Seven

Got a nice LSR of seven miles in this morning. I've been meeting up with locals at the Runners Den running store. They form up on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. And as it is really starting to cool off here in Phoenix, my times are improving. I've run seven miles each Saturday for the past 4 weeks, and have gotten faster each time. According to plan, I'm supposed to be at 11:18, but I'm just a little over 10 and comfortable.

Nathan from Runners Den leads the group, and runs back and forth about 50 miles each Saturday checking on his runners. We range in speed from super fast to beginner slow, but he somehow finds time to spend with each of us. We start at the store and run out East on the canal system for about 1 hour to 1.5 hours. It's nice that we can leave keys and stuff locked in the store and come back to ice water, bathrooms, and talk about our runs with others. Afterwards today, a few of us went out to a local coffee shop and overpaid for java and eggs. Adam and his lovely expecting wife were there, along with Lauren and her secret sweetie, and Chris who recently has gotten back into running and has a new pair of Landreth Asics and a nifty water belt. We ate, drank, laughed and cried, and embraced as lovers do for about two hours. I love Saturday mornings after a run!

Nathan was telling me this morning about a free class offered by Runners Den that analyzes gait, posture, turnover, etc. and includes two videos of both shoed and barefoot running to get a better idea of how to improve. I'm going to attend the next possible class to get better perspective ---Adam has been coaching me to skip/run while singing NKon the B:

3..2...1...... POUT!

Girls, where would boys be without girls to love
You know that I’d be with you girls,
Where would boys be without girls to love - sweet love

I'm no 'advanced' runner, but I have my doubts about this strategy and probably will stop the practice here in a few weeks if I don't see significant improvement. It sure is embarrassing and would be really rough I think if he weren't having me wear a bicycle helmet which prevents people from stoning my head directly but doesn't protect my bare mid-drift.

I've been enjoying my plan so far --thanks Demi. Looking forward to a 1/2 in December and full M's in Jan and Feb next year.