950 To Go

Day 50 - October 26, 2007

My journey has reached the 5% complete milestone. So far, I'm impressed with how easy it has been. Sure there have been a few days with aches and pains, and there have been a few days where getting the run in has come down to the last 3 hours of the day, but the temptation to take a day off has been pretty low. I even survived a weekend wedding trip to NYC and found time to get my runs in. I am starting to wonder why I ever settled for 4-5 days of running a week before.

I am very appreciative of the warm weather that I have had this fall. I know things will get tougher when the temperatures dip into the 20's and I have to go out at 5:30 am, but the deeper I get into this streak, the more motivated I will be to keep it going.

As the winter months creep in, I really need to look into getting some more reflective clothing. I imagine there will be fewer and fewer days where I am able to run when there is enough light to safely be seen. For now, I will continue running with my lightweight LED flashlight. It is very bright with 5 white LEDs and fits easily in the palm of my hand. I use it mostly for alerting oncoming vehicles, but occasionally to light up a dark section of roadway. I do not leave it on all the time. I find the swinging light to be a bit annoying and I'm not going to alter my stride to accommodate less arm swing.

Today's run was another good run despite the heavier rains. I pretty much just blocked it out after the first 50 meters or so and I'm not even sure when it stopped, but by the time I was halfway back, it was just a light mist. The back and hip felt pretty good again today while running. The extra stretching I've been doing lately seems to be doing the job. I think I will go ahead and give the 5K trail race a shot tomorrow. I'm certain I will run faster than I did at the Spring Hill 5K, but I doubt that I will break any PRs. In the last 5K I ran 7:11 pace. I'd really like to average 6:50's tomorrow, but I think I'll be more realistic and shoot for sub 7's. So the goal is 21:39. I expect that the footing might be a bit slick after all this rain and I'm not going to get crazy about my predictions. But I do expect significant improvement with 41 extra days of training. Check back tomorrow to see how I've done.

Chris

Day: 50..... Time/Date: 8:20AM 10/26/2007 .....Weather: Rain, 55F
Run: N Carnation-Davis .....Miles: 3.6 .....Time: 26:31 .....Pace: 7:22 min/mile
Miles to Date: 195.6 .....Total Running Time: 24:27:57