Saturday, December 26, 2009

Boxing Day Run

In an effort to stem the tide of rapid weight gain, and to break in my brand new Shuffle – at my wife’s demand insistence suggestion – I ran 5k as hard as I could. I didn’t do too badly considering that I haven’t exercised in a week and that I’m getting over a cold. I didn’t start out with a plan to run hard, but I started with a great song that got me pumped up, and the next thing you know I was hauling ass. It was a long song and my mile notification sounded before it was over. I was a little bit confused at first, thinking something wasn’t right. I knew I was at the right spot, but I should have been half way through another song. I’ve been running very controlled runs lately, and when I looked down I saw that I was almost two and a half minutes ahead of my old man pace. I thought about slowing down but I felt good, and figured in for a dime in for a dollar. This is what always happens. I have delusions of grandeur running away from my house, downhill. Reality sets in when I round the circle at Memorial Park and start the steady climb back home. I was in “screw it” mode so I pushed through, even though the running gods decided to mess with me. The earphone in my right ear started falling out every fifty yards. No matter what I did it wouldn’t stay in my ear. That got frustrating instantly. I wasn’t having huge problems with the pace that I had set, but running is all about rhythm, and making sure this thing stayed in my ear was messing up my rhythm. My body started telling me to stop running and fix the thing, but I was too close to home to give in to some BS excuse about music and mess up my run. I was making great time. I finished up strong and got a big hug from the baby girl for my trouble. I looked at my watch and was very pleased, especially for the day after Christmas. I think I’m going to be able to drop another ten minutes off my River Run time.

6 comments:

JSG said...

How's the Shuffle? I worry about the ear-bud slippage and you are so married to their headphones with that thing.


BTW - if it is 47 degrees and overcast, I can take 10 minutes off the River Run time. Our luck it will be 87 degrees that day.

LJ said...

The Shuffle is an iPod. It plays music. I was waiting for something special to happen like the wonder and amazement I had when I got my big one a few years ago, but it was nothing but my same old crappy music. The Shuffle is microscopic. MJ got me the silver instead of the black because it would be harder to lose.

I hope they make a running version of the earphones. Duct tape is going to look stupid.

LJ said...

MJ thinks I should have written, "The Shuffle is just an iPod". She read my sentence as me informing you, JSG, as the Shuffle was an mp3 player in the iPod line, which is made by a computer company called Apple.

JSG said...

Specificity scores higher on FCAT. Occupational hazard.

EJG said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
EJG said...

I hate ear buds because they always fall out while I run. The bouncing that occurs as I step dislodges them and they force me to stop exercising. One time, I was running very fast, and almost beat my best time. But then, the ear buds started to fall out of my ear and I had to stop. I haven't run since.