Scraping By

After scraping by during the first couple weeks of Katy Fit with worn down New Balance 1224s, I finally treated myself to new shoes. After a couple of years away, I've returned to the Saucony camp with the Grid Fusion 3. "Great shoe for the budget conscious pronator," says the marketing copy. Hey, that sounds like me! I hope they turn out to be the true heir to the Grid Phoenix that I missed so much when Saucony seemed to get frilly with their lineup.

At this time, a kudo is rightfully bestowed upon Academy Sports and Outdoors. The display tags with some of their running shoes now carry actually useful color codes for Stability, Neutral, and Cushioning. The other blather that typically gets put on those shelf signage is nearly useless for shoppers attempting to differentiate between various models.

When a shoe is right, there's really no such thing as a break-in period, so I didn't hesitate to initiate this new pair with this morning's group run. It felt great to have my heels suspended again in the Saucony Grid cushion as I took off with the 10:1 group, once again led by Coach Doug.

Now if this was a story being told to a three-year-old, this is where you'd say, "...and then CurrentlyVince fall down, go BOOM."

Ironically, I had my mind focused on our group conversation about injuries when I tripped on the trail near our halfway point. I bounced right back up off the pavement, assuring everyone I was OK -- "I was running the edge, and the edge caught me." Just like the last memorable running spill I had, a handheld Amphipod bottle helped break my fall nicely, and the bottle even survived this time. I finished up the run with a lightly scraped knee, but no further embarrassment.

The embarrassment was waiting for me afterward, when core work kicked my butt once again. (Sigh.)

Now it's time to flip on some tunes and take care of some chores at home. This week I have not just one, but two newly released digital download albums joining my music collection. Gaelic Storm parties on with its fresh Cabbage, while Arcade Fire takes us out to The Suburbs. How has your summer sounded so far?