Witless Banter

I don't have anything funny or clever to write tonight (not like that's any different than any of my other blog posts). I've been pretty busy this week; therefore, I missed my Wednesday and Thursday runs. Tonight was supposed to be an off night but I went out and ran eight to help make up the difference. I had a pretty decent pace (for me).

Other new for the week. I got new shoes yesterday. It's just another pair of Asics GT-2140s and tonight was my first run in them. They felt pretty good, but I really didn't expect them to be any different than my old ones. I'm loving my new Nike+ SportBand. It's nice to be able to record my running metrics and not be tied to an iPod. Hopefully I'll get my five miles in tomorrow and only be down six for the week.

You always remember your first time...

The first time is always special. You've been anticipating it for a long time. You've heard about how it's supposed to be from your friends. You aren't sure if it's going to live up to it's expectations. It's a little awkward. You aren't sure if you are doing it right and you just don't know if it's going to end up as a huge disappointment.

For me it was very sweet. I took my time freeing it from it's confinement. I took great care with the clasp as I didn't want to force it. I slid it on and gently pressed it's button. It seemed to light up and spring to life. Before I knew it, it was urging me to go faster. I didn't want to go too far with it yet as I was unsure of how sensitive it was. I took my time and went slow. As I had feared I had misjudged it and and what I needed from it. So I stopped. I removed it from it's protective coating and then discharged it's contents.

It needed me to be far more deliberate, so I slid it back on and went a predetermined length. It still didn't want to listen to me so I had to be a little more forceful and tell it exactly how far it went. The next time it behaved as I predicted it should.

So that's how it went tonight when I got my new Nike+ SportBand out and went for a run. It was a little off saying that I had run for 1.05 miles when it was actually only a mile. I then took it to the track and ran for 0.75 miles. It said 0.83 miles so using the SportBand software on my laptop I calibrated it. After that I calibrated for walking and walked 1.25 miles. It was much closer to the actual distance when I walked it.

I"ll take it out in the morning and run 6.2 miles and see how it does. I'm really happy with it so far and I'll remember my first time always.

13.1 Personal Best!

I recorded my personal best for the half-marathon distance this morning @ 02:24:50!! w00t!! Also, I ran the whole distance!! I almost twisted my ankle and took about one dozen walking steps to make sure I was okay and at one other point I had to take a few steps because my iPod paused and I had to dig it out and restart it, but other than the whole distance was run. That's a huge accomplishment for me. What a great Sunday!!

My previous personal best for the half marathon 02:26:34

Shoe Meter Says...

I checked in on my shoe meter this morning and it looks like I'm going to be out buying some new shoes this weekend. #nikeplus After this morning's run I'll have logged 450 miles on them since June 15. They are starting to look a little worn on the bottom.

The shoe meter I use is over at http://www.slowgeek.com . If you have a Nike+ profile set up to be public, it can use the data that you upload from your plus to give you more detailed graphs, quick statistics and has the handy dandy shoe meter. You can see what my profile looks like here http://slowgeek.com/pr/bfg1971

Baby Steps

I was a little apprehensive about running today because I didn't know how I'd feel after Sunday's 23 miles. It went surprisingly well. It wasn't fast, but I didn't run until after dark so my steps were a tad tentative (one might say baby steps) because I didn't want to trip on a rock or a twig. I didn't set my run up for a distance. I set it up for 60 minutes and just turned around at 30 minutes. I guess I did better on the second half because I got back to the starting point before my 60 minutes were up. I guess that means it was a negative split albeit a small one. Yeah for me.

I'm not going to hit my goal of 150 miles in four weeks, but I'll be close. I should be at about 130 when it's over on Thursday. Not bad for doctors orders keeping me on the bench for almost five consecutive days.