week one

today officially marked week one in my marathon training. i was supposed to run 3 miles, and was originally planning on going to the lake, but instead i opted for a neighborhood run. like i said before, my running lately hasn't been so great, but today's run definitely helped me get back into the swing of things by realizing a number of things:

1) i have much better concentration/overall sense of pleasure when listening to slower music on my ipod. my past few runs have been set to my specially designed "running mix." today i ran, oddly enough, to my "sleep mix." with this mix, it is so much easier to get lost in my thoughts. therefore, i don't focus too much on how much distance is left. faster music is just too stressful for me.

2) i hate loops. running around the lake is beautiful, but again i find myself constantly glancing to see how much further i have left. my runs go by much quicker when i don't run a pre-determined course.

3) night runs are better than morning runs. this didn't use to be the case with me. i used to be good to go after waking up and downing a quick cup of coffee. doing that lately just leaves me feeling shaky. running later in the day, when it's cooler and after i've gotten a good amount of food in me is definitely the way to go.

4) i definitely need my pedometer. i forgot it at home and it will be very helpful in the future. like i said, my original goal for the day was three miles. i got home surprised to see that i had been gone for almost an hour. granted, i walked quite a bit for my cooldown, but i was gone about twenty minutes longer than anticipated. i mapquested (is that the proper verb?) my route and discovered i ran about 4.5 miles. not a huge distance, but i really don't want to get ahead of myself in the training.

5) i need new running shoes. i'm long overdue.

all in all, i'm feeling rather good about this whole thing.

i really have nothing else of importance to write about. i have the feeling this blog is soon going to become purely about running. exciting, i know, but aside from work, not much else is going on in my life. still waiting to hear about financial aid for hamline. maybe my life will become interesting when i start school. maybe.