Starting a new Book

My running has almost become an obsession, since I started to listen to audio books. Today I started listening to Michael Crichton's State of Fear. I saw an interview with Mr Crichton on Dateline recently and thought the book sounded interesting. The beginning sounded quite eiry after the psunami last December. The books keep my attention and I tend to run longer distances so I can listen longer. Listening gives me a break I need from my everyday job.

The weather outside has been miserable hot and humid, but I'm sticking to my running anyway. Some of my coworkers think I'm insane to run in the heat, but I just make sure I'm well hydrated. Besides, I really don't like to run on a treadmill, and I'm certainly not going to wake up earlier than I have too.

I can't wait to get 45 minutes or so more of my new book tomorrow. This book is about 18 1/2 hours, so it will tide me over for a few weeks.

Running Naked

For the first time since April, I ran today without my Forerunner 201. I almost packed up my bag an waited to run at home, when I realized my favorite gadget was no in my gym bag. How could I run without my "Big Brother" to track my every move. My Forerunner is almost like my TiVo. I'm not sure how I existed before I had one.

My wife laughs at me, as I analyze my pace, map runs on Google Earth, and create graph reports at motionbased. Sure, I'm obsessed, but I've also been more serious about my running. I've always enjoyed running, but never kept up with a log, never closely tracked my pace, and never seriously followed a training plan.

This year, thanks to a new found motivation, partially due to my beloved gadget, I'm more serious than ever about my running and I'm loving it. I'll make sure to double check my back in the morning, I can't go without my Forerunner two days in a row.

15K Down

I completed the 15K run to conclude my 8 week Hal Higdon training program on Saturday. My pace was good until I hit mile 8. At that point, I felt like I hadn't hydrated enough and slowed to a walk for most of the mile. I picked up the pace again for the last mile and finished at 1:33. I started the run at 7am to avoid the heat of the day, but the humidity was thick in the air. The MacDill weather station reported 84 degrees, with 89% humidity during my run.

Although I failed to carry my pace through the entire run, I'm very happy with my results and will continue to train. I beleive I will run through the same program again over the next eight weeks to see how much I can improve.

On a side note, I attended the rain-delayed Pepsi 400 in Daytona last night/this morning. For the second year in a row, I didn't get home until 6am, after the race. At this point, I feel like a jynx for Mark Martin. I've attended two races this year, Las Vegas (Mark dropped a cylander) and the July Daytona race. Dispite being wrecked earyly, Pat Tryson and the crew did a great job to put that busted car back together. Mark drove the repaired car well, and finished the race, giving thanks to his crew for working so hard. These are traits of a champion, never giving up, and valuing your friends and team. I hope not to jynx Mark when I attend the final race in Homestead.