I decided to take a second consecutive rest day from running today after feeling continued tenderness in my left foot. It’s centered at the top of my ankle, and I’m thinking it’s residual achiness from my epic ankle roll during this summer’s 25K trail race. At least, that’s all I’m hoping it is. I’m also thinking it’s come on in recent days given I’m in desperate need of new running shoes.

Actually, I was in desperate need of new kicks up until this afternoon when I decided enough was enough. I stopped into Running Fit and bought a pair of Brooks Launch, size 9. They’re beautiful and shiny and so new and I can’t wait to go for a run tomorrow.

Some of you may recall I expressed on the MRG Facebook page extreme excitement for my new Brooks Ravennas that were en route to me a couple of weeks ago…I did get these. Wait, correction: my Black Lab puppy got to them first. Yup. In my front yard is where I found remnants of one torn-apart shoe. The other, intact shoe was across the yard, still snug in the shredded box. I suspect Ruby was going to devour that one next.

It’s taken me awhile, clearly, to talk openly about this travesty.

I first freaked out. Really, I did. Mostly at no one in particular, just whoever would listen. (Ruby and our older dog, Max, went into hiding, and my kids, though they tried to console me, realized they’d better just leave mom alone for awhile). I was especially angry with the postman for leaving the package on our porch, knowing we were home, rather than ring the door bell and hand over the delivery directly. Of course it was nearly 5 p.m. on a Friday when all of this went down, so calls to the post office were pretty much fruitless.

I’ll stop with all the details of how I cried to my sole sisters and to Joe (cried! I know, silly. But these were my new running shoes!), and how I had words with the post office first thing Monday morning, and I’ll instead skip to the happy ending: Brooks, God love this company, was so incredibly nice and helpful and agreed to a full refund and exchange. The super sweet customer service representative—we were talking through the site’s instant chat that Friday evening—empathized with my situation and just made me feel better about it all.

It is a process, however, to return shoes and get new ones in their place, which is fine but I’m anxious…so, I made the decision to get the Launches locally—hard to get in size 9 on the Brooks site—and still order the Ravennas, and try running using both shoes. I’ve done this two-shoe training method using trail shoes and road shoes, but not with two road shoes. I’ve heard this is smart. We’ll see.

You may wonder about a photo of the shoe—just how bad was it? It was pretty ugly. And I just couldn’t bring myself to document it. Is that weird? My friend Pam, a fellow self-described running shoe dork and Brooks devotee, listened to my tale of woe but couldn’t quite understand why I didn’t at least try on the one shoe that remained untouched by dog slobber. I just couldn’t do it, I told her. I couldn’t see how that one would feel on my foot, couldn’t bear to really look at it looking so nice and perfect…when its other half was so mangled.

Instead, I’ll show you a photo of the perp, the dog that I am trying to love up even though she likes the taste of running shoes and, we’ve learned in recent days, pumpkins on our front porch. Oh, Ruby…

Though I didn’t run today, I did enjoy (endure?) a planked-filled Pilates reformer class. It kicked my butt. And my abs. I love these twice-weekly sessions—at least, I love them particularly when I’m done—and they’re especially good when I’m not running that day. Come to think of it, I had one of these classes the morning of The Running Shoe-Hungry Puppy incident. This likely helped me be a bit calmer…maybe.

I’m thinking more about different ways of strength training, and would love to hear what’s working for everyone else. Here’s a great post about building strength by my friend Dimity (there’s also a great giveaway, so check it out).

Has your dog ever eaten or destroyed something running-related of yours?

What’s your favorite form of strength-training these days?

Do you alternate between two (or more) pairs of running shoes?