SUPERIOR

I did get 5 more miles on the treadmill last night. I mentioned that our new treadmill has a bunch of features (that will probably never get used) on it. Last night I tried out the Fitness Test feature. You punch in your age, weight, strap on a heart rate monitor and pick a pace (slower than 8:00 pace) that you want to maintain for a (whole) mile. Since you plug in your age, I assume the program is using a formula like 220 - age or 200 – half your age. Right there the validity can be thrown out the window. Anyway, after a 3:00 warm-up, I ran a mile in 8:30 with an incline of 1% and a HR around 140-145. The results: a perfect score of 100 for a “Superior” rating. While I’ll probably never use this again, I think it’s a cool feature for someone who’s just getting into running.

This morning I started out with a mile with Bailey. Then I ran out-and-back 4.5 miles. The “out” was into the wind at about 8:30 pace. When I turned around I decided to take advantage of the wind and pick it up a little. After 2 miles at 7:30 pace I felt like I was worrying about pace instead of just relaxing. It felt forced, so I backed off the pace. This 10 mile run gives me a nice round 200 for the month so far.

So I went to the local running store, Run ‘n Fun, over lunch today. On my way there I’m following a guy with a bumper sticker of "The Bird." That’s nice. When I get to the store, the guy working remembers me from like 4-5 months ago (the only other time we've met). I mean he remembers my first and last name – after only speaking with me once. I guess those are the things that make a good sales man. Giving me 20% off a pair of shoes helps too. In the past I’d run in anything from trail shoes to bulky cushioning shoes to light weight trainers. The light weight trainers just feel so much better, so I bought a new pair of New Balance 833s. I’ll alternate them with my Asics Speedstars.