Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 18:55
Pace: 9:26 min/mi

Comments: After a few days of soreness I decided to try again and went out WAY too fast. I was toast by the end of this effort. No coughing up blood, so that's nice.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 20:23
Pace: 10:11 min/mi

Comments: After months off the pavement, I decided to see if my legs had anything left. Answer: Very little. This was slow and unpleasant. Highlighted by coughing blood. Not good times.

New Gear: Garmin Forerunner 35

My aged and well-used Garmin running watches have all passed into the great beyond. A couple of them with my exasperated assistance. I've had a few of these that have been durable workhorses and I've had a couple that... weren't.

While I can track my running OK with my trusty Ironman digital watch, there is a lot of information the new fitness trackers can provide. My brief experiment with a Fitbit showed me that. So, if I can get my running routine back, I would like to explore more of that.  So I went looking at what was available.

Basically, I wanted a watch that was 1) cheap and 2) had GPS capability. Anything beyond that I would entertain but those were the deal killers. And a lot of the low-end fitness watches now fit that profile (although "cheap" is a relative term here). In the end, I decided to go with the Garmin Forerunner 35 for the simple reason a lot of my past running information is on their online system.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 42:28
Pace: 10:37 min/mi

Comments: Harvey got me. The temperature this morning was fine, the humidity was not. I knew walking out to start this run that it was going to suck. And so it came to pass.

I was miserable from the very first step but kept myself resigned to do it. At about 2.5 miles the urge to walk it in was almost overpowering. Somehow I was able to get through that and struggle the rest of the four miles. Forget pace, finishing was the victory today.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 43:22
Pace: 10:50 min/mi

Comments: It's been quite some time since I last took a run and I felt it pretty much every step of the way this morning. I knew it would be a long unpleasant slog with the requisite heat and humidity to make it truely miserable. As a result, I figured I might as well go for the full four miles.

To be honest, it went about as well as I could have expected. I kept a reasonably constant pace and I didn't have that overwhelming urge to stop and walk it in. The pace was pretty much right what I predicted and probably could have been a bit faster if I pushed it. But pushing it was not the best idea on the first run back.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 19:04
Pace: 9:16 min/mi

Comments: Good intentions weren't enough to get my runs in over the weekend. Work had a hand in it as well. But I wanted to get this week started off right. The conditions are pretty much the same sweltering mess every day so there's really no excuse once I get the routine started.

This one felt pretty good, actually. I felt pretty good heading out and got into a nice groove pretty quickly. Over the last half mile I tried picking up the pace a little bit. Not enough to strain or anything. Just want to get the feel of it.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 19:06
Pace: 9:32 min/mi

Comments: Slept well. Woke early. Actually felt sort of motivated. Got out the door and got the run in with no problems. I even took my new camera along to try out "on the run" so to speak.

This probably would have been faster without taking a few photos on the way but the main thing was the lack of soreness and, surprisingly, sluggishness. It was slightly cooler today, which helped, but no respite from the humidity.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 19:08
Pace: 9:34 min/mi

Comments: I probably should have done this yesterday when it was a mite cooler but there's no getting around the humidity right now. I was motivated to do four miles until I stepped foot out the door. Let's just say the air is "close" today. Overall, not a bad run though. It was slow an unpleasant but never unbearable. I can even live with the pace.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 18:47
Pace: 9:23 min/mi

Comments: I didn't get a run in this morning and I know I have to start applying myself and getting out the damned door. So, since it's noticeably cooler today  I decided to get it done over lunch break. It was still very warm, very humid and the sun was out. I was pretty sluggish and drentched in sweat by the end. Still, got it done.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 42.44
Pace:  10:41 min/mi

Comments: It was very warm and very humid this morning. I haven't run four miles in three weeks and wasn't all that consistent prior to that. So, yeah, this one was not particularly pleasant. I did what I could to make it bearable by getting out the door before the sun got going. The clouds helped a little with that.

But I started with a plodding gait that smoothed out some but never approached elegant. I just slogged through it and tried to keep my mind off of how I felt and how far I had left to go. The victory today was not giving in to the urge to stop and walk it back in.