Another weekend goes by and another long run in the books. I expected to get 20 miles in today but again missed it by about 2 tenths of a mile like I did last week, what a bummer. It was a little more difficult today to complete, and i'm trying to understand why .. one thing is that it was warmer and the sun was out about 75% of the time, whereas last week it was pretty cloudy and getting ready to rain .. also I think I ran the first half of the run a little too fast, I was at just over an 8 minute mile at mile 5, which isn't good as far as the long run goes .. we have to get that under control. Other than those two things, I used the same gels, water, etc that I used last week, so i'm not sure why I was so worn out in comparison.

One thing I noticed when I got back though is that i've burned out a pair of shoes already and its only been just over a month ... I guess whe you're running 60+ miles a week, it only takes a few weeks to burn a pair out. Its an unfortunate thing, because the shoes I wear (Mizuno Wave Rider 500's) go for about $90-$100 a shot, so it starts to get expensive, but I have to do it I guess. I'm considering changing shoes at some point to get a larger toe box so that the this major callus I have on my second toes start to go away. Yes, that was plural. On both of my feet, my second toe has a big callus on it from rubbing against the big toe, and sometimes it gets painful ... I can't think of too much more I can do besides change shoes. I didn't have this problem before, but ever since I moved to this shoe, its a problem (but I love the shoe)..

So tomorrow I have 10 or 11 miles scheduled, and I expect to head to the trails so i don't burn out my normal courses for during the week. Its still supposed to be warm in the morning, so i expect to sweat like a pig just like I have been, its quite embarrassing. It is humorous though, because if there is one thing I noticed living in the Lehigh Valley, its that the recreational runners are really into their matched, neat and clean running outfits. When a nasty, foul smelling, sweaty looking creature like myself comes along, I hope they they know that I am a serious runner.

Its only been a week since I started cross training using the Wii Active. Its weird, but I feel my core being worked harder now when I run ... could the 22 minute workout I get on the Wii actually be what I was looking for? I guess we'll see. I really do suggest it if you have no other way to cross train ... I like the sports (volleyball, tennis, basketball) along with the cardio boxing, it really does me good...

At some point I have to schedule a step back week, not sure where we'll fit it in, but one of these weekends .. I'm getting tired and need to recover, we don't want to get burnt out!