the stupids

(I know you're all just dying of curiosity, hardly able to contain your excitement as you wait for my next running update. So, dear blog followers, here it is. Try to control your enthusiasm, as I know my running is just scintillating to all of you.)

Tuesday was our official Heart of Summer training clinic. This week we had someone tell us how to stretch. Useful, I guess, but it wasn't anything new or exciting to me. Then we ran for 1.5 hilly miles. Control your laughter, but I really pushed myself during the run, and my average speed turned out to be just less than 11 min per mile! I know that's not much to you crazy fast runners out there, but that was cruisin' for me. I love how being with a group is really motivating.
Time: ~16 min
Distance: 1.5 mi
Avg Speed: 5.45 mph
Cumulative distance: 24.54 mi

And then today I had to run on my own. No problem, I thought, I'll just bring Mike's iPod along again. Well, he had filled it up with some of his music, so every other song on shuffle turned out to be Dr. Dre. Lovely. Needless to say, I did a lot of fast-forwarding. Overall the run wasn't bad, but I realize that I get "the stupids" pretty bad when I run. I know they say that running (or any exercise) is supposed to increase brain power, but I think for me all the huffing and puffing leads to seriously compromised cognitive abilities. Case in point: for the second time now, I've gotten to the end of my run and been completely unable to calculate how long I was out there. I made sure to file away my start time (e.g., 6:07), but I got to the end of the run and just stared at my watch, unable to compute the difference between start and stop times ("so, 6:07 to 6:36 is.... ummmm... ummmm..."). Eventually I gave up and just started counting by 5's ("so, 6:07 to 6:12 is 5 minutes, then 6:12 to 6:17 is another 5, which makes 10...") at which point I lost track, tried to start over, and found I had completely forgotten what time I started!!! Yep, that's "the stupids" for you. So if any of my faithful blog followers have unlimited funds and are feeling particularly generous, feel free to send one of these my way (that thing is awesome!I totally want one!) or even just one of these (sigh).
Time: (I have no idea)
Distance: 2.16 mi
Avg Speed: (slower than yesterday)
Cumulative distance: 26.70 mi

5/28 Update -
The stupids hit again today. Amanda and I ran twice around Lake Como, in only 42 minutes.
"Ummmm," she said nicely, "wouldn't that be 37?"
Why yes, as a matter fact it would. Ugh.
Time: 37 min
Distance: 3.24 mi
Avg Speed: 5.25 mph (!)
Cumulative distance: 29.94 mi