Week 2: Buy the Running Shoes

Nadia Jones will be covering her training for the next 3 months leading up to the Tuscaloosa Half Marathon. If you would like to follow her journey, you can visit this blog each week for updates!

If you didn’t catch my Week 1 Update and have frivolous amounts of time - Click Here. If you want the cliff notes here it is:

• The Galloway Run Walk Run Method is a strategy used to finish longer road races. It is what it says it is, a running and walking method.
• “Postpartum” is a very ambiguous definition, it’s basically 8 weeks after birth or until you hit menopause.
• I have committed to Run Walking either the Tuscaloosa Half Marathon or the 5k this year. As a postpartum mother of 2 – I have decided the best thing for me to do is to have a general plan (exercise 3 - 4x a week) and choose what works best for my body and my brain when I get to the halfway mark on the Tuscaloosa Half Marathon Training – To Be Continued!

Here are some of my thoughts from training week 2:

Buy the Running Shoes – if you haven’t started training, now is a great time to buy some new running shoes. If you have started training, now is also a great time to buy some new running shoes.

I’ll never forget when I went wedding dress shopping, the girl who helped me “Say Yes to the Dress”  asked me what styles I was interested in at the beginning of my appointment. She told me she wanted to go ahead and "pull some dresses for me." I was sort of appalled that she was going to pick out dresses for MY wedding – this woman was a complete stranger, how does she know anything about what wedding dress I would want to wear on MY wedding? Thanks, but no thanks! 

Well, after an hour of searching the store and having zero dresses to try on, I gave my new friend a chance and told her the two styles I was interested in wearing. Within 5 minutes she picked out 2 dresses and within 20 minutes I had found the one. I told her afterwards that I couldn’t believe SHE (a stranger) picked out my wedding dress. She went on to remind me that we see accountants for our taxes, doctors for our illnesses, and plumbers for leaks in our homes – she listed a few more experts to make her point loud and clear, but she concluded with "I'm a Wedding Dress Expert."

Haley at Wagner’s RunWalk (a runner and Training Shoe Expert) in Tuscaloosa listened to me talk about my favorite running shoe that I ever owned. The Nike Zoom Pegasus 31 - circa 2014. I also told her about my style of running and what felt good on my foot, in about 30 seconds she selected the Brooks Hyperion for me. She had the ability to perform an objective assessment of my foot with some neat equipment they have Wagner's, but she also had the expert knowledge to listen and digest what I was telling her worked best for me. I won’t be recommending what shoes you should train in, butI will recommend that you go to a specialty running store to get your training shoes.

Clean the Running Shoes – I love how my new Hyperion’s look AND feel! In my youth, I usually selected the loudest colors for attention. As a 33 year old, doing the Run Walk Method, I was looking for a “blend in” shoe that I could also wear to work and playgrounds. The shoe Haley selected for me was simply ivory with no bells or whistles. During our week 2 long run I stepped into sloppy mud trying to dodge a puddle – I could hear my mom’s voice in my head, “Why did you buy white shoes?”

Because they look awesome and feel great, okay mom!?

I expressed my disappointment about the yucky mud that looked like a leaky diaper had made it’s way to my foot post run. My friend Courtney mentioned scrubbing the mud off with a toothbrush and baking soda, then placing them in the washer on a gentle cycle. I took her words of wisdom and I sprinted home to get to work, no pun intended. One problem – I didn’t have baking soda. I did have, however, have baking soda toothpaste. I decided to get started with the baking soda toothpaste instead because that’s what you do when you don’t have patience and you want your shoes to look brand new again. You take shortcuts. I started scrubbing the mud with the baking soda toothpaste and felt like I was making my shoes look 10x worse. The smaller splashes of mud became smears and the ivory quickly turned a perfect shade of Grissom Tiger Brown (low key inserting that in here since it was Grissom vs. Huntsville week). I had a mild panic and called my father-in-law who I consider to be West Alabama's Expert Laundry Surgeon. I asked him to bring me some baking soda for my yucky shoes. I am 100% sure he heard I was doing more than an everyday load of laundry and he swung by my house STAT. He didn’t bring the baking soda, he just picked up my shoes and took them home with him to his Operating Room. Later that evening he brought my shoes home. They looked so good I convinced myself he had thrown the muddy ones away and had bought a new pair as an early birthday present to yours truly. Like I mentioned earlier, before you try to manage cleaning your running shoes your own way – consult with an expert first. Also, a gentle reminder that shortcuts are often deceiving and usually lead you to the path of destruction.

Run Walk RunEtiquette – We had over 75 people show up to our week 2 training run at Wagner’s Run Walk! When we all took off together, I quickly realized how annoying my Run Walk Run method probably felt to those around me, “Why is this girl running so hard and then stopping to walk?”

When I ran my first Tuscaloosa Half Marathon back in 2016, I clearly remember a girl stopping to take pictures in front of  Bryant Denny Stadium, Denny Chimes, and all the other wonderful landmarks on the campus of The University of Alabama. I was so frustrated that this girl kept stopping to walk, take a picture, get behind me, and then accelerate in a full out sprint in front of me.  She repeated this what felt like every 3 minutes the entire 13.1 miles. Looking back, I recognize that she was probably doing the Run Walk Run method at my running pace. I remember thinking she was antagonizing me (being a little dramatic here for those who don't sense sarcasm) and I even made a point to sprint past her downhill on Queen City Avenue at the end of the race. I looked back at her like Usain Bolt as I crossed the finish line - in the middle to the back of the pack mind you.

Unfortunately, I was the real loser as I lost a toenail from the downhill sprint with about 4 weeks before my wedding. I can humbly state now that she wasn’t trying to “annoy” me or any other runners – she was just doing the Run Walk Run method (I think - didn't confirm this with her officially). 

My encouragement here is that if you are doing the Run Walk Run method – don’t worry about what others are thinking. Also, have some manners and don’t stop abruptly in front of someone who may not be looking up. Stay to the right when you are walking to allow those who are moving a little faster pass. Pass on the left when you are running and just have some awareness. Lastly, don’t worry about what others are thinking about you. If someone is frustrated by your style of running (or walking), it’s a reflection of their own insecurities.Unless you are dancing on TikTok (or whatever platforms people are using these days) while simultaneously Run Walking on a treadmill – that is frustrating to watch. Treadmills are not for dancing, if you disagree, please read the manufacturing label.  

Quote – Week 2

“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” - C.S. Lewis

Lately, I have been reflecting on quotes that have impacted my life. Like, what are things that I remember people telling me when I was in my adolescence that stick with me to this day? My dad used to always ask me what the definition of integrity was, this quote is engrained in my brain. I’m not sure if this is an inspiring running quote to you, but it pairs well with choosing to do things the right way vs. taking a shortcut.  

Playlist – Week 2  

1. Eye of the Tiger – Survivor – In honor of the Grissom vs. Huntsville game that I will be attending on Friday, I had to pump myself up a little bit with our old basketball run out song to get my run started. LTB ’09!

2. How You Remind Me – Nickelback – Yeah, I said it. After my week 1 update I mentioned it would probably just be my mom and husband reading this blog, now I’ve probably lost them too. In all seriousness, this song has a tempo of 172 beats per minute. I learned last week that an optimal cadence (steps per minute) for runners is between 160-180. So even if you can’t stand Nickelback, there’s a reason to run to this song.

3. Lose Control (Radio Version) – Missy Elliott – Tell me your age, without telling me your age, they said. This was a good pick me up for the end of my longer run.