Time to Hit the Road...

Tonight I decided to run outside... This was my first outdoor run of the year, and I was pretty excited to see where things stood.

I have heard from numerous runners, "When are you going to run outside?" Experienced runners know there is a big difference between running on a treadmill and running outdoors.

While treadmills are great for running during adverse conditions, they tend to "assist" the runner a bit. Most people say to add resistance when running on a treadmill, such as increasing the elevation.

Personally, I've enjoyed my time in the gym. I've tried my best to take full advantage of the other machines, as well as the weights! My goal this year has been to be a more complete runner... physically fit!

So tonight was a big test. I didn't have far to run... just 3 miles... but I wanted to see what it felt like to run up and down hills, against the wind, and with a sporadic pace.

The first mile I kept it really slow. Instead of the distractions I described in my previous post, the only things I ran up against tonight were dogs. Lots and lots of dogs. You know, dogs really don't like people near their house. Therefore, I pretty much set off every "bark alarm" in my neighborhood.

I felt pretty good going into mile 2. I noticed my pace was pretty even at 10:30... staying right around that number. Not bad. In fact, that was much faster than I normally run on the treadmill.

Mile 3 I hit my stride. I also flew! Most of mile 3 was downhill - the way my neighborhood is sloped, I was running uphill for most of the first two miles. I had read an article recently to take full advantage of declines in the elevation... "open it up" so to speak!

Well, I did... in fact, at one time I looked down and I was a sub-9 minute mile! I was lovin' life, until I had to go back up again. Ha!

I finished 3 miles in 31:09. That made it an average 5.8 mph, an average pace of 10:23, and a maximum speed of 7.1 mph. Not bad for an fat dude!

I may just like these road runs after all...