By the Numbers

One of the management fads of the 1990s (which maybe had a Q in the name but I can't really remember) included the mantra "There's no quality without metrics". The point of it, which I actually agree with until it's taken to the extreme in a management fad, is that you have no idea whether you are making things better or worse if you don't make objective measurements to monitor your progress toward goals.

So here are the metrics for today's run:

• Miles run: 6.4 (excellent!)
• Average split time: 12:32 (pretty good for me)
• Number of dogs taken with me: 1 (the little dog is not a distance athlete)
• Number of loose dogs that ran up to us: 3 (argh!)
• Number of dogs George got in a fight with: 0 (yay! also another reason not to bring the little dog...)
• Number of emus seen: 7 (George thought they were veeerrryy interesting.)
• Number of squished opossums encountered: 1
• Number of attempts to eat squished opossum: 1 (by the dog obviously)
• Number of times I started laughing remembering all the people who have expressed surprise that my dog can run six miles: 4 (guys, my dog is waaaaay more athletic than I am)
• Number of post-breakfast, pre-run ice cream cones consumed: 1 (see previous note about athleticism)
• Number of regrets about post-breakfast ice cream: 0

Anyhow, I am maybe in training for a 10k in March. I haven't signed up yet. We'll see.