Friday, July 30, 2010

Half Marathon Training - Week 4 - Friday

“If you worry too much about things in which you have no control, it will adversely affect the things in which you do have control.”

What a perfect quote for this week with all my setbacks with technology. I woke up this morning at 4:15 to get my 9 mile run in prior to teaching a summer class and taking off for Chicago this afternoon. I woke up had some coffee and a peanut butter sandwich and embarked on my run.

I used my iPod touch this morning. I know earlier I said it was all busted and not working, but since I could not get the Nike to calibrate properly on my new Nano I purchased I gave the Touch another try. I calibrated it three times on the high school track running 1 lap around the track at the high school. It was within .24 -.25 of a mile each time so I felt good about the calibration. I took off for my run and I felt AWESOME! I was very surprised because of how sore I have been this week since playing basketball and lifting and doing too much earlier this week. It was around 4:50 when I took off and it was completely dark and quiet and cool. How often do you run by Trinity, Buffalo Wild Wings, Walgreens, and down 53rd street and only count 2 cars? It did rain a little bit for the first couple miles, but nothing to be a problem or actually get me wet. I went out with a nice steady pace with a goal to be done around 90 minutes. That would put me at a 10 minute mile. I tried a new road by running by Hopewell Elementary and not realizing all the hills in that little area. I refueled with gel and water at the water fountain and continued my run past the Y back to my house. I could not believe how great I felt. When I finished my iPod recorded 1 hour 17 minutes and 58 seconds. or 78 minutes. I could not believe it. I could not believe it so much that I went out and drove the course to make sure it was calibrated correctly. To my disappointment it was not calibrated correctly as my car recorded 8.4. I don't think there was .6 of a mile of extra bike path that I ran. So instead of getting upset I am just going to add the calibration runs as the extra half mile, add 4:30 to my overall time and go with 1:22:28 as my run or a simple 83 minutes. I am very happy with this time. 9 miles is the run of the Chicago Urbanathlon and I feel really good after the run which is a good sign because that lets me know I can run the whole. Now I just need to prepare for the crazy obstacles that I stumble upon as I run the 9 miles. A good end to the week and hopefully this weekend will be enjoyable as well. Sunday I will sneak in the 4 mile run to finish the week up. Have a great Friday and continue to reach for those goals.

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