Run for Thursday, 2007-03-15

Tonight was my first (real, semi-measured) outdoor run. Being the nocturnal creature that I am, I waited until 9pm to start. It was beautiful and breezy and just the slightest bit drizzly at exactly the right part. Florida is occasionally nice to me.

I ran 4.0 miles in just under 46 minutes. I think I warmed up a little faster than I would have preferred, but as yet I still do not have any sort of pacing device, nor do I even wear a watch.

Being the psychotic math freak that I am, and knowing my pace as I do, I did a little math and figured out about a half-mile in that ninety-two 4-beat measures of the 143-bpm PodRunner music I was listening to would be about a quarter mile. Thus, my entire run was spent counting out 4/4 time like a first-year marching band student. Sure enough, the quarter-mile landmarks I had measured out on Walk Jog Run were all within a measure or two of my count. Creepy.

However, I’m not as smart as I think I am. It didn’t occur to me to check the direction of the wind before I started, so the return trip was entirely windward, into the rain. Not horrible, but a bit demotivating for a first-timer.

No energy gels tonight — it was entirely too short.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Tonight was also my first run in my new shoes: New Balance 767s. They are much nicer than the old $20 Payless pair I had been running in. I haven’t had the chance to properly break them in yet, but ran on them anyway. I know — it’s a sin. We’ll see how much pain I am in over the next few days.

I really need to get an MP3 player that I can strap to my arm. My Sony Psyc Walkman CD Player is great and all, and a single CD holds more music than I can listen to in dozens of runs, but it’s too cumbersome to run with. And I can’t even imagine the size of the strap that it would take to get the thing solidly on my arm. Plus, I feel bad that I’m running through batteries when I use it. Must … resist …