Back at it

This was a big day. We woke up early and headed for Ashbridges Bay Park in the 'Beaches' area of Toronto. It's a great setup for runners/walkers and cyclists and the trails take you along the shores of Lake Ontario. Oh, did I mention the trails take you along the shores of Lake Ontario and that's kind of a shame because the smell of pollution and whatever else blows through the area is almost more then a runner, desperate for clean oxygen, can take. I saw more runners in the park than I had ever seen at one time, other than during a race. Being Toronto, however, no one acknowledged me, not even so much as 'runner's wave' that I had become so used to in St. John's when passing a fellow runner on the street. Instead, they concentrated all of there attention on their strides and their water bottles. Oh well, whatever works best for you.

We did a 2 minute walking, 2 minute running exercise for about 30 minutes. This was my first time in running shoes since the Tely 10 and I didn't want to push things with the bad heel/leg. I felt great though, so I am eager to see how the heel/leg responds after another night's sleep. We'll see. If all goes well, I'll be out Tuesday morning for little 5K jog, which of course will be at the same clip as my moderate pace.

We made our way back to the hotel to clean up and check out. Our flight wasn't leaving Toronto until 900pm, so we had the whole day to drive around and see the sights, shop, eat, and the like. We stopped in on a running specialty store as I was interested in getting some advice about a new pair of shoes. I had purchased a new pair about 3 weeks before the Tely 10 - a stability shoe, that, in my opinion, caused the injury to my achilles. The sales person was quite pleasant and when I told her that I wanted some advice about a new pair of shoes, she had me strip down to my bare feet and walk the length of the store. She immediately recommended a stability shoe and told her the story of how I thought the stability shoes caused my trouble. I also told her that I thought technology in shoes was a bad thing, at least for me anyways. She looked at me in bewilderment almost as though I had just revealed the Caramilk secret; but I didn't relent. I further explained my case stating that I feel a person needs to be able to stride naturally, and any technology that gets in the way is trouble. She quickly decided that a cushioning shoe would be better for me, I agreed. So I tried on a couple of pairs, but the fit wasn't right. She then brought me a pair of New Balance's that I liked, only problem is she only had two right shoes in my size, and that wasn't going to work; I was out of options at that store. Instead, I purchased a copy of John Bingham's 'Courage to Start' after not being able to find 'Marathoning for Mortals' and my wife and I left for another sports store. My luck changed. I found a pair of Adidas Supernovas for the remarkably low price of $59.99, threw them in the suitcase and felt like I had won a small victory against whomever or whatever it was that had been conspiring against my efforts to get into a new pair of running shoes over the previous month or so.

We made it home at around 2:00am. Overall, a long, but enjoyable day.