How far did I go?

They say running gets easier the more you do it. I'm still waiting, LOL. Tonight DH (Dear Husband) and I hit the trails. There are some small park trails (paved hike and bike trails) not to far from our home and we headed out to run about 6:30 this evening. Once there we found the section we wanted to try and headed out. Now DH is pretty tall, and I am pretty short. His stride is about 1 and 1/2 of mine, so it was no big surprise that he was quickly out in front. Things were going pretty smoothly until I rounded a corner and saw a fork in the trail ~ not a sign of DH anywhere...not even the sweat droplets I had noticed earlier on the pavement! Crud! Now what do I do ~ go right, go left, stay put??? I decided to act like the lost child I felt inside and stay put...sure enough a few minutes later DH came back down the trail looking for me. We ran back up to the end of the trail and rested. (This is when I hit pause on the Nike+ so at least my time will be accurate - more on that in a minute)

After I caught my breath we took off running back to the start again. This was a little easier as it was more downhill than up. By the time I made it back to the start I thought I was done! But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...here we go again. This time we walked a ways until I really caught my breath and then off we went again. Once again I start up my Nike+ and run the best I can. This part is uphill and I feel like I'd probably do a better job if I were just walking fast, lol. Hmmmmm I think, how fast (slow) is this pace (shuffle)? So I punch the button and WHOA ~ the voice in my head tells me I am doing a 6:30 mile!!! Shoot, what's so hard about running a 6:30 mile if I can walk it that fast? LOL! Well, I just keep shuffling along at my 6:30 pace and make it back to the end of the trail where DH is waiting for me. We rest a bit again and agree to go ahead and run back to the start point one more time.

Now I didn't mind this section at all. It once again was mostly downhill, it was mostly in the shade, AND it had finally started to cool down. I KNOW the temps had to be in the 90's when we started out! I checked my pace again and the voice in my head said 9:47 minute miles...that sounded a little more realistic anyway! By time I caught up to DH my final numbers were 5.35 miles in 5:49 for an average pace of 9:29. Dh's told him he only ran 4.38...since we were running together on the same trails you can see where we might get a little confused. The best we can figure is we honestly ran about 5 miles in 5:35.

I am sooo glad that DH has now ordered me a Garmin. Now don't get me wrong. I like my Nike+ ... it is even fairly accurate on the treadmill...but for my short, stubby legs; and the way my stride changes constantly as I run, it simply isn't very accurate when I'm outside running. Not on trails. Not during races. And after all, isn't that what all this is about? How far did I go today? (Obviously I don't really have to worry about how fast, lol...) How long did it take me to get where I am? Did I do better on this run than the last time I ran this same path? I do love listening to the music and military cadences that DH loaded up for me. But since my regular headphones gave up the ghost last run, and the regular earbuds that come with the iPod won't stay in my ears, I actually got to enjoy some of the regular nature sounds this time. Perhaps I'm growing out of my Nike... We'll soon see. Run on!