Running on Empty

I was finally able to run the full two miles, although to be honest I walked a bit, especially on the last of four laps. The knee hurt a lot on the first lap, went down to a dull ache for the second and third laps, and went back to hurting more on the last lap. The pace was better than I expected, as I was only off the bare minimum time for my age by a couple of minutes. I should be able to make it if I can cut out the walking and pick up my pace a little bit. I think hydrating properly during the day would help my run time immensely. It's one of those things that you can't do all at once right before you go running. That's the sort of thing that makes your lunch go back out through the entrance.

There are a few wristband-style GPS devices that can track your runs/bike rides and some of them can even be pre-programmed with a specific route and pace, then beep to let you know when you're exceeding or falling behind on your time. They seem pretty neat, but really all you need is a ten-dollar watch with a stopwatch feature and a little motivation to keep running. It won't upload your routes to a website and track where, how fast, and how far you've run, but the optional gadgets are just that, optional. Some of the major shoe manufacturers have their own versions with different features and associated online communities, and Garmin has a few different devices too. I'm not sure if Garmin has an online community or not.

The boy has been waking up very early in the morning and refusing to go back to sleep. It leaves us with a dilemma, as at least one of us has to get up and chase him around or do battle trying to keep him in his bed on the off chance that he might go back to sleep. He is an extremely vocal child, so usually once he's up and yelling it means both parents are stuck being awake regardless of who is actually in his room applying the ineffectual go-back-to-sleep-it's-two-hours-before-my-alarm-goes-off process. It starts out firm and demanding, but as official wake-up time approaches the meter swings over to the pleading and despair side of things. In the daytime it's easy to say that we will stand firm and not let a two-year old dictate our schedule, but in the dead of night we lose some of our strength. I hope things improve soon.

I helped my parents out with moving some heavy stuff yesterday. Riding out to their house gave me a chance to grind the footpegs on my bike a little bit. It always surprises me how easily the cruiser touches the ground when negotiating turns at speed. I don't usually catch my boots on the road, but sometimes I do scrape a little. After the moving was done for the evening they took me out for dinner, so it was a winning situation for me.