Well yesterday I started doing something that I have been terrified to do since Day 1 of this whole working-towards-a-race thing: I ran OUTSIDE! And it felt so dang good!
I've been terrified for multiple reasons:
1. My asthma--this time of year the cold really quirks with my lungs and it's been super cold.
2. Dogs---I've read lots of stories about people being bit by dogs while running so I was a little terrified.
3. Pavement---Okay I'm not really scared of pavement, but I've read how bad it is on your knees. I have researched some trails but I don't want to venture too far from home right away.
Right now I am planning on running my first race this spring and the weather was supposed to hit the 30's this week (SO warm compared to the negative numbers last week!) so I figured why the heck not.
Of course, yesterday's run was my worst nightmare as far as a first run goes though. I was antsy to go for a run before work but didn't have enough time to drive all the way to the gym and back and shower before I had to leave again for work.
Issue #1: My Nike+iPod app sucks. Seriously. I was planning on running around my neighborhood since it is a quiet loop and figured it was a quarter of a mile. I did a warm up walk once around and the app kept saying to walk around to activate my sensor. After the warm up lap it hadn't activated so I turned it off and put on my music to run with instead. So annoying.
Since I figured out each lap was about a quarter of a mile, I figured 4 laps would be one and I would see how I was feeling after that. I ended up doing 5 or 6 then decided to run on this other quiet road next to my loop to finish off the run.
Issue #2: Big Dog. I was halfway down the road when this massive dog starts running down the road after me. AWESOME. So I screamed like a thirteen year old and kept going.
Issue #3: Busy roads. I didn't want my first run to be on a busy road at all. I hit the end of the road and the road next to it is significantly busier. But there was no way around the dog. So I sprinted down that road, turned and sprinted on the next busy-ish road and was back into my development. What a workout!
If my app had been running, I'm almost convinced it would of read 3 miles especially after I learned how long my loop really is today.
I downloaded this app: MapMyRun and it was perfect! Today was significantly colder but I decided to give the app a try and see how far I could go. I was able to set it to do half mile splits. After each mile a voice would come over my phone telling me I had run a mile, how much time had passed, and what my pace was. Since it was via GPS I trust what the distance was and it told me that each lap around the block was .35 miles! So I definitely had to of run 3 miles yesterday, woohoo!
Today's run was so much better than yesterday's! I ran 2.25 miles despite the cold and definitely could of done 3 if I wanted to push it. But I didn't, not yet at least.
So yeah, there's a long boring post about running outside. I hope everyone's break is going well! I'm starting to get pumped to leave for school this weekend.
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