Watt's Running

I got up real early at 5 AM and drove 45-minutes to Matthew’s to run with him today. He plotted out a 7 mile route starting out at his work. The weather was great – clear, sunny, and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. I brought my old Timex GPS with me to get pace and distance. The sun had just risen as we started out so no need for lights or blinkies. We ran a course that went into the countryside and included sights of horses, cattle, goats, and barking dogs. For the most part the course was flat. We ran 7.4 miles in 75 minutes while chatting to help pass the time. [Although I was supposed to run 10 miles this week this distance was just fine] Our pace was about 10 minutes per mile. Here is the data recorder of our pace.

Select to see larger imageAfter arriving back to his house and changing, Beth, Matthew and I headed off for an 8:30 AM soccer game with his Under-4 team that he is helping to coach with a friend from work. Although their team lost, the children had fun. This was the last game of the season so afterwards one of the parents invited everyone back to their home for breakfast. Good food, good people, and good talk made for a good time. I especially enjoyed watching the children since it’s been years since my little ones were their size. I headed back home and arrived around noon. A very nice morning if I say so myself.

Today I ran with Terry and Vinkat. We headed from Rogue Equipment north and up the last 6 miles of the Austin Marathon, then we turned around and ran south and down – straight out and back route. We were running 9:00/mile and we completed it in 1:47:22 or 8:55/mile. Sweet. Although at the end I was pushing real hard to finish ahead of everyone else, most of the time I felt good. I was actually running and talking. Again I feel that the weight loss has been a critical component of my physical and mental health. Who would have known it. There is something about the purity of running that got to me today. Just me, my legs and the road – nothing but that. The smooth flow of movement as we headed down Congress as a pack stays with me afterwards now.

No Celeste today – sigh. She’s busy with her family on Saturday mornings. Before we started the quiet man from India asked if he could run with me and I said sure. His name is Vinkat. However once we started he ran on ahead and left me in the dust which was OK with me. So Terry was there, and we ran together. We also kinda ran with Kent and Aaron – by kinda I mean that at times we were together and other times we would separate. I’m concerned that by running with Terry only and then me not doing the marathon that he’ll not have a running buddy for it. This worries me. Running buddies are very very important to me, and I don’t want to let one down. I think that Terry and I should stick with another group of runners so he has some connection to some other people who will be doing the marathon. I need to talk to him about that in the near future. In any case the long run was long and had lots of rolling ups and downs. I choose not to use any fuel so by the end I was quite depleted. Although I forgot to start my timer I estimated that we completed 12.7 miles in 2:02 or about 9:36/mile which is decent. Afterwards Vinkat came and apologized, but I said that was quite OK and there was no need to apologize. My weight loss is helping me run more comfortably. I’m now down about 12 pounds to 148 which is good. I’ve got to start thinking about core strengthening – need to contact Barb about a 12 week program to see how much it would cost and possibly to try it out on Wednesday and/or Sundays.