Mileage: 3.4
Time: 27 minutes (8 minutes per mile)
Feeling: OK, though a bit slow

If I'm going to train for the big sur marathon, I should probably have running shoes that aren't 2 years old. My last pair of athletic shoes were basic running shoes (Nike Air Atomica Plus) and probably not great. They've now been replaced by the shoes shown above: Nike Skylon. It's a light trainer (similar to the Asics DS Trainer in some ways) that feels ultra-comfortable. Everything but the sole of the shoe is basically one big elastic mesh covering. Lateral support is proabably not that great but then again this is a road race shoe, I think. The DS Trainer supposedly has pronation support and these don't as much but I have really no visceral idea what that means.

New lightweight shoes encouraged me to run fast today, even though it's supposed to be a light 3 in preparation for a medium 5 tomorrow. Pushed myself somewhat hard, though certainly not "race pace," throughout the run. Ended up with about an 8 min./mile time for about 3.4 miles. Seems so slow and insignificant an improvement over last week's 29.5 minutes. But then again, that's almost a 10% faster time (but I wasn't pushing myself last time and I had old shoes...). The rationales go on and on. I guess I can take comfort in the fact that I CAN run faster and don't feel that winded at the end of a run even if I'm huffing and puffing during it...