A beautiful morning in central Texas, temps in the low 60's, no breeze, blue skies. Since I was going to run alone today, my wife, Lynn, drove the car as I ran the country roads out here. She would stop each mile and hand me a sports drink at the end of each mle.
I ran in the 60% HR zone (108 - 125) for the first 3 miles, then moved it up to the 70% HR zone (126 - 143) for the next 3 miles, and then mixed the 70% and 80% (144 - 161) HR zone for the rest of the way. This was interesting to watch the HR monitor instead of the mileage pace. I had initially figured I may go 15 miles today but there were enough hills in the 13 miles I did that by the time 13 miles were done that was enough, 13 days since doing Boston.
The most excitement for the run was being challenged by a few barking dogs. Only two of them came out on the road so I yelled at them and threw rocks, no big deal, as I could tell they were only trying to make noise. I did think of putting on my pistol belt next time and carry the .38 special with the bird shot loads next time, just to put a good scare in some of the dogs. I doubt I will actually do that, but I may put it in the car just in case. The 2nd most excitement was seeing a Roadrunner bird on the way home, as we usually don't see a lot of them.
As I ran I thought about some of the guys from the FastRunning blog that are injured. It sure is a blessing to be running healthy with no issues at all as far as basic running goes. My polymyalsia rheumatica slows me down from running marathons as fast as I want to, but nothing is holding me back from having a great experience either on the trails or out on the road like today. Feeling pretty good today. | 