New items added to the agenda

I have a few new additions to the site to add. First up is that on my trip to California I will have a little (4 hour) side trip as my wife has a very good friend whose husband passed away last weekend (same day I had one of the worst runs in my life, almost had to call for a ride home). He was out riding a bicycle and had a brain aneurysm and passed away despite the best efforts of doctors in Lake Havasu and later Phoenix. So, we will be attending his funeral on the way to California on Saturday. Things like this really make me sit back and think about how quickly life can be turned upside down for people, and how I need to make sure that my kids and wife are taken care of if anything were to happen to me.

Then on Tuesday I had a toothache that became so bad I ended up going to an emergency doctor for work. 3 hours and one less tooth later I returned home, and haven’t been up to running since. I will get in at least a 4 miler tonight after work if the Phoenix dust storms don’t make it impossible to breathe. Does anyone remember when monsoon season in Phoenix used to mean it would rain? Now its nothing but massive dust storms. I guess global warming is a myth.

I have done a few runs in the Asics Gel Lyte 33′s and as I thought after you get some miles on them the cushioning comes up and the stiffness wears out but they never reach the degree of flexibility that the Nike Free gets. I will keep wearing them and keep updating as I see the site has over 100 hits last week from a thread on the Runners World forums where someone asked about the shoes.

In other shoe news, I located a pair of Altra Lone Peak trail shoes in a size 13 and ordered them. Pretty pumped to have them for the upcoming trail race. Pictures and a mini review are forthcoming as I will get them tomorrow.
;

As always, here are some pictures.

;

The day after

My worst run in a long time, and I am still not feeling that great.  It probably has something to do with my terrible nights sleep last night.  I hope that all of the “terrible” and “worst” events I am having are done before I head out to California.  I am still debating what made the long run so bad and still don’t have any definitive answers, so I will just keep doing what I have always done and try to pick it up starting tomorrow.  I had thoughts of doing a few miles before eating dinner, but nixed the idea even after listening to Endurance Planet’s latest installment of ATU, where running or training when not feeling up to par was discussed.

I forgot to mention that I got a new pair of shoes for father’s day.  My wife and kids got me the Asics Lyte 33′s.  I even got this color.

I have seen these shoes advertised as a competitor to the Nike Free. but my initial impression is that it is an entirely different shoe altogether.  ”Its an entirely different shoe.”  If you didn’t get that it was a reference to the movie Airplane!.  

Sorry if you didn’t get it.

Back to the shoe. In comparing it to the Free, I don’t see many similarities as it is not as flexible, not as cushioned, and I don’t think I would wear these without socks as the material for the upper is pretty rough on the inside of the shoe.  They are very light, and in experience a lot of Asics shoes take a few miles on them in order to get the cushioning and flexibility to come out, so I may do an update of these shoes after getting some miles on them.

I am still going to order the Lone Peak trail shoes, just a matter of time.  I will probably get them before I head out to the trail race, maybe not.

I see from the analytics that a lot of people get here looking for running pictures or “inspirational” pictures, so I will add a few more.