wow. Time flys. Period. I need to catch up.

Last week was not a good running week. Really couldn't figure it out until the weekend when I started backtracking. The shoes. Yep. The shoes.

I had been noticing the last several weeks that the knees, ankles, thighs were hurting. Not normal for me. Even when I'm at my fattest, joint pain has never really been a big issue. Saturday, I actually had to stop and walk because my legs were hurting so bad. Being the engineering type, I try to keep track of miles run on each pair (yes I run in multiple pairs-it's better on the shoes). The shoes I've been slogging around in were bought in April of 07. Wow-that's pretty old. The mileage was the killer-400+ miles in each pair. No wonder my legs were killing me.

I've been in Brooks Beast 9 for awhile and I recently read where Brooks is discontinuing the 9 and bumping it up to the 10. However, I need shoes NOW. I went in the local running store, TrakShak, just to see what they had. I love Saucony . . . they feel good but wear out quickly. Same for Mizuno. Love the feel and my marathon PR was run in Mizuno Wave Renegades. However, I felt like a change. How about Asics Foundation 8. Let's give 'em a try.

I ran Monday in my old Beasts and barely finished 3 miles. Ran to TrakShak on Tuesday and bought the Foundations. Ran 3 miles in them on Wednesday. Initially, the legs were hurting but felt better by the end of the run. I'm planning on 3 or 4 miles this afternoon and then walking 9 holes. We'll let you know how it goes.

On a side note, I went to the Dr. last week. My neck and left shoulder have been killing me. No, not heart attack kind of pain. This is that stiff, hard to roll the head, feels like something is tearing kind of pain. My Doc took a series of neck and skull x-rays. I was concerned that I may have done some damage from a nasty spill I took about a year ago. Don't ask. Anyway . . . Tim called today and said that there are no signs of cracks, leissions, or disc damage. However, he did see signs of progressing cervical arthritis between 3, 4, 5 discs. Not much to do in way of treatment. He has put me on Robaxin (muscle relaxer) for a while. He has also said that anti-inflammatories would help. However, with GERD, I am not supposed to take anti-inflammatories. It sucks getting older. I think I'll call my GI and ask him about taking Motrin for a while. the main thing is to come up with a long term plan to limit the pain. Anybody out there ever done accupuncture?