8 miles!

Ken took the kids to swimming today and I got to run in my neighborhood again.  I've been running primarily at OSU campus while the kids are at RPAC, so it was a treat to mix it up a little and get back into suburb (vs city) running. 

Today was beautiful.  When I went out, the temp was 38 or something like that, so I had on tights with shorts on over them, a stocking cap, long sleeved shirt, and my 13.1 (half marathon) gloves.  I thought the gloves would encourage a long run and they must have done their job despite being put in my pocket within the first mile.  I put in 8 miles today.  Actually, I did 8.43 but the decimal was all walking and stretching for a cool down.  When I got home, I took off my shoes and spent probably 30 minutes stretching before hitting the shower. 

My miles today were 10:24, 11:02, 11:00, 10:03, 10:46, 10:23, 11:30, and 10:45.  I didn't catch my 5K time, but my 10K time was 1:05:30.  I did the run-walk-run routine again with about 3 minutes running and 1 minute walking, though I varied it a bit to walk up hills and sometimes just because I forgot to keep an eye on the time.  I don't have the Garmin set to alert me other than at each mile so I'm doing the interval thing manually right now.  I've thought about getting a gym boss to buzz me at intervals but then I'd have to carry yet another gadget.  Still, it is small and might be worth it.  I could probably do the same thing with an app on my Blackberry, but then it would interrupt my Steverunner Intervals podcast and I'd have to mess with the alarm all the time.

It felt really good to get out there today.  I'm tired and hungry now, but I looked at my face in the mirror when I got out of the shower and I saw that glow and realized I looked much happier and healthier than before I went out.  Sometimes it's tough to take that first step out the door, especially when it's cold out, but about 2 miles into it, I'm most often very glad I'm out there.

So now I can enjoy the rest of the day.  I can feel good about getting some exercise in and doing something for myself.  I'll probably be a lot more fun to be around, too.