Serious runner, or forget everything.

Had a big decision to make today, 2 months into my training and my wife offered to get me custom fitted for some running shoes as an anniversary gift. Whilst this may not seem like the biggest decision in the world it was huge for me as if I let her purchase them for me then it increases the pressure not to give up on my training, for the first time someone else has invested in me and shown belief that what I am doing is serious and more than just the usual post Marathon season fad. This morning if I quit it all I would be letting myself down, now if I quit I would be letting us both down.

In the end what swayed me to get it done was the same reason that it scared me. That someone believed in me enough to put their money on backing me not to give up.

The custom fitting was done at Running Free in Parkstone in Poole http://www.runningfree.net/ the actual fitting took about 15 minutes and involved running up and down the shop then swapping shoes and trying again. Luckily the shop was mostly empty so it wasn't too embarrassing (always the main worry for someone of my protracted knackerdness) after three trips up and down the store I was informed that I needed lots of support for my arches (This is about as technical as I can get) but the long and the short of it is that I left the store with a new pair of Nike Zoom structure+ 15.
Now to make sure I don't let her down.

Jogging in Poole

As I was down in Dorset to visit my Nan my jog today was in Poole. The plan for today was for 4 Miles so I ran around Upton Lake, it was a far cry from my usual exhaust filled runs on the A23. The sun was bright but had not got too strong and the breeze coming off the lake was very refreshing, although got a little too blowy at times. The path was good condition and smooth - another welcome change to street running. Only real killers were the inclines that went over the railway and the lakes inlets but a good bit of hill training always mixes it up a bit.

The jog was my fastest yet coming in at 7 MPH and taking only 30 mins to complete 3.8 miles. The path I took led to the gates of Upton Country Park so a great deal of scope to extend the run, just a shame my next jog will be back home swapping boats and breezes for Crawley in a rush hour.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/108482449