I have a running date set up with r.p. for the ridiculous hours of the morning tomorrow. Meanwhile, I ran solo again this late afternoon, as r.p. was under the weather this morning.
Again, my new Nike+ set up worked without a hitch. I actually have photo evidence. I've been meaning to implement pictures into the blog, but...well...no plan, right? Anyway, with no further ado:
I should patent it, no?
It looks pretty slippery and rather insecure, and it is when handled with the mitts. But once strapped in, this baby doesn't budge and there's nothing between it and the iPod, except maybe part of my bicep. You can't see how the ends are strapped in, but I have tucked both ends under the laces. The end closer to the toe tucks under the lower laces, then is wrapped over the bottom lace and back under up toward the ankle. The end closer to the ankle is simply pinned under all of the upper laces. I am amazed at how well this works (so far). Lets not forget to notice that it's now waterproofed as well.
I ran 45 minutes again, again covering 4.3 miles. I had a painful side cramp the entire time and my lungs labored. I kept the cramp under control with intentional and deep breathing and pleas to God to keep me going (okay, requests, not desperate enough for pleas). The uphill portion, which is all of mile 2, brought a headwind against me, ugh. It was much harder than Friday late afternoon's 45 minutes and ever so slightly slower overall. For the last mile and a half or so, I felt much better and actually got to the "body is a machine" stage. Whew, finally. I realized I am finally in decent enough shape to "push it" without it resulting in physical catastrophe (a ride on Life Flight). I realized I was pushing it, and that I had the choice to shift 'er way down or to continue pushing it. That realization and the resulting sense of power made my choice easy: Push it. For the last quarter mile, I figured I should push it even more. I didn't sprint or go all out, but I picked up a chipper pace and took it home home.
Lance Armstrong introduced himself at the end and congratulated me on my best 1 mile time. What a guy. I had a sub 10 minute mile, which is nothing for most, but is enough to make me proud. I have a secret goal (again, not so secret now) to run my first 5k race in sub 30 minutes. Komen Race for the Cure is next month...
