I hate buying new shoes

Ok, I don't hate buying all new shoes. In fact, maybe once a year I buy a pair of new shoes and sorta even enjoy the experience. But I HATE buying new running shoes. And I hate that running shoe companies make the experience even that much more unpleasant. See, running shoe companies think that shoes are like cars or cell phones and need to be in a state of constant improvement. Not so, my friends! Once you find that perfect shoe, it's PERFECT. It doesn't need fancy reinvention. Really. I found my last perfect shoe about 5 years ago. I think I owned 4 pairs of it. When I found out it was being discontinued, I even bought 2 pairs at the same time, which held me over until August. And then, I "upgraded" to the new and "improved" and have been running on those since August. Except, while new, the are not improved. They are stiffer and I'm more prone to blisters on my arch and if I don't lace them just so, I get a weird foot pain on the top of my right foot.

But they were tolerable and I put my 350 miles on them (savoring race days when I ran on the last pair of old shoes) but now I need new shoes and I want better! On Sunday I went to the Boulder Running Company and got a new pair. They felt fine in the store and fine on the treadmill for 1 minute. I took them to the gym today and ran about 3 minutes on the treadmill before my the entire bottom of my right foot was in stabbing pain each foot strike. So, it's back to square one. Since I only ran 6 minutes on a treadmill (and, like, 20 minutes on some bizarre cross ramp thing that I'm not sure I did right), I can return the shoes and start over. And this time I think I'll make sure to run at least 5 minutes in the store before making any purchases.

Last year at this time I was buying a new bike. That was way more fun.

And while I'm ranting, just once I'd like to put together a puzzle and have all the pieces there. We got 2 new puzzles for Christmas and put one together over break. "Oh boy," I thought, "We just opened the box, this puzzle will have ALL its pieces." Again, not so, my friends. A piece fell on the floor and my new dog-in-law Luna ate it. Well, most of it. Alex started the other puzzle at Grammie's house and we finished it up today.



Oh, and in case you were wondering, Wendy and puzzles are not really a good combination. I stayed up until midnight last night and was lucky to leave the house to go to the gym at noon today. But now it is finished and I can get on with my life.