11 Miles in the Books

After getting home around 7:30pm, I allowed myself a few minutes to decompress, do some e-mail/Facebook-ing, before heading out the door a half hour later to get my 11 miles in. Equipped with my sports drink mix, headlamp and camera, I made my usual venture west into the quiet suburbs where I would zig zag my way through completing the necessary miles.

Lately I've been giving thought to will myself to become a 'morning runner' but boy, I tell ya these evening runs are so therapeutic for me. It allows you to go over the day in your head and rid yourself of any unnecessary stress accumulated from the previous 12 or so hours. The neighborhoods I run through are perfect too because while semi-major streets border and frame the rectangular edges of them, once you enter the confines, it's nothing but solitude and empty, open roads with nary a city sound to be heard.

The first few miles, I had to keep reminding myself to pull back on the reins a bit. The purpose of these particular miles is to just keep my aerobic fitness level up - not what you would characterize as 'speed work'. Once I hit mile 9 or so, that ceased to be a problem as I started to feel some fatigue. Needing a tad bit of energy to get through the last two miles, I pulled out my iPod shuffle. It proved to be as effective as a shot of Gu at that precise moment. And no - no "Free Bird" this time.

A common sight around here in Los Angeles

I arrived at home in a little over an hour and a half when it was all said and done with 11.08 miles completed at an 8:57 average pace. It was a good run overall as I'm well on schedule to hit my mileage PR by Sunday at 50+!