Day 6, Week 3: Enough about tempo runs, let's talk about SHOES

Because I'm an idiot, I got a total of 2.5-ish hours of sleep last night.  I stayed up reading a really good book (American War) and then made myself worry about work for a few hours as I laid in bed definitely not sleeping but instead torturing myself for my imagined work sins.  What better way to prepare for my tempo run this morning?  I'm sure that's in someone's book of training plans somewhere.

I had a shorter tempo this morning: a 2 mile warm-up followed by 3 miles at a pace the Run Less, Run faster people call "short tempo" but I call "too fast for the dog but I took him with me anyway" pace.  I needed to make sure his naughty switch didn't toggle to the "on" position accidentally any time soon.

But I also didn't want to to do the run at all, any potential dog-damage be damned.  I wanted to snag an hour's more worth of sleep and then slog my way through the rest of the day as sloth-like as possible, hurting people with eye rolls and side-eye all day long.  And then this thought came tumbling through my brain:

"But if I don't go, I'll have nothing to write about this afternoon on my stupid running blog."

That thought made me sad.  It also made me go hook myself to the dog and do the damn run.  I was supposed to run miles 3-5 at an 8:33 pace.  Here's what happened:

I am my own worst tempo running enemy.  Maybe I'll get the hang of this "running at the pace I'm supposed to be running at" thing one day.  But I was still happy that I got up and did the run.

Even though my pace was all wrong during that tempo, you know what was oh-so-right?  My shoes.

Bonus cat!

I'd like everyone to meet my little family of Brooks Launches.  Most of them are Launch 4s, with a pair of purple 3s being watched closely for potential shenanigans by the cat in the upper left.  As you can tell, I love the Brooks Launch so much I bought them twice.  Times three.  Why so much Launch love?  Because:

• They are light.  I do all of my workouts in these-speed, long runs, and tempos.  They never feel heavy on my feet at the end of a run (which is something the Glycerins always do to me)
• The amount of cushioning they have gets me. Not too much, and not too little.  I can feel the ground without feeling every pebble jammed into my sole like I feel with some of the more minimal Nike shoes.
• Colors...so many pretty colors.  I'm not one for boring shoes.  If you're going to run a marathon, you can at least have the decency to have interesting shoes on for the race photogs.
• I can run injury-free.  I've never ever gotten an injury in these shoes.  Unlike some others.
• Yeah, I'm looking at you, Saucony.  
• It's pretty obvious the cat loves them too, and if they're good enough for the cat, they're good enough for me.  

It should also be obvious that if they ever change these shoes in any major way, I'm going to have a complete meltdown.  Trust me, Brooks-no one wants that to happen.  Amirite?

Today's musings in sum:

1. Get more sleep and stop torturing myself with things work-related
2. Good books are good but not before bed.
3. Running tempos too fast is apparently my super-power
4. I need at least two more pairs of Brooks Launch shoes, especially the ones they have now with the knit upper
5. And yes, Terie, you ARE right.

Tomorrow's workout: Weights and this time I *am* going to bike ride I really really mean it this time