By way of introduction...

Thank you, Kristina, for inviting me along! I hope that by writing a little about my running, I can keep from boring my non-running friends, as well as be inspired by (or an inspiration to) you and James and anyone who reads this blog.

As for today, I did a run/walk for three miles around my neighborhood. I hadn’t intended to walk at all, and wanted to go a full five, but the humidity was oppressive come mid-afternoon. Now, normally I would have run around 7:00 this morning. Lately, though, without NEEDING to get up for anything, I’ve become a big fan of the snooze button. I probably should have just run on my treadmill to stay in the air-conditioning, but I wanted to be outside. And for the most part, it felt really good: light on my feet, quick pace, joints and form solid.

I got to test out my running mix, which I’ve been rebuilding since I got a new computer last week. Using beaTunes, I analyzed my library to ascertain each song’s BPM, aiming to add only those from the high 140s-160 to my running mix. It’s an imprecise science, but I now have a little red shuffle loaded with ten hours of run-worthy music that’s mostly of the right speed (“Hey Ya!” hits the BPM sweet spot and clocks in at 159, which should have me running something around a 9-minute mile, depending on stride. I tend not to time myself beyond checking the clock when I leave and come back. As long as I have an idea of where I’m at, speed-wise, I feel comfortable just logging the miles and building up endurance). Standout track of the day: “Always Something There to Remind Me,” Naked Eyes (149 BPM).

The rest of the week will go ideally a bit like this: four to five miles of play-list “intervals” tomorrow (i.e., I set the treadmill pace to whatever speed gets my feet pounding in time to whatever song pops up, so I only have to keep up any pace for about three minutes), a pre-dawn eight-miler on the towpath on Wednesday, yoga and relaxation on Thursday, and five-miler through my neighborhood early on Friday. Weekend will be off as I will be out of town (though I’m not flying, so I should have the extra cargo space to take my shoes, just in case…).

Okay, and so you know where I’m headed long-term, my goals for the next few months are thus: bump my mileage up from around 20 to around 30 miles a week (this may be optimistic) and get my half-marathon time to two hours or under (I did the Cleveland half in May in 2:13) for a as-yet-to-be-determined half-marathon in October. Suggestions, anyone?