Today Really Kicked My Butt and/or Wishful Thinking

2.45 mi. in 35:01 min.

First, the nitty gritty, I ran 7 3-min jogs today to finish up the trail I was on.

And speaking of the trail I was on…I ran a new route today, a fitness trail near home . It has 2 loops or you can run the entire perimeter, which is what I did. Because it is a fitness trail it has its ups and downs. (Pun intended.) It has 1 big hill (I ran down it. I'm no fool!) and 2 slightly smaller hills and multiple small inclines and declines. But even the smaller inclines are tough. I was surprised at how much slower I was today. Some of the hills really kicked butt.

I started walking this trail with The Love of My Life after his bypass surgery 7 years ago. I remember thinking several times that it would be great to be able to run the trail. But I didn't have a clue how to get started and I was too old and I was too out of shape. It was just wishful thinking that I would ever be able to do that.  But today that wish is almost a reality. While I didn't run the entire 2.45 miles, I did run a good portion of it. Even better, I can see the day when I will be able to run the whole distance. In fact, I figure this trail will be a good place to build up my distance. You can run the outer perimeter, each loop, or figure-8 the trail. If I did each on of those in one run that would total a little over 7 miles.

One of the conversations DD1 and I had very early in my training was about running shoes. She told me the specifics about how long running shoes last (about 500 mi.) and how to recognize when they begin to wear out (her knees start to bother her). I couldn't imagine running 500 miles and wearing out a pair of shoes. Again, one of those inconceivable goals I thought I couldn't attain. In fact, one of the iPhone apps I use had a reviewer ask for a feature that tracked how many miles were on your shoes. How silly I thought.

But yesterday I was looking at the distance totals on my iPhone. I was very surprised to see that I've accummulated almost 50 miles in 3-1/2 weeks. That means that by Dec. 31 I will be close to 100 miles. Once I start adding distance to my training the miles will just pile on. It will be no time at all before I reach that 500 mile mark. Do you think I should start picking out a new pair now?