time for some real running shoes. i hightailed it to the store tonight armed with some suggestions for a good running shoe with a decent amount of stability. i ended up buying the air zoom percept after trying on about 6 different pairs. they're a little blingy for my tastes (green sparkle? lotsa silver detailing??) but they felt great on my feet from the minute i put them on. not to soft, not too stiff, not too heavy, not too light. just.... right!
okay! run #1 down. vital stats:
total distance - 2.9 miles
time - 35 minutes
for those of you calculating at home, yep, that is a 12 minute mile. yeehaw, i'm burnin' up the pavement! truthfully, dutiful to my training guides, i did a 5 minute warm up walk and a 7 minute cool down walk, for a total of 12 minutes in which i covered about .9 miles. that brings my actual running time down to 23 minutes, and an 11.5 minute mile. still, that's gotta be some kind of record for the slowest actual *run* ever recorded. because i swear to you, i ran. it wasn't walking. i know walking, this was different. a little faster, slightly bouncier. i'm positive i was running.
but it felt great! i didn't ever feel like i was drowning or gasping for breath. i kept checking with myself and i didn't feel the need to walk (save for the warm up and cool down). it was a crisp night. i found a comfortable, albeit snail-like, pace that i could maintain. i kept my body movements to a minimum, didn't want to waste energy swinging my arms about, twisting my body or high stepping it. i kept within myself.
it had rained, but it wasn't raining while i was out. beautiful fresh air filled my lungs. the car exhaust was annoying, but to be expected as i wanted to keep on well-lighted (aka semi busy) roads. the comforting smell of wood smoke from multiple cozy fireplaces scented my path... and i swear just about a block from here i smelled a little ganja... i'll have to run by again just to make sure...
i ran past a house that still had a lit tree in the window, but i'll give them a pass because they also had a neon pink flamingo on the adjacent wall. this massive old oak tree on the corner of fremont on 17th must've fell victim to the recent winds, as what remained of it lay in large chunks of trunk and tidy piles of branches.
as i walked past the crown royal apartments on my cool down, i wondered if you have to be an alcholic to live there.
and i was proud of myself tonight.
