 9:30 in the running part, I'll be doing pretty well for the 24th.

Yes, there's a race on a Thursday... it's the Citistreet Corporate 5k, and I'm trying to get lots of my work folks to discover the wonder of running. So far, I've got one guy that'll be a good competition (he'll probably kick my butt, but you never know), a couple who say they're walking, one who is going to sign up for a 5k "mosey", one who rides his bike to the neighbor's house, and two that are saying they're going to need somebody holding up a jelly doughnut for them to follow. Oh, and one that registered to help out the charity (Girls on the Run), but may not actually do any walking or running. But he may show up for the post-party with "free" beer.

Yep, these are the folks I work with. Hopefully, at least one or two of them will get the bug after they see what a race environment is like. I managed to successfully avoid ever wanting to run in a race until I actually did it once... and now look at me! I'm a freakin' running blogger!

So, on on to this weekend and (hopefully) getting in the pool for some cross training.