The waiting begins

Two more weeks to go before the big day, and I am getting antsy. Have I prepared enough? Will my knees hold for 26.2 miles? Do I need new shoes? I haven't run during the week because of a trip to San Diego. Am I behind?

Part of that was answered this weekend. Yesterday, Jeff and I ran at the treadmills at our gym. This is a new Lifetime Fitness gyn- it just opened early his year. I showed him around, and he liked the facilities. We decided to do the treadmills with the individual slats. A couple of college football games were on, so it was fine. I decided to do mile repeats, at a high enough pace to keep my heart rate at 165 bpm. This meant 6 mph for the first two miles, then slowly lowering to 5.9, then 5.8, then finally 5.5 mph at the 7th mile. I took walk breaks after each mile, long enough to lower by HR to 128 bpm. It probably took 2 minutes for my HR to go from 170 to 128 bpm. Anyway, by mile 7, I decided to do 5 min run/1 min walk. I was starting to feel it in my legs, and I didn't want to strain anything. Remember, this was tapering off, right?

It felt good to be running slightly faster. But I don't think I shaved off a lot of time compared to a regular 5 min run/1 min walk at 11 to 12 min pace. Plus, I felt a little tired after only 8 miles. So, definitely, I should stick to 5/1. My strategy on race day is looking like this- 5/1 until mile 23, then if I feel strong, do 10/1 after that.

I also decided I needed new shoes. My feet were more banged up than usual, and this is a treadmill! I dread the asphalt and concrete on race day. I looked up shoes on the web, and some people say that the Asics Gel-Kayano 12 (2006 model) had more cushioning than the Gel-Kayano 13s I have now. So I found a size 11 on the web, and 2E width (I have 2 black toes on my right foot) for about $99 including shipping. I thought it was a good deal- we'll see in a few days.

I have to watch it- i've read books that say runners become crazy during the taper period and start buying all kinds of stuff! I have been thinking of new knee bands and the Mizuno Wave Inspire shoes...