Pace: 9’55”
Yes, I skipped a day again. I went out of town and I could not squeeze in the two hours needed for the workout with all the meetings. I made it up the next day, but now another session is pushed back. Everything is now pushed back by a day and will be settled out by Sunday. Unless I push hard and log in 17 miles over two days. I could have skipped the day entirely. And who would know? Me, that’s who. Never disappoint yourself. You should be your hardest critic. Often enough, we aren’t. In my line of work I have seen so many talented people waste their abilities on excuses. They hide from me behind claims that “I’m sick,” “It’s too hard,” or “Times have changed.” None of it is true. At some point, everyone needs to look at themselves and say “Is this me? Is this how I want people to think of me?” Our actions speak to our character.
Running a 5k was nice. I stayed below a 10’00” pace easily. Since I had a day gap from the last run and no need to last six plus miles, there was no need to pace myself. I just enjoyed it. I found a rhythm and added some bounce in my step for fun. Landmarks became finish lines for sprints and beats in the music became excuses to shadow box. It was just plain fun. With the air was crisp and mood good, it was perfect for an evening run.
During my business trip I found time to talk to the guy that got me using Nike Plus in the first place, Mike S. About a year ago I had just gotten into running. I was spending my time on a treadmill and looked at running as exercise or even a necessary evil, not a passtime. Mike told me about Nike Plus and how he was using it. At that point I was game for anything to make the running seem marginally better.
At that time Nike Plus was only a plug-in device for your iPod. It tracked your information and was downloadable through iTunes. The fact that it was cheap helped too. I am a data freak and once I got into it, there was no turning back. Tracking my pace and distance became almost a borderline obsession. Then Nike added the heart rate monitor! Eventually I switched to the Nike Plus GPS watch. The rest is history (or at least when it comes to data).
I have to thank Mike, because without Nike Plus my running career may never have gotten started. If you want to see my thoughts on the watch, check out my review. So thanks, Mike.
I ended my run with Yoga X from P90X. It is ninety minutes of yoga. I have always thought of yoga as merely advanced stretching. I freely admit now, I was wrong – very, very wrong. It is much more than weird poses and stretching. There are many stances I could barely hold, or not hold at all. Once the twelve weeks are over, I hope to have the talent to complete this session perfectly. If so, I will be in amazing shape.
Next Run: 7 Miles (Friday)
Next Workout: P90X (Disc 06) (Saturday)
Next Race: Burlington Race for the Hungry 5K
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Rebuilding Roberts 