Field Trip to the Big Peach

Do you smell that?

Take a deep breathe. Do you smell it now?

That my friends is the smell of new running shoes!!!!!! I haven't posted much on my runs this week because well... they kind of stunk. Not in terms of them being rotten runs, but because my knee has been bothering me a lot. So, this morning I crossed trained on the stationary bike (6.6 miles on a hill program) and then got in the car for a trip to my friendly Big Peach Running Co for some new shoes. If you live in Atlanta get yourself to the Big Peach ASAP!!!!!! I love everything about the store. I seriously think I could spend the whole day there and be as happy as a lark :). I have been fitted with the best shoes since I started shopping there 1 1/2 years ago. They have an awesome fit process where they do a digital picture of your arches (it also shows how you distribute your weight) and they video you running, then rewind and put it on slow motion so they can see exactly how you land on your feet. The first running store would just eyeball it. I had a lot of issues back then. Now I have a new running store :). And yes, a good pair of running shoes can be a little pricey, but think of it this way:

• old shoes $120 divided by 339 miles = $0.35 per mile
• if new shoes have same miles $90 divided by 339 = $0.27 per mile

Laura helped me pick out a new shoe, but the same brand (mizunos). As soon as I got my orthotics in them I just knew!! (they felt great & light!!! Imagine what I can do with lighter shoes?!!!) The runner ups were the same way. I got my orthotics in them and just knew they were not the ones for me. That's okay. They were still nice. Hopefully cranky knee and achey ankles will go away on my long run Friday.  I really want to strap the news shoes on now and go for a run (a very good sign), butt I just don't have the time. After putting my old ones back on I can definitely tell they are dead, dead, dead. Achey ankle is back. Now worries. I'll rock my new shoes on Friday :)

14 More Days

What a crazy last couple of days! I'm pretty sure that I'm coming down with a cold. All signs point in that direction. At least it's waited until the taper part of training. Yes, that's right it's Taper Time!! Yesterday I only had to run 8 miles =). Now those 8 miles were actually done with my mentee who was running 20 miles yesterday (Go Angela!), which meant I was running miles 12-20 of her route. That also meant I had to find something to do with myself for a couple of hours until she got to where I was waiting. No big deal. I got to chat with one of our awesome GTS coordinators Amy, and cheer in my teammates who were just running a normal 8 miles, and then off Coach Jo and I went to cheer in our teammates at the 12 mile water stop.

I got so excited about the race and getting paid that I started getting stuff that I need for race day., which meant heading out to the Big Peach Running Co to get some supplies. It was awesome, and I got tons of awesome stuff and had a great time talking to one of the staff who has run the Nike Women's Marathon before. Check out my loot:

I got some Luna moons (blueberry is my favorite), Nike running Capri (really excited about these), citrus fruit Nuun, which also comes individually wrapped so I can carry an extra with me on race day, and a new Nathan's sport bottle. I got even more excited and went home to start planning everything I need to pack. Monday is our Coach's Countdown Meeting, which sadly I can't go to because I'm not done for the until until 8:30pm. So, I'm going into the office to get my apparel, flight info, schedule, and other tidbits of helpful information.

I've got a couple of other things I'm trying to sort out this weekend. One is finally registering a domain name for my violin studio's website. The other has been figuring out what to do with my iPhone. The screen cracked yesterday =(. A super nice employee at the Apple Store helped me come up with a temporary fix because I can't afford to get the screen fixed or just buy a new one. Hopefully this will work for now. Fingers crossed!!!