Running Gear

I realized when I told you all that I was going to run my first 5K of this year and I needed new shoes, it sounded like I'm that girl who woke up one day with a profound thought to get up and become a runner.

I've always been a runner.  I have participated in many races since I was a little girl...as in when I started moving, I was running.  I have the trophies to prove it.

When I got to junior high, I of course joined the track team and did distance running.  Well distance running for track anyways is, at most 1500 meters.

High school came and during my first two years, I remained a distance runner.  I was never really good at it...I never won or probably even placed in any race. 

Come junior year, I decide to give up on distance and become a sprinter.  I became a hurdler.  It was my calling.  We went to state both my junior and senior year (3A - biggest division in Iowa for girls) in the shuttle hurdle relay.  I'm 5'1, mind you but I jumped those babies like they were nothing.  I also ran the 100M and 4X100M relay races.  I have the medals to prove them all.

Now, I have decided that I'm going to convert myself back into a distance runner and get back into the racing scene (I'm seeing a 1/2 marathon in my distant future).  Transitioning is proving harder than I thought it would be.  I still have a sprinter's mentality and it doesn't make for fun runs.  I want to sprint the entire time which causes me not to be able to breathe appropriately and leaves my leggies a wee bit tired.  The treadmill allows me to keep a steadier pace but the pounding kind of hurts my shins.

Anyways, I wanted to show you all the things that I use when I run because that is fun and I think you should know.

First up is shoes.  I went shoe shopping a few weeks ago and had my little heart set on the Nike Lunarglide 3.  They were both functional and fashionable. 

A cute running shoe but doesn't really have arch support.  I could basically bend the shoe in half which is not good for running.  So, I tried on the Asics GT-2160, which has a lot of support, on one foot and the Lunarglide on my other foot to do a comparison. 

Holy macaroni, I could tell the difference right away.  They were not even comparable.  So, even though my heart and fashion sense wanted the Nike, my brain and body told me the Asics were the shoes for me.

Since buying these, I've only ever worn them running.  I don't want to waste mileage on wearing them around casually.  I found out that a good running shoe can get me around 450-500 miles of use.  So, I have quite a few miles to go.

While running, I use the Nike+IPod device.  It's bomb dot com.  I know at all times how far I've run, my pace, calories burnt, etc., all while listening to musica.  I then synch it with ITunes which sends my runs to Nike to track and contribute to challenges.  I also synch to Daily Miles (widget on side of blog).

Finally and maybe best of all, I'll have the best running companion because I have this:

Thank you Craigslist!

It's been nearly impossible to get my runs in because hubs is working late all the time.  I've been to my parents to run, have run on the treadmill at 9 pm at night and even ran on my lunch break.  Now I'll be able to get my run in when I want without having to rely on someone to watch Quinn.

 What are your must haves when running?