the brooklyn posse

this morning was my first official practice as a brooklynite. getting out of bed was hard. i think i will be recuperating from the crazy fall for a while - the great thing is we have off between now and january 2nd. my plans: relax & run.

yesterday was *frigid* and when i finally dragged myself out of bed, i was pleasantly surprised to find the morning a balmy 37 degrees, i could wear one less layer than i thought. pants, long sleeves, therma-fleece, hat and gloves just in case.

lisa - the head coach - was gone for the holiday already, but luis was there. luis is one of the coaches and part of our team for reach the beach (i don't think i blogged about that adventure, but to put it briefly - 12 people, 2 vans, 300 miles).

since this was my first practice i had no idea where people were for miles. it ended up beginners were doing 5 and intermediates were doing 6-7. i decided to do the 5 and then see how i felt. to do 5 miles in prospect park, you go about 2/3rds around, then take a cut off that allows you to run the lower part of the park again, then you come back around and do the *massive* hill.

i said hello to a few people, and then we took off for a "brisk walk" to a little field where we did a warm-up of jumping jacks, squats, lunges and leg raises. then we were off. i had my ipod in my pocket but decided to save it in case i really needed it. they like you to get in the habit of running without music...and i'd say there's no way i could run a marathon with no music, except i did in san diego.

so i took off on my own at what felt like a good pace (i really need to get a new watch) and managed to maintain for the whole run. the hill was a little trying but in a way that felt really good. i made it back to the start point, and then ran a little beyond and back to where the bags are for what i think was probably 5.5 miles.

i'm hoping that in the next two weeks, i will be able to run and train enough to get comfortable with the intermediate schedule. that's the goal people. i'll be headed to the mass for christmas today, but there will be some running there, assuming its not going to be too cold.

have a great holiday people! until next time...

today's mileage: 5.5
total mileage: 31.0