Especially on my "long" runs, I tend to write blog posts in my head while running. Finding the right words to describe this or that little story seems to keep me going. Then I get home, stretch, drink my protein shake, shower, let the dog out, sit down to ice and turn on CSI:NY (my current bingewatch) and bam, it's 4 or 6 or 8 hours later and I forgot to blog. And have completely forgotten what seemed so bloggable while running. Ha. TODAY I said, NO, I AM going to write! So here we are :)
Last week I "only" went 3 miles because I was having some gut issues and REALLY needed to get home to the bathroom, if you know what I mean. I actually practically sprinted up my street. More on "sprinting" later perhaps.
Today I didn't really have a goal in mind. I just wanted to run and see what happened. I haven't been running during the week very much (maybe once...) so I'm not sure if upping my long run mileage is a good idea. And I really just wanted to have a GOOD run, ya know?! I set out on my normal route - the beginning is generally one of two paths, through a neighborhood or not - through neighborhood one to get to neighborhood two. Last week I skipped the second and basically just went home. Today I decided to go all the way through two and see how I felt to decide how to get home. I love having options!
I got almost through when I met Jax and Bailey - brother and sister Lab/Dobermans (my guess). They seemed VERY excited to be running about on their own. Jax stayed with me around a corner and down a hill. I have learned that if I tell a dog to "go home" they usually do! Jax did not. So I turned around to take him back to where I'd first seen him. On the way, we saw his dad over the fence who was very glad I had found them! We met at the corner. Bailey had hung back and was getting some love from neighbors. At this point, I changed up how I was going to get home since I'd just backtracked at least .25 UP a hill... in the end, I think it actually meant I went a little farther.
The rest of today's run was fairly uneventful. I ran more and walked about normal. Meaning I actually ran for 4-6 minutes most stretches and still walked 1-1.5 minutes. I felt VERY good!! It was what I've decided is pretty ideal running weather. About 40 degrees, light wind and sunny. I started in gloves and earmuffs but they came off about 2 miles in. By the end I was even tempted to shed my long sleeves! I've said it before - I get HOT when I run!!
I LOVE my new watch!! I don't even use all the fancy things that it probably can do!! Today I paid a little more attention to what it told me my pace was. I don't know how it determines pace, but it seems to be accurate. That's not the right word. It does change pretty quickly when I switch from running to walking. (I totally had a better way to say that when I was writing this in my head at mile 4 but I don't remember what it was!) Eventually, I'd like to play with pace but right now I'm happy just running! They say it's good to do "sprint" intervals. I say "sprint" in quotes cuz I'm pretty sure my "sprint" would be slower than Usain Bolt crawling through mud. I can also set the pace I want to go and the watch will yell at me (beep?) when I deviate. Interesting. So not ready for that yet!
Couple weeks ago one of the things I wanted to write about was the excitement in that I'm running more. Had another occurrence today of the same situation... I generally use landmarks to decide when to run/walk. I keep an eye on time but landmarks (hydrant, street sign, mailbox) help me gauge running up or down hills, etc. More times that not lately, I'll get to the landmark and decide to go a little further to try to push myself. Several times now, I'll think "okay I'll run to there" and then all of a sudden, I'm running right past it not realizing I was supposed to have stopped. This sure does do good things to the mental game!!
Okay, Slugger wants to go sit in the sun some more. Sound like an excellent idea to me :)
