It seems I should have taken the advice I gave to David Lawrence over at the The Quinquagenarian Runner (I totally had to cut and paste the title of his blog..) back on the 1st….
Last Night I headed out, and the bottom of my feet were tight/sore. I thought I would go with my Kinvara’s under the theory that the slight rise to the heel would give my Plantar Fascia a bit of a break. Those darn shoe laces would NOT stay tied.. In the course of a relatively short run, I had to retie each one twice! That is totally not-cool! After the last time, I was thinking about how the shoe laces had less texture than my Altras, which meant less that helped to hold them in place. It seems I do need to replace those – so why not with lock-laces? Heck, I can pick up two sets and give one away! 🙂 (If you haven’t been on my Facebook page, I am looking for suggestions for giveaways! My birthday is coming up and it seems like a perfect time to give away a bunch of presents! If anyone that works for a running-related company, such as road-id, ifitness, etc. – I’d love to have donations!)
Well, as you may (or may not) be aware, I am building up my base this year. I’m not allowing my memories of being a runner determine how far I run, instead I am focusing on where I am NOW, and keeping that in mind as I design my weekly mileage. I think this is going to be the perfect plan to get to the Marine Corps Marathon injury free as long as I didn’t start my training out to fast and to high mileage. Well, after a week of using a 2.3 mile course, it seemed it was time to raise the bar a bit (10% or so), so I added a loop in.. I blew my measurement, instead of adding in .2 or .3 miles, I added in .5. 10% is much harder to add in on short distances.
Unfortunately the loop puts me at repeating a short distance.. I am never a big fan of that – but since it is a small distance, and near the beginning, I think I can keep my big boy pants on and deal with it. You can see in the map that there are plenty of little loops to add in for slow increases in distance, as well as looping up to Chelmsford to add a bit more. I like loops far more than “out and back” routes. I like variety in my terrain and views!
My time for the run wasn’t to bad – averaged right around an 8:12 mile according to Runtastic. At the very end, for maybe 500 feet or so – I felt a sharpish pain in the top of my left knee cap. Not a fan of this, and really hoping it is a one time occurrence!
I run, because I am a runner. Having realized that I have always "been a runner" - even when I went years with out running, I am learning how it has integrated itself in all aspects of my life. When I started running in highschool, my perspective on life changed. Funny that I didn't realize how much it had affected it until just recently.
Once and Future Runner 
I’d be interested in a review of the lock laces. I just can’t imagine that I could get the kind of control I like to get out of elastic laces. I would be happy to donate a couple pair of Bubble Laces so you can do a side-by-side comparison. I can crank them down tight where I want, and leave them loose where I need them to be and still get a good tight knot that doesn’t come undone.