Rearming in the off season

I have another five weeks or so until my marathon training starts again. It doesn't mean that I'm stopping running, not by a long shot. In fact, I have to ramp up to 50 miles by mid-June, which means recovery (25 to 30 miles a week) until the end of the month but I should be doing 40 mile week by the first week of June.

That said, I do have a lighter load running wise. Bought a new pair of shoes today, and for the first time in four years, I'm moving to another line. I've been using the Asics GT 2100 series (using the 2300s this past year). It's a stability shoe that can be used by people with normal arches. (See reviews here)

I've promised myself that I'd try a different type of shoe between seasons and I've decided to move to a more 'neutral' shoe, the Asics Nimbus 10 (see reviews). It's about an ounce heavier than the GT2130s, but I'm very interested to see how my running adjusts to this new shoe. I'm not on the heaviest side, weighing between 140 and 150 lbs depending on training load, so I want to see how I'll adjust to this. Maybe my running has reached a peak when it comes to what I'm using and it's good to experiment. I'll start running with them next week and I'm sure by early June I'll know how they'll work out.

Also bought two sports headphones. This summer's going to have some major miles as I eye the 70 mile a week peak program by Pfitzinger Douglas. Going to need some tunes and podcasts to keep me company on those weekday 12 milers (sigh) and weekend long runs.

I bought a pair from the Apple store only two months ago and it's already broken. I'm stocking up.