Running Chick

Finally, Spring has arrived. It was warm, sunny & lovely this morning and the rest of the week is supposed to be the same. The forecast ways it will be 65 on Wednesday! That’s bike ridin’ weather, so I think I’ll unleash my road bike from the trainer and take it out for a spin.

This was a cut-back week, so I topped out at eleven miles. Nothing exciting to report except that I saw a decent speed increase during my first two runs. Maybe those hill sessions are starting to pay off? Tuesday, 3.5 @ 9:44; Thursday, 3.5 @ 9:54 and Sunday, 4 @ 11:25.

Oh, and good news, I got my running partner back! We did our long run together this morning, it was fun to have someone to chat with again.

Here’s a photo of us running. Josh says hi with his special finger. Rotten.

Here we are with our obnoxious fancy new shoes. Brooks Cascadia’s all around. Can’t beat ‘em for snow, ice and general Spring slop.

My old Cascadia’s are about 75 miles from being dead, so I thought I’d throw these new ones into the rotation. Running Warehouse had a liquidation sale and thanks to a coupon I found, I got them for less than $60. Rock. Anyway, these are the Cascadia 6’s and I’m too lazy to look up the specific the improvements over my old 5’s, but upon first inspection I noticed that Brooks relocated the lace eyelets so the tongue doesn’t shift around (apparently a complaint about the 5’s, but I never had an issue) and they changed the treat significantly. I’m a little bit skeptical about the new tread pattern as it doesn’t seem as aggressive as the 5’s, but it did just great on pavement. 

The first thing I noticed when I started running was how stiff they were on pavement, way more stiff than my 5’s were. I did some reading and found that Brooks added an extra layer of cushion in the midsole to prevent you from feeling sharp rocks and whatever other pointy objects you may encounter (porcupine?) on the trail. So, the stiffness is probably due to that.  They’re not uncomfortable or anything, but I’m hoping that that’ll settle down a bit after I get them broken in.  Overall, though, I really like them. Go Brooks.

Next week is a biggie: four milers on Tuesday and Thursday and a 10 miler on Saturday. I can’t figure out where to do my long run. I was thinking about running out to Chassell and having my chauffeur pick me up, but eh, I’m not really feeling that so I don’t know.

Remember that brewing post that I did a few weeks ago when Josh bottled his first batch of American brown ale? Well, it’s conditioning period was over and we cracked into them yesterday. Guess what the verdict was?

Good! Even my picky beer palate liked it. We bottled the second beer, an American pale ale, yesterday and now we’re currently brewing an orange golden ale. Watch out, Keweenaw Brewing Company.

Finally, I’d like to state for the record, that I hate this time change. Kitties do, too.