Patience, Grasshopper

Airport Road Park tonight, and two things were in play because I didn't have my mp3 player. One, no soundtrack. Two, I had to hold my car key while I ran, instead of hanging it on the mp3 lanyard. So I'm traversing the 1/2-mile track and pondering what happens if I get accosted by a mugger.

Mugger: "Give me your keys man. Don't make me hurt you."
Me: "Can you drive a stick?"
Mugger: "Uhhh ... no."
Me: "OK, here ya go."
What, I'm not going to give up my keys to a mugger if he says he can drive a stick? I guess it depends on the mugger. But I'll just be damned if I'm going to let some miscreant mess up my transmission, you know? That's expensive repair work. You want to take my car? You better be bringing some skillz, know what I'm sayin?

Even without the music to drown out my breathing, it went really well. I went 1/2-lap walk, full-lap run, 1/2-lap walk, full-lap run, then walk three laps. Total of three miles. YTD mileage: 67. Intakes today: HBO, coffee, muffin around 9:30. Tuna salad sandwich and Chik-fil-A sandwich, water at lunch (that looks stranger in print than it sounded in my head). Spaghetti for supper. WAX: 235.

I felt really good running that second lap, to the point where I considered adding another half-mile of running. Maybe this sounds like a cop-out, but I just felt like a little patience was in order, being that this was just my third time running since starting this journey. When I was in my mid-20s, I was running two miles in 12 minutes. Not that that's any great shakes -- I wasn't going to win many races at that pace -- but it was way ahead of where I am now I was still an athlete then. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I'm not in my mid-20s now. My machinery won't do now what it would then. I waited three weeks before stepping up to running and I didn't want to push it and maybe bring on a setback. My thinking is that I'll continue with this 1-mile/2-mile ratio through the end of next week before increasing the running. My mid-range goal is to run at least half of the Peachtree Road Race, and it's simply going to take baby steps for me to get to the point where I can do that.

I'll have the mp3 back in use tomorrow.