Miles/Minutes & Distance/Duration

...so, I don't even finish my last post and I get a nice, encouraging note from my old buddy Todd. Thanks, man.

I ran again on lunch today--just 2 miles with Bill near the college. Took a walk break that I didn't think I needed; I had a little pain in my heel and decided that walking for 60 seconds might make it go away. It did. Very cool.

So, I am thinking more about the walk breaks. I bought the watch pictured above for $26. Not bad! It has 9 different interval timers.

I am ready to transition from continuous running to walk/run of longer distances. I have plotted out very cool 2, 3, 4, and 5 mile routes in my subdivision--no out-and-backs at all. By adding little loops and curlicues I have succeeded in making some interesting routes with some recurring features.

• My house is visible from the last 1/3 of a mile of each route--quite a motivator.
• Mile markers are in basically the same places; I've found this helps with "rehearsing" the rest of the run in your head.
• Few "bag it" intersections (i.e. places where I might decide to just head home and make it shorter).

You see, I think that I'm at a place where running LONGER is what I need to do. I mean longer in both miles and minutes, distance and duration. I want to maximize the number of minutes I am out there beyond 15.

In one section of Galloway's book, he urges you not to be rigid about timing of walk breaks. Well, I think I have to be. Without some kind of interval timer, I am tempted (and often do) just keep walking. I think the buzzer would help me. For $26, I can't afford not to find out.

So, here's an satellite image of a 4 miler I've put together. There are no street names here, which hopefully means you won't stalk me on my route and kill me. This is where I will do this run/walk stuff. This is basically my 3 mile route with a curlicue inside it. I have a little bubble to add off the side for an additional mile, making the whole thing 5 miles without leaving my sub. Pretty cool. For the time being, these should be enough to keep me run/walking through the summer.


And this here is the course for the Crim 8k race in late August--just before I go to Canada. Gotta do it. When I ran for the legislature, Bobby Crim knocked doors with me. That is one fit guy!