Running out on Highway 61

Ran with H.R. Nice crisp morning. Wore Pearl Izumi jacket and felt just right.

I ran alone at 8 pm. It was supposed to start raining but didn't, and instead was windy but still quite warm. I ran three miles, the first in 8:56, the second in 7:34, and the third in 7:50, total 24:20. I felt pretty good, could have opened it up a bit more, but felt like that was plenty for me.

When I'm under the gun to get a workout in, it's hard to give adequate time to a warmup and cooldown. I need to build those in, though, because at the very least they will increase my mileage and hopefully result in better running.

I was unloading from a recent move and set up some computer speakers. When I removed most of the speakers from the bag they were in I saw my running watch, long since lost. It was very pleasant to find it because I've wanted to start tracking my running time more carefully. So this was the first run involving a watch in a long time.

"Rest". The word goes in quotations because I was going to run with H.R. but I saw the rain outside at 5:50 am and thought, "He's not going to go. I'm not going to go." So I didn't, and later he emailed to apologize for missing the run, saying that he woke up ten minutes late and I was already gone. Already gone indeed.

I didn't get as much sleep last night as I need. I dragged myself out of bed and made it outside. Surely after yesterday H.R. would be out at six and for me to miss him would be lame. So I was outside his apartment right at six but all the lights were dark in his apartment. I waited around for ten or so minutes and headed back to our place to grab my watch, which I had forgotten, and my mp3 player.

I decided to only run 4 miles in order to run longer tomorrow. I signed up for the Mt. Rushmore Marathon last night and since that's on October 4, I need to get a long run in tomorrow--maybe 4 hours? I wonder how that marathon will compare with others I've done in the past. I'm going to shoot for 4:30 in the marathon, with the expectation that the main idea is to finish and keep some momentum going into winter training. That's definitely going to be the hardest time of year to keep in shape.

The weather today was cool but not cold. I probably could have worn just a t-shirt. I ran the 4 miles in 37:20, with splits of approximately 10, 9:10, 9:30, and 8:40.

I listened to the last half of "Songs for Silverman" by Ben Folds and the first few tracks of "OK Computer" by Radiohead. I like Ben Folds less as the years go on.

I went out with H.R. at six a.m. It was dark and cloudy outside with intermittent rain. We ran out toward Como Park, stretching after three miles. We then ran through Como Park to Como Lake and around the lake. H.R. had never run more than about six miles, I think, so it was cool to see him get it done.

The entire run felt fine, except that I couldn't find my hydration belt and hadn't set out any fluid. Ten miles is probably my upper limit for running without drinking anything. So by the end of this run, I was not ready to head right back out for another 6 or more miles as I had originally planned. Oh well.

I didn't track the splits perfectly because I don't know how far a mile is once we're at the park. Our runs out to the park and back from the park to the complex were around 9:20 a mile. I think we were a bit slower than that inside the park. So I'm putting 9 miles as the distance even though I am not 100% sure.

So there wasn't a great lot of running this week, but I felt pretty good during the runs. I feel as though I am legitimately "in shape," with some kind of base from which to train more. That said, this is relative to my former lack of fitness eight or so months ago.