Simply Dashing

Now that I've made it to the part of the "Couch to 5k" program where I'm not supposed to be taking walking breaks anymore, I finally put the sensor in my shoe and hooked up the iPod to see how close I am getting to the recommended distance.

See, you can either run a set distance or run a set time. Theoretically they should be close. In this case, a 25 minute jog was supposed to be about 2.5 miles. I know that's actually not that fast, but I had my doubts that I was even hitting that mark.

So imagine my surprise when my iPod reported that in 25 minutes 7 seconds I had traveled 3.77 miles for a pace of 6.39 minutes/mile. I mean, if I'm going that fast when I feel like I'm plodding along, maybe I should really train and blow everyone else out of the water during a real race.

Or maybe I should follow the directions in the calibration section of the user manual.

Anyhow, twenty-five minutes is a long time to think about things, and you might expect that I would come up with some real insight during that time, but here's a pretty good approximation of my thoughts as I make three laps around my section of the neighborhood:

- "If I lost another ten pounds this would be easier and probably better for my knees."

- "Hah, I avoided that branch at eye level that I always run into."

- "Ugh, it's probably only been about two minutes."

- "Why did I eat all that junk food an hour ago? That was a mistake."

- "Hm... bread. I love bread. Maybe I should bake some bread when I get home. I deserve it."

- "Seriously, how long have I been running? This is taking forever."

- "I'm not buying any more cookie dough. I don't need stuff like that."

- "Hm... cookie dough. I wonder if I have any left in the refrigerator..."

- "Dammit, that branch is going to put my eye out someday. I should bring some gardening shears with me next time."

- "Only one more lap. Thank god."

- "Is this section uphill? I've never noticed that before."

- "Hm... cheese. I love cheese. Cheese and bread together. Maybe with some cookie dough."

- "Ouch! My eye!"

- "Yay, I made it."

Deep thoughts. Yep.