W4D3: Remix

In Drivers' Ed, they made us watch a video that was titled something akin to "Managing Hazards."  In said video, a hapless driver managed to encounter every imaginable tricky driving scenario in the scope of approximately 15 minutes. 

I am 95% certain that they were filming a candid camera runners' version on me this morning.  I went out at about 7:00 (30 minutes to an hour later than is my custom), so there was substantially more traffic to watch for.  There were school buses EVERYWHERE.  There were gaggles of sullen tweens waiting for those buses (in the same hilariously spaced out clumps as when I was a middle-schooler, awwww).  The pavement was wet.  The enormous oak & walnut trees on my route--previously so friendly & shady to me--suddenly dumped their whole harvest of nuts on the sidewalks (just the sidewalks, mind you).  There were dogs on-leash, dogs off-leash & dogs in yards lunging at the fences as if to let me know that all 10 lbs of their Pomeranian fury were headed my way.  There were bikers who waved & bikers who tried to run me down & bikers on the streets wearing the most distracting array of neon paraphernalia.  And it was HUMID as a sauna in the Everglades.  Again. 

And in spite of all of that, I rocked it.  My average pace was 12:13 min/mile...that's counting the walking intervals.  I am actually excited for W5D3...the first interval-free run.  I'm curious what kind of mileage I'll get as compared to my first W5D3 experience in which I did 2.22 miles on a dread-mill with an average pace of 14:33 min/mile (including warm-up & cool-down).  I am sooooo glad that I decided to do C25K over again, if only for the concrete proof that I'm getting fitter & stronger every day.  What a lesson in the benefits of sticking with something & putting your nose to the ground.

It's also been a great science lesson.  For those of you on skunk carcass watch: it's still there, but it's just a few tufts of ratty black fur now.  The buzzards & other scavengers seem to have decided they are too good for Senor Skunk, but I've gotten a front row seat to the miracle of decomposition.  It's played out like a slo-mo version of the Wicked Witch's big melting scene, only stinkier & less green.  Never stop learning, folks.