Too. Many. Shoes.

My heart and I, we’re doing all right, but my shoe closet and I, we’re having some serious issues.

So you may recall the other day when I posted how I was pushing 195 beats per minute conquering that mother of a hill, and how I was somewhat concerned given that my max heart rate is 188 bpm (I think), but Mark Cavendish has since eased my fears.

For those of you who don’t know who Mark Cavendish is, he’s the self-proclaimed fastest cyclist alive and arguably the cockiest one alive too – which is definitely one of the top reasons why I do so love the guy! Case in point: I’ve just started reading his book Boy Racer, My Journey to Tour de France Record-Breaker and in typical Mark Cavendish style, he starts out on a brilliantly arrogant note:

“Brian, I need you to do me a favor. I need you to call Unibet.”
Brian was Brian Holm, my Columbia Sportswear team’s Danish directeur sportif, and Unibet was an online betting company. Brian knew what I meant. I could tell from the way he was smirking; but sitting next to him, my other directeur, Rolf Aldag, thought he’d either misheard or that I’d gone insane. He leaned over Brian in the passenger seat to get a clearer view and asked me to repeat what I’d said.
“I need you to call Unibet and put a grand on Mark Cavendish to win today’s stage. Got it?”

Like I said, cocky, brilliantly so!

So anyway, I’m reading the book and he’s telling me about the sprint to the finish and how his heart is right up in the 200 beats per minute zone, and suddenly everything was okay. I mean, heck, if Mark Cavendish’s heart is going 200 bpm for like three weeks straight, mine can surely do 195 every now and again without keeling over can’t it 😀

This was taken when we were at the Giro D’Italia in 2009 and Mario totally paparazzied Cav after he peed in a cup!

TONIGHT’S TRAINER:

• 7:20 p.m. BG before: 6.8
• Temp. basal -30 per cent
• Dinner carbs: minus 40 per cent = 51g
• Time: 60 minutes
• @40 minutes: BG 4.1 (1/2c. orange juice)
• 8:30 p.m. BG after: 7.0

Now, the shoes. I never thought I’d hear myself say I’ve got too many shoes, but seriously, I think I’ve got too many – running shoes that is. I know, I know, all you runners out there are probably saying you can never have too many running shoes, but the thing is, I generally only have one or two going at the same time. Sure I’ve got a closet full of running shoes (and my sister does so love when I do a purge) but I’ve got favourites that I use specifically for training, and when I get a favourite the others become forgotten just like Woody did when Buzz Lightyear first showed up.

But then the Running Warehouse had a sale. My shoes – Mizuno Wave Inspire 6 – went from like $130 in the store, to $51 on the website. And with a deal like that, I was kind of sort of obligated to buy two! So now, I’ve got three of the same pairs of shoes, one pair has 186.7 km pounded into them and the others have zero. So now what? How do I work these shoes into the mix? Do I keep one pair in my car for always? Do I stash one pair away? Do I alternate between all three? See, what I mean, too many shoes!

But I do so love the newness of new shoes!