NOOOOOO!!!!! For the love of god, go to a shoe store specializing in running shoes. Ask for the shoe specialist and have him/HR fit you for shoes. Biomechanics and proper shoes are entirely related. You may be like my buddy. He could run in army boots and wouldn't care.

Many elite road runners use the summer as an off season from racing for the very reasons you described. I was a fall season racer, so I trained hard spring, summer and raced in the fall. A lot of my buddies trained late summer, fall and raced late winter and spring. As they aged they crosstrained or reduced mileage in the summer. I snow boarded and ran a maintenance level in the winter. I run at 6 am to avoid the summer heat. In the winter I run late in the day or at lunch.

Welcome to running. Black toenails are pretty common. I have two right now. I like a loose fitting shoe. Black toes are the price I pay for not paying attention to lacing up the instep tight enough to prevent slippage. Could also be the shoe you are wearing. Toe boxes vary from style to style.

I don't listen to music when I run. The road is my church. I think about life stuff, mentally wander, concentrate when I need to and, yep, commune with my maker. It is not uncommon to look down and realized I've covered a mile or two I don't really remember because I've been lost in my thoughts.

This post was edited on 5/8/16 at 2:13 pm