Scenic Running

Today was another quick workout.  2 laps around the ol’ lake.  I grabbed some fresh batteries and juiced up the Garmin before heading out so here are my metrics.

Distance: 1.6 miles

Time: 15:49

One mile time: 9:45

I stopped to walk for about 20 seconds after my first mile, then finished up.  Tomorrow I intend to do the same pace but finish without stopping. 

We went for a family walk this evening, roughly 1.25 miles. Nice weather for  stroll.

FYI, here is the scenery I get to enjoy everyday while on my lunchtime runs (photos were taken last summer).  There is a .77 mile path around the lake.

Monday Mile and a Halfer

Monday, I tried to use one of our Garmin Etrek from work. It's not a unit designed for runners; we use it for GIS data collection, but it can display distance, speed, and time. I started it off, and took off. The intention was to do another 3 looper (2.25 miles). About halfway through the first lap, I noticed the Garmin died. Batteries were dead.

Since I didn't take a watch, I had no idea of time, but I felt like I was pushing myself. I ended up only doing two laps since I pushed myself, but that's cool. I've been leaning towards using my lunch runs to work on my speed rather than distance. There's just not enough time to get changed, warm up and run very far. I might start limiting it to two laps, and working on bringing down my time.

Blog Updates

Welcome to my brand spankin new blog layout!  Well, technically, I took a lot of the design from my family blog (which I haven’t updated in ummmmmm forever!  But I also have integrated this with my new online runner’s log.  Therefore, on my side bar, you can see my personal records for races, latest workouts, and cumulative distances.

Don’t you just love my new blog header?  It’s a tiger beetle (paige’s favorite bug) running a race.  The bib is a Boston Marathon bib.  :)  I was thinking of adding some funny parts to it.  maybe I will surprise you again!

Mini Me

Paige went with me to day for an interval run/walk.  we did 1.5 min intervals. I didn’t have a set distance or time since I wasn’t sure how she would do.  Wen I got home, I calculated it up…

2 Miles!!

She was a trooper too.  She’s excited about doing a race with me sometime.  :) 

In other news, I’ve been using mapmyrun.com and it’s great for finding routes or figuring out distances.  Here is a map of our route, in the corner you can see it reads 2 miles.

2.25 Miler or 3 Lapper

To start this post off, I need to explain some background. I am an entomologist. I work for the Army. "What?" you say! Yes, yes, I help to ensure the health of the soldiers and their families by researching and surveying medically significant insects. Also, I perform regulatory work to ensure the safe and minimal use of insecticides.

"So why are you telling us that?" you say. Because the Army has a vested interest in the health of its soldiers and civilian employees and has a policy for civilian physical training. I am allowed to spend time in conjunction with my lunch to work out. This roughly gives me an hour to run and eat lunch.

As I've stated before, there is a small "lake" (glorified pond) right outside my office. It has a great pathway that is a roughly 3/4 mile loop. Three laps equals about 2.25 miles. Ideally I'd like to have my normal runs be 3.1 miles (4 laps and a little extra), but at this point, I really do not run fast enough for a 3.1 miler and still have time to eat lunch.

Therefore, I've decided that for my lunchtime runs, I'm going to just keep it at three laps and not try to push further distances. I'm hoping this shift in planning will let me focus more on speed work so that I can bring my time down to something respectable. Then, I can start running my intended 3.1 milers.

I'll have to keep any distance runs to weekends or evening runs, but oh well, I still consider myself lucky to be able to get my exercise done at work anyhow!