Isn't This Just Supposed to Be One Foot In Front of the Other?

This morning's run was much better received (by me) than Tuesday's was; however, it seemed that the things that actually had nothing to do with running kept tying me up. Because it was warm, I wore short sleeves and no vest; therefore, I had no pocket for my Blackberry, which is also my MP3 player and usually my stopwatch. So I strapped my BB to my bare arm with my new media player armband. This is what started the problems. First, the armband is not made specifically for my phone, so it's a little tight, which means I can't easily take the phone out to start and stop the stopwatch, and the phone's media player controls are pretty much inaccessible. Despite this, I pressed "Start" on my iPod stopwatch and took off. The armband started becoming very uncomfortable, and after about 3 miles, I just took it off. So I'm running with my BB and armband in my left hand. Well, the arm band strap kept flopping around, driving me crazy, so I had to take the BB out of the armband and hold it in one hand while holding the now empty armband securely in the other. This was my last mile. Once I arrived back at the house, I thought I had pushed the big iPod button to stop my stopwatch. I glanced down a few seconds later and realized that apparently I had missed because the stopwatch was still running. Not that I'm trying to quality for Boston, but I do like to have a pretty accurate time. I was already having to estimate my time since I have to start my iPod stopwatch a few seconds before I start running and a few seconds after I stop, so this didn't help. Hopefully Saturday will go a little more smoothly than Tuesday and today did. Going for 16 miles Saturday-the farthest I've ever run (by 1.5 miles).

2-26-08
Distance: 5 miles
Time: 42:05(ish)
Avg. Mile Pace: 8:19

Some Days, It's Just Tough

Alarm went off at 5:30. I was not ready for my 7-mile. Got dressed. Still not ready. (The fact that I was now covered in cotton aside from my noisy Adidas wind pants didn't help. Tights, polyester shirts, and Nike Dri-Fit socks were all in the laundry.) Checked the temp. 45 degrees. Not as cold as it has been. Still not ready. Out the door, my legs started moving. Still not ready. One mile in, two miles in, three miles in, four miles in, I felt like I could have detoured back to the house at any moment. Just over halfway finished. Ugh. About 5 miles in, I hit the point farthest from the house. All downhill after that. Now it's time for the 2-mile "shell"--a series of long, straight neighborhood streets that lie on the outer perimeter of the neighborhoods I run in. These streets differ significantly from the zig-zagging small blocks that make up the majority of my morning runs. The sun was rising about 56 minutes into my run. Now, my struggle could be readily witnessed by anyone who happened to be looking out a window as I passed by. Roughly an 8-9-minute mile around my own neighborhood, and I finally make it back to the house. I'm already thinking about how I get to sleep in (until 6:30) tomorrow morning.

Do I really have to wait 48 hrs. to do this again??

2-24-08
Distance: 7 miles
Time: 1:03:10
Avg. Mile Pace: 8:54