Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Another One Bites the Dust

I don't know if anyone noticed the comments or not, but this is pretty exciting stuff. At least for me, the Dad. My son Tyler, the culinary student, started a blog of his own. And why did he start a blog? He has decided to come on over to the dark side and he's beginning the Couch to 5K program on coolrunning.com. I'm pretty psyched for him. This is something that he decided to do on his own and so far he seems to have taken real ownership of it. I'm so glad that he has taken an interest in his health. I look forward to the day I came cheer him on at the finish line of his 5K. In addition to that we got a letter the other day from his school to let us know that he made the Honor Roll for his first quarter at culinary school. Needless to say we are very proud of him. Stop by, check on his progress, and give Tyler some blogger love.

On the running front, the big news is that I need new shoes. I usually like to have three pair in rotation. On Christmas Eve I retired a pair of Brooks Trance. I began scanning the Internet for some replacements but I couldn't come across any Trance in my size or at a reasonable price. I'm just not ready yet to spent three figures on a pair of shoes. Last Saturday another pair of Trance hit the magic 500 mile mark and ended up in the pile in the garage. Those shoes got me through all 4 marathons I ran in 2006.

This stack represents about 4500 miles. There are 7 pairs of Brooks Trance, a pair of New Balance 765 and a pair of Saucony Grid Omni's in there. I think I've kept all but maybe the first two pairs of shoes I ever had. Finally Sunday night I came across a pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 6 at a reasonable price. They will put me back to two pairs, both Adrenalines. I need (want) to have three so I think I will look for a pair of trail shoes to round out the current rotation. I would ideally like to already have another pair of something stashed in the closet as replacement for the current GTS 6 that are over 200 miles themselves. I've got some shopping to do.

The other big news today is that it rained. Today being Tuesday, is speed work day. The track I run on is in pretty sad condition. I was afraid that with the rain the track would be a real mess. So I opted to postpone the speed work until later in the week. Hey, I don't have to try very hard to find an excuse for getting out of speed work. Instead I did a tempo run. I ran out and back on a three miles course. The first mile or so I took it easy and then accelerated up to a decent pace. It was a hard effort but an effort I could sustain. I kept at it for the last 5 miles and ended up with an 8:25 pace overall and 7:59 for the back 3 miles. Although I felt as though I was running significantly harder than the night before which was an easy effort run, my pace was only about 30 seconds a mile faster. McMillan suggests 7:17 to 7:36 for tempo runs. I'm terrible at judging pace. I need to slow down my pace on recovery days and speed it up on the tempo days. Practice makes perfect, but a set of calibrated legs and lungs would be nice.

13 comments:

Danny said...

that's pretty cool about Tyler! my dad bugged me to run for years, and i didn't start until after i moved out of the house. he was never a distance runner, but he's since come to NY to run a 5 miler with me, and then a half marathon. (the finisher picture of us together from that race is on my wall.)

Unknown said...

cool beans about tyler!

save those old shoes. wash 'em up and either give them to salvation army or contact naomi so she can take them to africa w/ her

see ya this weekend?

Backofpack said...

I'm here to tell you it's a lot of fun when one of your kids run too. They get the conversation, and races become family affairs. Cool.

My shoes don't make it past 300 miles lately - my feet will start hurting. The kid at the running store says its from the long runs -he thinks it's tougher on shoes than many short ones. Who knows?

Anonymous said...

There's something about having that pile of old soldiers hanging around that spurs the memory of the miles they traveled. Sounds like it's about time to take Jeff's advice and throw them in the washing machine and let them blaze new trails for someone who could use them.

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

Yes that's cool about Tyler, I stopped by last week and left him a message...I didn't know he was your Son, very neat.

I am due for some new shoes, I am going to do to a runners store and DO IT RIGHT and get my feet measured up and see what is the best kind of shoe for my feet.

Good Idea about cleaning them up and giving them away...

Sarah said...

What's your source for the GTS 6's??? I just retired a pair and now I'm down to only 2 road pairs and 3 trail pairs in rotation with nothing waiting in the wings... : (

That's cool about Tyler getting into running. I'm off to check out his blog....

Greg said...

Love the pix of your shoes, man! I give mine away, because mine really smell. So altruistic of me :)

Anonymous said...

that bottom row of shoes look like bowling shoes! I agree with Jeff...give them to Naomi. Translation: please get them out of the garage!

I'm glad Tyler's running, too. I'll be there taking pictures...!

Anonymous said...

Oh, one more thing I need to say...thank you Bloggers for the get well wishes. I am feeling much better now, thanks to the prayers and good thoughts sent my way, and for the great care from my family! xxxooo

Wes said...

I kind of figured Tyler was your boy when I was already on his blog trying to corrupt him!! LOL. I can vouch for the GTS 6! They are my twin wonders and I heart them! That's an impressive stack of shoes too. I'm about 240 mile away from needing a new pair of shoes. That should last me for the rest of the year!! Woo hoo!

Bob - BlogMYruns.com said...

SORRY Darrell but you have BEEN Tagged, see my blog for details...Not that bad after you read mine and some of the others :-) I tagged Wes also!

Ryan said...

His blog looks great; I look forward to following his steps.

I find runningwarehouse.com to have a great selection of CY discounted running shoes plus they offer free 2nd day shipping, can't beat that! Have fun shopping.

Anonymous said...

That is awesome about Tyler. I'm going to check out his blog too. Great picture of the old shoes...reminds me of my closet.
Happy Running!