I Learned!

Temperature 77 degrees. Splits 9:23; 9:27; 9:26; 9:44; 9:00; 47:00 total for 5 miles; 9:24 per mile pace.

Today I wore my "tool belt." For those of you who don't know, my wife and kids refer to my water bottle belt as a "tool belt," since they say I look like a "tool" running with it on. So maybe I can blame their intimidation tactics for me being dumb and stupid the last two runs and not wearing it?! I was not motivated to run today. I spent quality time with my wife during the morning car shopping. She's finally admitting that she needs and deserves a new car since she now drives a 1997 Mercury Sable. She wanted to look at Nissans, and a long story short two test drives and three hours later we were home. She likes the Maxima, so sometime in the next week she will probably buy one. That being said, I was tired and hungry when we arrived home. I ate a small lunch, and made a deal with myself that I could buy a Monster Low carb energy drink before running to help "pep" me up. What I really wanted was a nap, especially since for the first time in about a week it wasn't raining and the temperature was rising. Instead I ate a couple of blackberry GU Chomps, drank the Monster energy drink, and parked at the Linear Trail. I wasn't running on the trail today, but I usually have the parking lot there as my starting point. I find that for the most part running close to home psychs me out, and I whine more to myself. I set out on my random run, figuring I'd run for 2 1/2 miles, and turn around and run back the same route. I also had an uphill route planned for the first mile, figuring that the initial torture would be a nice downhill finish. What I hadn't planned was for Patton Drive, the 150 foot downhill part of my run between miles 2 and 2 1/2, followed by an uphill run of 175 feet from miles 2 3/4 to 3 3/4. I was amazed that my mile 4 split was 9:44. That was followed by my reward of the last mile being a 100 foot decline in elevation overall, resulting in a 9 minute last mile. Overall, my training schedule had me running between 45 and 50 minutes, at a pace of 9:40. I ran for 47 minutes, and averaged a 9:24 per mile pace. My splits were consistent, with the exception of my last two miles, but obviously the crazy elevation affected that. I didn't even use my GU Chomps during my run, instead relying on my water in my tool belt. I did notice a BIG difference having the water. Plus after the first half mile or so I tend to stop complaining to myself about the extra weight I'm carrying with the tool belt plus two bottles of water. If you've ever run wearing a water belt, you know what I mean. I'm thinking that when it starts hitting 90 degrees here that I'm going to stash water in my car, and run out and back loops to my car, rather than dragging along the extra weight. Or stash some cash on myself and stop at a convenience store or two along the way. P.S. I'm up to $567 raised for team Autism Speaks. I need to raise $733 more by August 17 in order to avoid having my credit card billed for the difference. My wife's company picnic is on Friday. I'm hoping to get donations from her co-workers after they're fed, drunk, and happy!