Gearing up

Remember yesterday when I described this week's training schedule? Remember how I said I was supposed to do five-mile "easy" runs Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday? I lied! I was supposed to rest or cross-train yesterday, so this is a really easy week.

However. Since I had it in my mind that I was supposed to run yesterday, that's what I did. And since I don't have a five-mile route, and I was feeling pretty energetic, I went for the nine-mile loop. I walked a total of two miles and ran the remaining seven in 75 minutes. That may be my fastest time yet, and I wasn't even aiming for a speed record.

This training stuff works.

I'm sure runners must have special stores or websites where they buy gear and clothing that meets their needs. Real runners wear clothing that is more useful than just declaring this, as one of my t-shirts does:

I'm most comfortable running in a pair of Danskin pants – they might have been labeled as yoga pants when I bought them – and a loose, thin sweatshirt with a pouch. It's been too warm for such foolishness this past week, but I don't have a t-shirt that I can carry stuff in. Stuff like:

• Hall's Vitamin C lozenges to keep my mouth moist
• A gel pack if I end up running longer than an hour
• An 8-oz. bottle of water
• My keys

Yesterday I searched for, found and ordered a sleeveless hoodie with a pouch. I wear the Shuffle around my neck and I also recently bought a stopwatch with a lanyard.

I think I'm beginning to take this running thing seriously. Heh.

Spam message of the day
This was the subject line of an e-mail I received yesterday:

Talk about excitement! Such promise! Turned out to be an ad for a culinary arts school. Chef training: Just what everyone with a weight problem needs, right?

Thirty-one days until race day.