Before and After

Running

Last week I managed to knock out another 50+ mile week:

9/1 to 9/8
Day	Activity	Miles
Monday	Aerobic	6.35
Tuesday	Intervals	4
Wednesday	Aerobic	6.35
Thursday	Intervals	4.2
Friday	Organic	9.9
Saturday	Aerobic	6.35
Sunday	Long Run	13.7
		50.85

However a terrible thing happened to my beloved Gel Cumulus shoes:

A hole!  Here is the before picture:

See what 400 miles can do to a pair of shoes!  So "they" recommend that you replace a pair of running shoes every 300-500 miles.  I am suspicious of the source for this number.  I suspect it comes from running shoe manufacturers.  Still, I can't expect great support from shoes with a hole in them.  Most importantly, it gave me an excuse to BUY MORE RUNNING SHOES!

So I got online and started researching.  I like Runner's world for reviews, but I also compare them to reviews on Zappos and Amazon.  I settled on Saucony's Rides after reading this review from a 51 year old, something about the similarity in age.

However, I've had Saucony's before and I'm in that stage of shoe buying where I want diversity, to try different great shoes in order to find the Ultimate shoe.  I've been wanting to try Brooks Ghosts, but was turned away from a review that said they were soft but had no arch support.  Then while reading running blogs (I do a lot of that now) I found this post on So Cal Gal's blog.  What sold me was that she drank the minimalist kool-aid also and then went back to Ghosts after several injuries.  So I ordered the Ghosts too.

That's right, I will have two different shoes to break in and try side-by-side.  I just hope I can concentrate on running while wearing them.

Imposed rest week

This week in running I had to ramp down the mileage for several reasons:

1. I had an early morning meeting at work on Wednesday.
2. I had an exam to set up early in the morning on Thursday.
3. Sunday (my usual long run day) I am racing a 5k.

I did intervals on Tuesday, and started feeling sore around the Gracilis muscle, or perhaps it was an adductor.  Either way it put me into recovery mode and I have been running aerobic miles the last two days at the gym.  I had to run on the treadmill because it has been too damn hot to run outside.  Today I get to run outside.  Even though my Gracilis is not bothering me this morning I'm going to keep it aerobic so as to not risk injury before the race.

Culinary

Not much to report here.  I slow cooked another pork shoulder and took about a pound to cook with a red onion and about a pound of mushrooms.  When all was well cooked (about 30 minutes) I added a cup and a half of rice followed by 2 and a half cups of preheated water from my tea kettle.   Twenty minutes later it was pork with mushroom sauce and rice.  Adding a little soy sauce was a perfect match seeing as soy sauce is made through fungal fermentations.

Also, my cured pork is ready!

68% of original weight.  I am going to refrigerate before slicing at which time I will take pictures.