5 mile run in sweltering heat

The plan I put for this week in my previous post almost got derailed on the first day itself! Slept late yesterday night having been absorbed in Doris Kearns Goodwins's Team of Rivals and was too late to wake up and was not in a mood to run early in the morning. As the day wore, got bogged down by the non-progress on the RunWalkIndia efforts, and was in a general depressive mood.

Finally around 2:00 PM convinced myself that no matter how things are going, I should not give up on my own promise to myself, and hence set out to run 5 miles. Since it was very hot (temperature in the upper 90s) decided to drive all the way to Watchung reservation and run in the comparatively cooler and shaded trails.

Completed the 5 miles run - with a lot of stops and starts - in one hour and four minutes. While I didn't spend time on stretching either before or after the run, I walked almost a mile after finishing the run and that seems to have had the intended loosening effect on my legs.

Going to bed early today - keeping away from the story of Lincoln and his peers - to be in integrity with my promise for tomorrow morning ;-)

Back to Running & back to Watchung for a 8 miler

After Thursday's shorter run, and a rest day on Friday, today too seemed to be ending up as a no-or-not-enough-running-day.

Getting home late yesterday night, and an ineffective alarm due to a muted cellphone ensured that I got up late for the 4 mile run in Central Park. Siva and Sridevi participated in the Run for Central Park 4M race and did wonderfully well, finishing in 42:00 and 48:55 minutes respectively.

Tried running in LSP in the morning, but the warm weather - and a lack of resolve - put an end to these aspirations.

The day got better with Raju answering my call to go running together; he was willing to go running today evening. Awesome! We went to Watchung Reservation with an intention of running 9 miles, and started running along one of the trails along the stream - took new paths which took us to the eastern end of the reservation - the intersection of I-78 and Summit Avenue. We headed back and stopped at the car for a drinks break after running 4.5 miles. We continued to run afterwards - with a little difficulty - and stopped at 8 miles after 1 hour 49 minutes.

Great run! I am happy to be back running!

First 8 miler of my life

Ran 8 mile distance for the first time today! Completed the distance in 1:46 hours at the Watchung Reservation. Parked my car at the Trailside Nature & Science Center and started running along one of the numerous trails there. Soggy and soft trails all along - good for my knees. Very picturesque - the trail running along a stream for long, and always under dense cover of greenery. Part of the time I must have been running very close to the Inter-state 78, as I could hear the speeding vehicles very closeby.

Ran non-stop for the first 3.5 miles (in around 40 minutes) and then took regular walking breaks.

Nice place to run; will come here for my long runs during the week-ends.

Since the last post about the 5K run in JP Park, I ran three more times in JP Park - two of them being a 3M/5K runs, while the third one was a long run of 5 Miles. One of the 3M runs was sub-30 minutes - the first time I ran a sub-30-minute 3Mile!