Back to Basics

I got out on the road today. 50 minutes, end to end. This included warm up and cool down walks, as well as three stretch breaks. I took it gingerly, expecting to reprise some of the aches and pain from last week's Adirondack 1/2 Marathon. I finished today with a tweak in my left knee, otherwise I felt fair. The slow-n-steady approach gets credit, I am certain.

The ADK 1/2 ended up being a fine time. For a bunch of reasons -- some reasonable, some not, nearly all mental -- I ran little in preparation. I wanted to back out, but having made a commitment to Mrs. FA and some other folks, off we went.

Given the lack of training, I planned a walk/run strategy: run the first six miles, and then walk/run alternate miles. This way I could finish in 2:30 and not hurt myself.

I stuck more or less to the plan, and ran more or less at my intended pace. At mile 11, I stopped to wait for Mrs. FA so we could run the last two miles and finish together, which we did in 2:43.

There's a New York Road Runners 5 miler on Halloween, and I want to run between 9 and 9:30 minute miles. I am going to train for this alone, for myself. My recent lack of motivation re: the ADK 1/2 stemmed mainly from a promise I made to run it. There are already too many obligations in life. If I run, I have to run because I want to, obliged to no one.

It is a beatiful day in NYC, and the Park is full of runners and tourist and folks walking dogs. I ran the route that I ran over and over and over when I started running more than two years ago. I even wore the heart monitor strap, which gave me some interesting bio-feedback. I haven't used it in a long time. There's a stiff headwind along part of my route - the first crisp breeze of the Fall season. Looking forward to more of it.

Later. fellas.