So nearly a year ago I became more serious about running and bought a new pair of shoes. I was back in the states for a little over a week, so I was able to get what I thought was my size in what I thought was a good shoe. I think the shoes (Asics) were probably pretty good, though the salesmen clearly had no idea what he was talking about. Unfortunately for me, though, when I got back to Japan, the shoes felt too small! I know now that the fit can depend on the time of the day you try them on, and that there should actually be room between your toe and the front of the shoe and so on, but I was kind of out of luck because it is nearly impossible to find my size in Japan. I ended up running my first 10K in October for the RUN10FEED10 race in those shoes, and then continued running in them until my knees started hurting (my last run was on New Year’s Day). After going to the clinic last week, I was told I could still run as long as I had supportive shoes and stopped if my knees hurt while running. Then, coincidentally, yesterday I actually found my size running shoe! I promised Chad that if I could buy new shoes, I would start running again, four times a week, with a minimum of 2 miles each time.

These are my new, beautiful Nike Lunar Glides.

I wanted to be smarter this time than the last time I bought shoes, so I looked up lists of top running shoes and watched a video review of these on runnersworld.com. I also spoke extensively–at least, as extensively as my poor Japanese would allow–to the salesperson and she helped me a lot. (She, unlike the guy I had spoken to in the states, seemed to know what she was talking about!) Today was a moment of truth as I headed out the door for my first run in them. And…it was great!

I usually run about a ten minute mile comfortably, so I was happy with my time today after having taken a break from running for a couple of months. The shoes felt amazing–very light, yet supportive. Also amazing was revisiting an Old Time Radio Show I used to listen to called Suspense!.

Source

Although I sometimes listen to music while running, I usually prefer to listen to podcasts. Last weekend I was listening to The Story on NPR and they were talking about Old Time Radio shows, so I decided to start listening to them again. I chose a particularly eery episode of Suspense! called “Zero Hour” (you can download it for free on iTunes, if you’d like!) to run to today. Nothing to distract you from any running discomfort like an episode of Suspense!, I’ll tell you that much! I barely noticed I was running, and if I did I usually still felt happy because there were so many Cherry Blossom trees blooming everywhere.

Do you like running? If so, what do you like to listen to while you run?

I saw this inspiring quote on Facebook the other day…

Have a happy Thursday! The weekend is almost here.