Sometimes A Tie Is OK

Day 15 -- Aug. 22, 2012

Today I am 191 pounds of rolling thunder.

In all honesty, today I'm more like an achy, sore wad of rolling thunder.

On days when I have the time, I've been experimenting with split workouts. A spin on the exercise bike over the lunch hour, followed up by a run in the mid to late afternoon. A lot of the fitness literature I've ready said splitting smaller workouts is better than one, long slog.

Monday I ran 6.5 miles without a stop after spinning on my trusty old Schwinn stationary bike for 45 minutes earlier in the day. Consequently, I was full of new-found vigor when I hit the road yesterday.

My normal running schedule during the week goes long/short/long/short/long on weekdays and sort of a free form workout on the weekends.

So yesterday I hit the road thinking I'd do a timed 3 miles. Normally, I'm in the 30- to 35-minute range for these runs, but for the past year I haven't been able to clear the hills without walking, so I haven't run for time in quite a while.

The route is also slowed by a number of stop lights along the way, which more than anything disturb the rhythm of the run, but are sometimes a welcome relief.

My run always starts at the top of the hill. What the heck, I need the momentum and so far my knees and hips are fine with the routine.

One thing to note, it was a deceptively warm 95 degrees when I took off. I clicked the first mile in 10:40, but it's mostly downhill all the way to the turn. The second mile has four hills and a stoplight midway through.

On this day, the heat and the last hill before the turn gobbled me up, and I walked for a minute. I made the turn in 24 minutes. Not a brilliant run at all, but I'm thinking after more than a year of not making it all the way around, not too, too bad.

I rumbled down the hill and hit the final two stoplights. One was a go, but the other delayed me for 15 seconds, so I had my second full stop. 

In the end, I ran a time-adjusted 37 minutes. Better than a walk, but not great on time. But it was the second time in a week I've made the loop -- the first time a little better and more important, without a stop.

So in the score book I keep in my head, I'm giving it a tie. Most importantly, I got out and did something to help my body and mind.

So today when you're out on the street and you see the world's slowest human moving at the speed of glacier, give me a wave.