Nu shooz: Brooks Ghost 11, RAGBRAI DQ, and running restart

The bad news is I will not be riding RAGBRAI. The good news is that means I get to restart running sooner.

I have a lot of time to read and write for the next seven or eight days. In the middle of a two-week rest period where I can’t do much of anything, I am trying my best to stay productive and distracted, take my mind off a growing deficit of both endorphins and vitamin D.

On the corner of my desk is a sticky note with the heading “Blog posts to write.” Five of the post ideas are crossed off—they are things I wrote before 2018 ended—but three remain. My plan during this (hopefully) last rest week is to write two of those posts. (I’m saving the third for No-shave November.) First up is an obligatory post about my latest pair of running shoes that I have neglected to write.

Way back during my vacation in late October and early November, I paid a visit to We Run in North Liberty, the only running-specific shoe store in the area. (Running Wild’s demise still peeves me, mostly because my parents gave me a gift certificate for my birthday and the franchise abruptly closed before I could use it, rendering it useless. As the Iowa Attorney General’s Office told me when I filed a consumer complaint, “For a business that simply closes its doors, absent unusual circumstances, generally when the business dies so does the ability to redeem a gift certificate/card. There is no insurance, bond or escrow requirement in Iowa law to give the holder of the certificate/card any assistance.” Basically, the owners of Running Wild pocketed that money—or used it to pay off debtors.) Despite the fact I had not run in about a year, I was planning ahead. Twenty eighteen was coming to an end, and so was my vow not to run for the whole year.

Another year, another pair of Ghosts. It had been so long since I last bought running shoes that I missed an entire edition of the series. (The shoes do not change that much from edition to edition, though sometimes the differences are more noticeable than others.) How are my pair of Ghost 11s? They are versatile and great for walking, as all my pairs of Ghosts are. (I have been painting in a pair of 8s and have been working out and biking in a pair of 9s, but both need to be replaced because the soles are worn smooth in places.) I have not gotten a chance to run in them, unfortunately. The brutal late winter, wet spring, and focus on RAGBRAI training have kept me from a return to running.

Until now.

There is a chance I will serve as my uncle’s support on RAGBRAI, but I won’t be riding a bike because of my ongoing issue. Though I have already trained more than a lot of people will think about training (408.91 miles to be exact), I have not done any really long rides and it is way too late in the game to take a two-week break. Well, maybe not. I tweaked my back at the end of training in 2015 and took a week or so off, and that did not affect my riding. However, that was after 800 miles of training—on a hybrid. I was better trained back then and probably needed that rest (my back sure did). Though I remain open-minded about riding, I doubt it is happening ... which means I will have time and energy to run!

(The thing about RAGBRAI training—and I’m talking about following the training schedule posted on the RAGBRAI blog—is it takes over one’s life. As much as it has sucked not being able to do anything active or outdoors recently, it has been very nice not having to sit on my bike seat for hours, dodge potholes, and avoid being killed by impatient motorists every other day.)

So when will I restart running? Not soon enough, because I badly need endorphins and vitamin D. Life has been throwing lemons at my head since April, and I have been making the best lemonade I can out of the pulpy remains. But right now I’m targeting July 6. I settled into a Saturday-Monday-Wednesday routine long ago and want to return to familiar ways at first.

Before then, though, I may buy new running shoes. I suspect I need more cushioning and support than the Ghost series offers, especially after so much time off. Plus, I averaged about two injuries per year while running in Ghosts, so I think it is time to try something else.