In training.

Hey everyone. It's been a while, I know. Apologies to our readers and to Jewel for my delinquency.

...How many posts have I started that way? (If you're actually ambitious enough to do the math, leave it in the comments.)

Anyway, over the weekend I went to a work party with some fellow teachers, and we got on the topic of the Neuse River Bridge Run. There's a 5K, 10K, and half-marathon, and all of the routes go over at least one of the bridges on the New Bern waterfront. After a bit of discussion, including being told that 10K = about 6 miles (6.214, according to Google), I decided that maybe this was something I could actually do. Check out the route here (.pdf file).

So as of Sunday, September 12, I'm officially in training for my first ever footrace. I'm really excited about it. I ran a 2.2 mile route around our neighborhood on Sunday and again tonight (both times with Charlie along), and it's actually not as nightmarish as I originally thought it might be. I was hurting toward the end of my run Sunday, but things felt noticeably better at the end of tonight's run...although that might be because I was unconsciously taking it easy since my legs are kind of sore. In any event, I think I'm making progress.

I'll be posting updates on how things are going as the training continues. Tonight, my time was 22:43, which is about two minutes slower than I'd like to be running right now. We'll see how long it takes me to break the 20 minute mark. From some limited online research, it looks like the average time for a 10K is 50-55 minutes. I've got a ways to go, but I might not be in as bad shape as I thought.

I'll leave you with a couple pictures:

Me, post-run. Note copious amounts of sweat. Gross, but satisfying.

My personal trainer. If the length of his tongue is any indication, he's fairly tired as well.

Enjoy your week, and maybe get out there and run a bit.

-- its