Plusses and minuses

Two days before I lay down the mandate for the next phase of fitness, I got in a run. I ran about 4.5 miles in 40:42, so the time was decent.

The run had both its positives and negatives.

* + Positive: I felt good for most of the run. I started to hit a wall right before Mile 3 but I got past it.

* - Negative: I can't find The Polar. I'm sad. I still have my strap but the watch sprouted legs. It was the first time since last June that I ran without it.

* + Positive: I responded when I pushed myself. I wanted to finish my run in under a 9:00/mile pace. At 3.72 miles I was around 9:07 or so.

* - Negative: Dogs. I hate dogs when I run. I'm actually not much of a dog person to begin with, but when I run they are annoying. I tried to run away from houses so I wouldn't encounter any dogs but they're unavoidable. One huge dog scared the pants off me towards the end, and then when I was taking a left turn to go down onto my street, some dirty little dog was barking at me. Unlike the huge dog who was in a fence, this one was out roaming around. I paused a second and then kept running, and the dumb dog lunged at me. I kicked at it but missed. I wish I would have been prepared; I would have sent that dog through the uprights for a 50-yard field goal. I was pumped from the music, from my sprint and feeling good overall so my emotions were a bit on high.

* + Positive: I thought about the Mud Run. A lot. Figured out a plan of action on how to figure out a plan of action. See, I'm going to start by looking at the map, dividing things up into what I need to do to have maximum performance and then build my regimen from there.

* - Negative: I thought about the Mud Run. A lot. The first three miles are pretty much all running, most of it uphill. I have to pencil in some hill time. Yay. I am so excited. Can you tell?