It’s tradition in the spring to do some spring cleaning, to make room for the new. Ah the new, it always sounds so good, so exciting, so perfect. New is a change from the old, the routine, the dust. But new doesn’t solve everything right away. You have to give the new its time to take its place, to take its shape and to take its rhythm.

Remember I told you I was training for a 10k this spring? With less than a month to go now and having been content to run 5k semi-regularly for the last few years, I’ve had no choice but to up the pace in the last few months, which was the primary objective of this race. I’d like to take this opportunity to salute our beautiful, warm and rain-free spring, as well as my great shoes, which don’t bear the marks of it at all. Traces that, as the kilometres went by and the weather changed, unfortunately forced me to abandon them. Not without a little pleasure, I went shopping for new ones that would compensate for the weaknesses of the old ones; more cushion here, less width there, still as light please. I could already see myself doing the 10km with ease overnight.

Fortunately, I decided to play it smart and take it easy with these new shoes. I must admit that it’s a shame, when you’ve been aiming to run faster and further every time for the past 3 months, to suddenly limit yourself to a slower pace, and to distances already acquired. But it was essential. Every step I take has an impact on my whole body and I just can’t take for granted that these new shoes were going to react the same as the old ones. I had to get my feet, ankles, shins, calves, knees, thighs used to running “differently”. So it’s been two weeks that after each run I’m sore in a different place. As I said, the new one doesn’t fix everything right away. You have to give the new one time to settle in, to take its shape and rhythm… to better get back to running.