I've been enjoying my "lazy" summer. I've been running very little, but I wouldn't exactly say I've been slacking off. My 5 year old learned to ride his two wheeler, so I bought a used bike trailer and have been biking with both kids! A typical evening for us now is to eat a fast dinner, bike to the pool, swim until we're shivering, bike home, and fall asleep exhausted. Add to that weekend hikes with me carrying both Sami in the sling and my pack, and I'm pretty confident in my overall fitness level.
It was time for me to get a new pair of running shoes, and after having them in my cart for months, I finally pulled the trigger and got a pair of Merrell Barefoot Pace Gloves. I wore them around the house with the tags flapping behind for quite a while, because I wasn't sure if I should keep them or not. But I couldn't deny that they're extremely comfortable, so I snipped the tags, and decided that if running in them didn't work out, I'd definitely use them for casual wear.
I took them for the their maiden voyage - just a slow mile in the thickest possible humidity. They felt great! My main complaint is that they're noisy - the sole isn't squishy foam like regular running shoes, but a kind of plasticky tread, so every step goes tap, tap, tap. And I now realize that running in Nike Frees bears no resemblance to barefoot running. Still, I could see switching back and forth between the Frees and Merrells. I don't think I have any desire to ever lace up my old motion control shoes ever again.
In other news, registration for the Women's Four Miler opened and closed this weekend, and I did not register. It's such a circus, and I don't really want to put myself through that, especially since I'm not really training over the summer. I will volunteer on race day parking cars or something, and I think I feel much better about supporting the race and the cause that way than about paying a lot of money to spend 40 minutes crammed shoulder to shoulder with 3000 other runners. My tentative plan now is to see what the fall race schedule looks like, and maybe do a couple of 5K's before 10 miler training starts again in Oct/Nov. I'm giving serious thought to a spring half or full. But right now I'm mostly just enjoying my time off, and just running as the spirit moves me.
