Raining (and Running) on Sunday

Andria, I thought you'd appreciate the title of this post. :) Yesterday was a rainy day, but thankfully the rain held off until after Bobby and I went for our run. In fact, a few hours after getting home an honest-to-God downpour passed over us, with lightning and a little bit of small hail. We're just glad the tornado watch expired and the power didn't go out.

I had charged my new Garmin in the morning, while Bobby was working, and by the time he got home I was just about ready to go! After donning our running clothes, shoes, Garmins, and bottled waters, we went outside and started walking. Starting out on Classen Boulevard, we went north to Lindsey Street, west to Georges Street, and then turned south until we got to Stinson Street. From here we went west to Jenkins Street, turned south until we hit Constitution Street, and then went east to Classen Boulevard. Then it was a straight shot north back home to the condo complex.

It was great to get outside, and in fact it was my first time doing a run outside, not on a track. The scenery was okay. What was fun was to go past Reeves Park and then the golf course and get a closer look at them. Sadly, I also noted how much trash there was along the road, because fines for littering aren't enforced.

It was a somewhat fast walk, but it wasn't at all what I was expecting. Unfortunately, I had gotten all psyched up to do my usual routine of run/walk/run, whereas Bobby had planned on fast walking the whole route. It was a bummer for me, but then Bobby explained that slower is sometimes better. He said that by doing the fast walk we will burn much more fat, and thus lose weight quicker - he's already lost nine pounds!

Here's how the Garmin summed it up: 3.31 miles in 54:35, with an average pace of 16:30/mile, an average speed of 3.6 mph, 335 calories burned, and a maximum speed of 6.1 mph (when I couldn't take it any longer and broke into a jog for less than tenth of a mile).

Obviously there's still much room for improvement, and any advice anyone can give me on what they did when they were first starting to run would be much appreciated. I plan on doing lots of reading this summer from the books we've purchased by Runner's World.

Talk to you all later!
Hayley