Five Around the Heights

5.15 miles, 38:19, 7:26 pace, Max HR = 157ish, Avg HR = 148

I waited until Julie went to sleep and then hit the neighborhood route. Although I've gone on about this before, I still feel the need to say that I'm quite pleased with the running accommodations around here. In the museum district I had Hermann Park and Rice within a short distance of me, so I was worried the Heights wouldn't be worthy of comparison to my old place. On the contrary, I really enjoy running the trail at Stude Park. A warmup to the trail, followed by two laps along the slight rolling hills of the trail, finishing with a retrun trip home yields about five miles. If I want to get up to ten then I take that route and then take White Oak over to Heights Boulevard and follow that to 20th street, and then back to 9th (with a pass by All Saints Catholic Church) before crossing Studemont and heading to my doorstep). Any longer, which I haven't done around my neighborhood yet, is also possible. I can take Studemont or Heights Boulevard south to Buffalo Bayou and run near marathon distances. This is all a long, boring way of saying that I probably have it better now than before.

Since I got my phone fixed I've usually been running while listening to podcasts. Today I left it behind and ran faster and easier than I have in recent memory (perhaps ever.) My heart rate stayed relatively low and my breathing was easy during the whole run. But I'm not implying that it's due to the absence of an ipod. It's probably because I've run limited mileage this week as compared to normal. Sure, the miles were hard, but I guess it's easier for me to recover from short, intense workouts than longer low-intensity runs.

I realize that I've been rambling to this point, but I want to get two quick things across before hitting bed.

1) Dave Wilkinson's results are now posted at http://www.onlineraceresults.com. Congratulations, Young Dave, as he is known by the 15th Street Flyers, his running group!

2) I'll be running the Texas Independence Relay this weekend and attempting to wirelessly blog a series of short, random thoughts along the way. I ask in advance that you please pardon the typos.

Splits:
7:42, 7:31, 7:29, 7:15, 7:16, 1:02 for .15 miles (6:53 pace)