After walking through my last 2 scheduled runs to let my groin/inner thigh muscle issue calm down, I went for my first run today to test the waters. Success!!!! I decided to run out a mile and then turn back for a total of 2 miles. While I’m sure 3 or 4 miles would have been fine, I’m trying to be smart and make sure I don’t push it only to have a setback. I’ve got TOO MANY races the second half of the year and I don’t want to miss any of them. It was quite soupy out today. In just 22 minutes my entire running outfit was soaked!

I'm glistening!

I’m glistening!

The second part of my successful math equation: my new kicks!!! This was a potential crisis averted and I’m thrilled. Here’s the situation my parent’s went away on a week’s vacation: I have been wearing the Asics Cumulus 13s since training for my first marathon in 2011. LOVE THEM! The 14s came out and i HATED THEM! Total freakout. So I did what any normal crazy superstitious runner would do and found an online retailer that still had 2 pairs of the 13s in my size. Boom! I was all set for the next 6-9 months. Well, in the last week I noticed that my sneaker mileage was dangerously close to maxing out on BOTH pairs (TIP: I tend to rotate between two pairs. This is great for when one pair is wet from a rainy day or you’ve stepped in dog poo, gum etc and you have back to back running days. (I try to stay around 300-350 miles per pair. I keep a log on my phone in a note but I know they even have apps for this purpose.) By now I’ve made it clear that I can get obsessively stressed over the “small stuff”. To complicate things, they now have come out with the Cumulus 15s! Yesterday I decided to face my fears head on and walk up to the Asics store on my lunch hour (god bless the fact that I work in Manhattan just 5 blocks away from an Asics store). To my dismay the 15s were just as the 14s were. Not cushy enough for me. The guy helping me suggested the Nimbus 14s (the 15s are out but the 14s were cheaper and will still be around for a few months). I took a leap of faith and was pleasantly relieved to discover that they felt great! They actually felt like the Cumulus 13s did. So I made my purchase knowing i’d give them a few trial runs and if all was good i’d go home and order another pair or two.

Brand new Nimbus 14s

Brand new Nimbus 14s

So today was a good day. The sneakers felt perfect. The leg felt great. And I’m giving myself kudos for actually listenting to my body and giving my muscle a chance to feel better. <<pointing finger at you>> Now to all you readers please take my advice and do the same. Listen to your body. Sometimes it will say “Hey sexy.” But sometimes it will say “Ouchie. Give me a break please.”