What kind of running shoes to you exercise in? I’m curious to know your favorites, and more importantly, why. Here are my top Running Shoes for Women:

I’ve had to re-adjust my days… I’m not used to having this much time to myself  (I typically have two workouts a day).  Because the tent inhibits my recovery and I am so over trained,  I’m taking off 6 months from the tent which again will inhibit my ability to train but will increase my chances of recovering as quickly as possible.

I’ve cut my miles back to 45 miles/week just to get my body and hormones back in balance from over-training that I did between September and December.  Bermuda’s race in January was over the top for me.

The plan is for me to carry a little more fat, giving me little more estrogen in my body which allows my body to stabilize so I’m not training quite so hard.  The negative is that I had to pull out of the elite races I had planned for this winter/early spring season so I’m now shooting for the April time frame hoping that if things in the next month come together, that would be a realistic time to get going again.  If I can be back into good running mode in the next month or so, then I can start putting a good base together in being ready to go for races.

Worst case scenario, I really want to be ready for the Peachtree Road Race- it’s a race my kids can go to, it in my back yard, and it’s the largest 10k in the nation…10ks are my favorite races. It’s the race I ran well at 2 years ago, and I know most of the people involved in it, and sponsoring it so it’s a great opportunity to be with friends and people I know as well as the elite running community that comes in not only nationally, but internationally.

I also see Heart of the Summer (the Minneapolis road race) as one of the best races for me to hit a record in for a few reasons:
-I’m from Minneapolis and I have a lot of local support at that race
-it’s a nice, flat course that I’m familiar with

Some of the elites from the Minneapolis pro runners are there like Katie McGregor who is one of the best 10k runners in the nation, so she’s a great person to pace with and try to make a record with.

Here’s what the starting line looked like at the Bermuda International 10k

Jim filmed my warm up ritual… may not be too entertaining but here it is:

…And here’s my finish at the Bermuda 10k- not as good as I had hoped

Proving they are a force to be reckoned with, Foot Solutions, the world’s largest franchiser focused on foot care health and wellness and relatively new on the running scene, took the Boston Marathon by storm last week when several of its runners were thrust into the national spotlight with strong appearances despite injuries and biomechanic issues.

Leading the marathon for the first 17 miles, two Foot Solutions runners attempted to do what the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team did during the 1980 Olympics in their famous upset of the supposedly invisible Russian team.

“It was our strategy from the start to run the race hard at the beginning and still finish strong,” said Foot Solutions Elite Running Coach Margaret Sue Bozgoz. “Of course we knew that the odds were not in our favor. Foot Solutions is a relatively small company and cannot afford the top runners in the business. But Jared Nyamboki, our strongest runner, is known for his quick start and with our other runner serving as the pacer, we believed Nyamboki, if he could get over Heartbreak Hill,had a chance to go the distance and win at Boston.”

The strategy conceived by Bozgoz and supported by Foot Solutions Founder and CEO Ray Margiano was one that some questioned in the days following the race.  But both Bozgoz and Margiano answered their critics by simply explaining their underdog philosophy. “Boston is the premier running event and so we thought it was worth the gamble to try something different there,” Margiano said.  It didn’t work out as planned but think about how fantastic and memorable it would have been had it worked.  Who knows, if the weather had been better he really might have been able to do it,” Margiano said. “In any case, we are proud of our runners and the race they ran.”

Nyamboki, a Kenya native who lives and trains in Fayetteville, Ga. , and the majority of his Foot Solutions team members, are literally running for their lives.  Most of the Foot Solutions team is running to escape extreme poverty in their native countries and many face political persecution. “As minor leaguers in the marathon field, we are also particularly proud of our over 40 runners who prove every day that excellence can be achieved at any age,” said Margiano…..continue reading