ChiRunning Day 3, and New Shoes!

Today was another rest day, but yesterday was not, and I did my workout.

I did things differently.  First of all, instead of running for 35-40 minutes as fast as I could endure, I walked 9/10 of it and I only went for 22 minutes (partly because that's all I had budgeted, but also because I'm trying so very hard to not hurt myself.  I practiced walking Very Fast and sometimes that became running. But sometimes it was still walking Very Fast.  And I did not wear a brace or tape, and I still didn't hurt myself.  I feel okay today and I tried to stay conscious all day today of my posture, etc.  There's a bit of stiffness, but that's okay--on Wednesday night it was hurting.

I'm still trying and trying to remember to keep my posture good all day.  My butt still likes to stick out and my chin still likes to come up, and I've just been trying hard to gently put myself back when I sense I have gone out of alignment.  Not judging myself--that's a rough one.  Rough!  And here's something else.  Shayla Morrigan posted this on Facebook today and I think I will look at it daily and make it my mantra, because I know that my stress directs itself straight to my hips and legs (and to my shoulders, though not as bad).

"Be productive yet calm.  If I could just incorporate this one thing into my life I'd be better off!  And if I could remember to *just breathe! and *let go of what I can't control... wow, I'd make a huge turnaround.

So today I went out and bought myself a new pair of running shoes.  This is because in reading ChiRunning I read the bit about shoes which went something like this: Are your shoes over four months old? (mine are 6).  Examine the soles for wear-and-tear.  Discard the shoes if there are places where the top and part of the middle layers of the soles are worn off.  Yeah.  They are binned, because they were flat.  According to the book, this can account for leg pain.  Hmmmm.  So I went to REI and I bought a brand new pair that look like this:

Which, if you think they look familiar, is because they are identical to the pair I bought last spring!  But they were on clearance for $44! SCORE!  The new model of this shoe costs $99.

I also ordered a new pair of winter boots because I have none that make my feet happy.  But I had to get them online because the pair I wanted was not in the store.

Oh, I've just caught myself slouching.  Gotta stop that.  Also, gotta not judge myself for it!  Heavens, this is hard work.  I'm going to go work on this:

It keeps growing!  Must finish it soonish!