The old balled up newspaper trick

Here in New England the skies have opened up and we're being deluged with rain. Again. During the monsoon a couple weeks ago, it occurred to me to share a super trick I've acquired to dry out sopping wet sneakers, but I forgot. Sorry.

My roommate/teammate freshman year in college introduced me to the old balled up newspaper trick. At first, I thought she was off her rocker. I was wrong. Balled up newspaper shoved in sopping wet running shoes is absolutely ingenious!

Here's the process. First ball up some newspaper. I usually use two large sheets per shoe, but I'm sure more motivated people could squish in more. Once you have a ball of newspaper shove it into that nasty wet sneaker, and keep shoving in balls of newspaper until the shoe is full of newspaper. Leave it over night, and the next day your shoes will be dry! If they're really wet, you may want to replace the newspaper after a few hours.

I swear by the newspaper method of shoe drying. When I was in high school I'd throw my wet shoes in the dryer. I can't believe my parents let me do that...or maybe they didn't know...anyway, the dryer would sound like it was going to explode. I'd also sometimes stick my shoes on the furnace. Not really a good idea either. They can melt. Of course, in high school and college there was only one pair of shoes to run in. There was no extra pair and so I always knew I had to run in them the next day. Now a-days most of us have several pairs to run in, but the newspaper trick is still great because it helps keep your shoes from being stinky. Did any of you already know about the newspaper trick?

Okay, so I'm compelled to share a bit of my running experience from last week. Normally I'd just skip the narrative, but if there are any other pregnant lady runners out, there they might be interested. Last week was another running flop. I'm now 18 weeks pregnant. At the beginning of last week, I felt like I had shin splints. Something I haven't experienced in over 10 years. It was weird. I took a day off and that helped the shin splints, but I was also having calf cramping when I ran longer than 7 miles. Blah. I started to run slower. Then near the end of the week I fell. Not while running, and nothing serious, but my left hip took most of the punishment and I had to take another day off. I ran yesterday and everything seemed decent. No shin splint pain or calf pain. My hip is still a bit tight though.

I think my aches might be due to a little weight gain spurt. Around the time I had a positive pregnancy test, I gained three pounds, but until last week that was it. Then I woke up at the beginning of last week and overnight I gained four pounds. I'm wondering if I needed a little time to adjust to my sudden additional weight? Just a hypothesis. At the end of the week, I wound up with a total of 38 miles, but I didn't feel too bad about that because I also spent an hour on the row machine and another hour on the stationary bike. This next week is going to be better. I can feel it. ;)

Training Journal 3/22 - 3/29
Total Miles Run: 38
Total Time Running: 5:30
Average Pace: 8:41
Total Row Machine Miles: 8.1
Total Row Time: 1:01
Average Row Pace: 7:32
Total Stationary Bike Time: 1:10
Total Cardio Time: 7:40