Thanks for the Challenge John!!

Nothing like a little challenge to get me to push myself.

As I was running the other night, I was thinking about my pattern I had been following as far as going out for 30 minutes, and extending how long I ran each night before throwing in a 1 minute rest walk. Monday night I was at 20 minutes running, 1 minute walking, and 9 minutes running. I had been increasing my opening run 1 minute each time, but started thinking that maybe I should up it by 2 minutes between days. Then today, I got an email from my buddy John. He said I should try running for 30 minutes. No walking. The challenge had been thrown down.

I also decided to run early tonight since I knew I'd be home with the kids and it would be later before I could run if I didn't. So I came home, changed my clothes, and off I went. In addition to running all 30 minutes, I had another goal. I wanted to make the three mile mark again. I figured that if I could do it with a 1 minute break in there, I coul definitley do it running for all 30. But I also knew that not having a break would affect my pace somewhat. I haven't downloaded and analyzed the data from my Garmin Forerunner 305 yet, but this I do know. The first mile was no problem.The second mile was a little slower, but by the time I was at the 20 minute mark, I knew that if I could just finish with a 10 minute per mile pace, I could make it. When it was all said and dune, 30 minutes of running, and 3.02 miles completed. I had done it. But I definitely had to push myself to get it done. To me, it seemed the biggest goal was to run farther since I had made it 3.01 miles previously in a run that included a 1 minute walk. I think that thinking almost cost me.

Tonight I remembered another reason to run later in the evening. During the 5 o'clock hour, there's still plenty of traffic on the roads. If you can call it traffic in this small town. But still, the smell of exhaust can be bothersome.

I'll edit this later to add the stats from tonight's run. I do know the route I picked tonight was practically perfect. Started and ended right in my driveway with no time to spare.