"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson US essayist & poet (1803 - 1882)

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

3 Great Runs

gotta say i'm feeling good about my runs these days. Not sure why but i've gotten away from the watch and the mp3 player. Depending on the mood i'm in i may use one or the other but not both so much. Sometimes i leave them both home and just listen to my body.

gotta love Zen

Anyway, first run was Friday afternoon. It was hot and after work i laced up the shoes and went for a long run. Somewhere between 8-9 miles, i took sections of my 6-7 mile runs and combined them into a longer one. Told the Fun Guv'nor if i was gone over an hour and a half to come look for me, and dashed out the door. Man, it was hot and i really should figure out how to manage water on these runs, but after 7 miles or so, i ran by my local firehouse. The bay doors were open and after a few seconds of shouting "hellooooo" no firemen answered. With the heat and humidity, who could blame them? So i wondered through the garage area, found a drinking fountain, took a drink and kept running.

So the second run on Saturday was at a local ACS Relay for Life event. Since i'm on the planning committe for another relay i thought i would attend this one and offer support for a friend who manages a local library. They had a team and needed walkers. Walk? Nay, Nay. So i combined ACS support and training and ran 32 laps. Yippee, another 8 miles. Originally, i thought that this would be a dull run, y'know 32 laps, yikes. It wasn't, i turned into a bit of an oddity. Kids tried to race me for a couple 400s. A couple walkers ran with me for a bit just curious about why i was running. A bunch of teams gave me water, as my bright green running shirt turned dark green from the sweat of running 8 miles at 11:00 am on a hot August day. One team kept track of my laps, by adding a bead to key chain fopr every lap. At the end of my run i had two keychains loaded with beads, and i gave a donation to their team for the help. My last mile was a Rocky II moment as 5 people joined me for my final lap. Sort of. i blew them away in the first 200. They couldn't believe my fastest lap was my last. It was fun.

Monday was a short 5 miles, and i made it in under 45 minutes, so i feel good. i'm keeping my training times under 9 minute miles and hopefully i can keep my race pace around 8:30. That's been consistent, we'll see. i have a 5k this weekend.

One last thing is i have new shoes. Exact same shoes as the last good shoes, and they are wonderful.

Thanks for reading

2 comments:

Mike said...

Thanks...

I'm sure you could run in a little time. Tyler's still a little guy and that keeps you closer to home. As he gets older it'll be easier to leave for a few moments.

Then the miles will pick up

L*I*S*A said...

Glad to hear you're back in the much-loved shoes. I'm sure that has something to do with your great feeling and great times.