This has nothing to do with running, but is does have to do with feet, and I use those to run, so close enough. These are my new Chacos! Hooray! Ignore the ugly runner feet, admire the sandally goodness.

I have a new running buddy/coach. For my birthday my parents got me a Nike +, which, for those not "in the know," is a device that syncs with my iPod and a sensor I have in my shoe. I can program it to play certain songs, etc, but more importantly it tracks my distance, time, calories burned, pace, etc. It's like having a treadmill but not being bound to the indoors. I took it on a couple runs this week (including a 10 miler, so I'm progressing!), and it worked great.

Once again it's been a slow week for running. I've been spending much more time at school than on the trails. I took Ruggles for about a 2 mile run (read: drag) again this week, but other than that I didn't get out until this weekend. Yesterday would have been a good day to run if I would have picked a better time. In the morning there was rain with hail so I decided to wait until the afternoon, but when I finally got out and ran about a quarter mile it started down pouring and hailing like madness. Trying to run in that hurt quite a bit and I thought I might get struck by lightning, so I tried to wait it out under an awning. After about 10 minutes (in which it got increasingly colder) I decided to give up and come home, so I sprinted back through the hail. What fun! After that loss I figured I should try to make up for my lack of running today. I was tired and hungry when started, but then I ended up feeling pretty good and ran 6 1/2 miles. I ran down the middle of Summit Ave. where there's a dirt trail (it's easier on the legs), and since it's Grand Old Day and a bit rainy, it wasn't very busy. I have confidence that once school's out (one week) I'll have a lot more time to run...not to mention less stress. It's been nearly impossible to convince myself that getting up at 5 to go running is a good idea, but soon I'll no longer have to entertain that thought.