Saturday morning
6.34 mi / 10.2 km
JHS track
Slept in until 7:30 am or so. I was planning on doing a 8-to-10-mile out-n-back, but that would entail going past the State Fair (nation's biggest), which started on Thursday, at some point. By 7:30 there would already be a lot of traffic on the surrounding streets, and I didn't want to deal with that. So I decided to get in some track work instead. The prior day's BRS thread on sole stimulation perhaps contributed to my need for some light abrading on the track's sandy gravel.
I had left my Garmin F205 at the office, so I took my F10. I didn't want to do track work gadget-less and have to count laps. After a nice .6 mile warm-up jogging down to the sports field that has the track, I took off my shirt and set out at a nice tempo pace. The temp was 75F and there was a good breeze. Perfect. The sun felt loving and undemanding.
But then I got interrupted twice, once by my wife's phone call asking where I was, after she had woken up, and another time when my 'Thievery Corporation' Pandora station cut out (I then switched to my 'Garbage' station--I love chicks with attitude singing). So after a while I wasn't quite sure how far I had gone, because unlike the F205, the F10 doesn't have a lap button. I had to either stop altogether to initiate auto-pause, or save the run up to that point in order keep my pace data, and then keep walking while I talked or monkeyed with the phone so as not to let the legs cool down too much. I figured as long as I need to have a Garmin to record my distance, I mis' well record my pace accurately too.
Funny though, not knowing one's distance mid-run is even more zen-inducing than not knowing one's pace. Nonetheless, after the second interruption I decided to peek at the pace and saw I was doing a 8:50 mm pace most of the time. I had felt I was going faster than that. It was probably the power pop.
A bit farther on, my pace started to slow, so I did a bunch of 100-meter strides goal-to-goal on the soccer field inside the track. Got down to around 6mm pace most times. It always feels good to really open it up and feel that animal grace. Wish I could sustain that for longer distances. Maybe some day.
By then I knew I had gone at least five miles, so I decided to call it a day and ran home, but not before attacking my neighborhood's steepest hill, a short hill about 350 ft (according to Google Maps) that must have something like a 12-15 percent grade. My lungs were burning by the time I got to the top of it.
6.34 mi / 10.2 km
JHS track
Slept in until 7:30 am or so. I was planning on doing a 8-to-10-mile out-n-back, but that would entail going past the State Fair (nation's biggest), which started on Thursday, at some point. By 7:30 there would already be a lot of traffic on the surrounding streets, and I didn't want to deal with that. So I decided to get in some track work instead. The prior day's BRS thread on sole stimulation perhaps contributed to my need for some light abrading on the track's sandy gravel.
I had left my Garmin F205 at the office, so I took my F10. I didn't want to do track work gadget-less and have to count laps. After a nice .6 mile warm-up jogging down to the sports field that has the track, I took off my shirt and set out at a nice tempo pace. The temp was 75F and there was a good breeze. Perfect. The sun felt loving and undemanding.
But then I got interrupted twice, once by my wife's phone call asking where I was, after she had woken up, and another time when my 'Thievery Corporation' Pandora station cut out (I then switched to my 'Garbage' station--I love chicks with attitude singing). So after a while I wasn't quite sure how far I had gone, because unlike the F205, the F10 doesn't have a lap button. I had to either stop altogether to initiate auto-pause, or save the run up to that point in order keep my pace data, and then keep walking while I talked or monkeyed with the phone so as not to let the legs cool down too much. I figured as long as I need to have a Garmin to record my distance, I mis' well record my pace accurately too.
Funny though, not knowing one's distance mid-run is even more zen-inducing than not knowing one's pace. Nonetheless, after the second interruption I decided to peek at the pace and saw I was doing a 8:50 mm pace most of the time. I had felt I was going faster than that. It was probably the power pop.
A bit farther on, my pace started to slow, so I did a bunch of 100-meter strides goal-to-goal on the soccer field inside the track. Got down to around 6mm pace most times. It always feels good to really open it up and feel that animal grace. Wish I could sustain that for longer distances. Maybe some day.
By then I knew I had gone at least five miles, so I decided to call it a day and ran home, but not before attacking my neighborhood's steepest hill, a short hill about 350 ft (according to Google Maps) that must have something like a 12-15 percent grade. My lungs were burning by the time I got to the top of it.
Well, you were one of the folks who inspired me to try early morning running in earnest. I've been amazed how quickly I've adapted to it. It's still sometimes a bit of a trick to get motivated right out of bed, but usually sometime while voiding my bowels the inspiration clicks and I'm good to go.And the full moon low on the horizon was quite nice. I may have to wake up a bit earlier tomorrow in order to get in a purely moonlit run. They're so magical.
I too love the magical moonlit runs!!
I love the minimalism. You don't even specify the activity. Bravo!stuff at lunch hr