#78 Summers OVER

Its official, summers over in the pacific NW. Thats not saying we won’t have a nice day here & there but consistent nice (dry) weather is gone for the next 10 months.

Saturday was the first of many upcoming miserable bike workouts. A group of us headed out at 9am in the pouring rain for a 65 mile loop through Maple Valley. It started out ok but the wetter I got the less fun I was having. I guess its time to pull the finders out of storage.

Sunday I did get one of the best run workouts in. The weather was dry & in the low 60’s. (Wish we would have ran on Sat & biked on Sun…) I put in 12.5 miles on the flat shores of Lake Washington. This was a bit of a milestone because my longest training runs in the past topped out at 10 miles. (Longest race didtance 13.1) Now that there’s a couple marathons in my future trainning distances are going to get much longer. I avereged an 8 minute 16 second pace over the 12.5 mile run & I’m pretty sure the last mile was one of the fastest.

Read Full Post »

#77 Wigwam Sock Review

From time to time I post product reviews, these posts seem to be the most visited pages. (Thanks search engines) This latest review is for a new running sock that I’ve been really happy with.

About 6 moths ago I started having problems with blister in strange spots on my toes & sides of my feet. This was happening even on shorter runs. My first approach was to try new shoes without any luck, pretty much I still had the same blisters.

Years ago I used to hike in Wigwam Ultramax socks & stayed blister free so I decided to give there running socks a shot. Purely by chance Wigwam’s line of running socks are licensed by & branded by Ironman.

Link to wigwam socks.

The socks are super thin, run a little on the small side but have worked great for me. I’m 99% blister free running in them without the need of any body lube of anykind.

If your feet tend to be on the sweaty side or you run in wet conditions give these socks a shot.

Read Full Post »

#76 Mesa Arizona

Harmony & I are in Mesa Arizona for her Grandfathers 60-something High School class reunion. (This could require its own blog…)

So far so good, Thursday evening I got out for a run after the sun went down & the temprature dropped a bit. There was a great loop to run that door to door from out hotel was eight miles. Running in a town you’ve never been to (in the dark) adds some fun to the workout. I kept thinking the next major interceston had to be the one I was to turn on. The run took one hour an one minute…7:37 pace, right where I need to be.

The pool at the Hilton doesen’t look too conducive to lap swimming, I may have to stick with running this weekend.

Read Full Post »