Cold and wet. Let's run.

Thursday, April 8, 2010


Now this is a little more like it, I thought as I exited the car for my run. There was a mist falling and it was probably in the 40’s. Very Northeast Ohio April. Normally, I’d be crabbing to myself about such weather – who wants to run in this shit – but I know I’m a cool weather runner and figured after the crappy runs I’d had lately in the heat, this would be a good one.

I dressed like it was in the 80’s – not my best decision – and started the run. I must admit that I’m just assuming the calf will be fine now and figured on a 40-minute run. This was to be my 6th run in the last 7 days, which is what I used to do when I was a runner and lean. The trails were very muddy, but I splashed along feeling really comfortable in the cool air. I ran a relatively flat trail and passed through my ‘Survival workout’ area where I stopped to do my abdominal workout, which was pretty easy with less gut in the way.

I did some thinking while running.  It's tax season and I've got some issues this year and have had difficulty figuring out the best approach.  Running seems to help make sense of sticky issues.  There are no distractions for me while running and I think I came to some good decisions.
I finished feeling pretty good and had definitely run faster than the previous two days. When I returned home, showered and pulled on a pair of pants I’ve been avoiding for a month, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had room to spare around the waist. You just don’t need that scale to tell you the story and mine continues to be good. I’m approaching a two-inch reduction in my waist and that belly fat was doing nothing good for me. I continue to have cravings for sweet things, but guzzled down a diet pop and that seemed to do the trick. I don’t want to treat myself more than once a week to real sugar.

Run duration: 41 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 140

Calories burned during workout: 700