Running in the dark

Today's Houston Fit schedule called for an easy 35 minutes. By the time the kiddo was in bed and the hubby was home from martial arts classes, it was after 8:30pm and I really didn't feel like running on the treadmill. I evaluated the situation outdoors - it was getting cooler and while the sun was going down, it was not really "dark" yet. I decided to grab my pepper spray and head outdoors!

I started my run by jogging to the park nearby. It's a park where baseball and softball teams come to practice and families come to picnic. By the time I made it there, it was almost completely empty and the last remaining family was packing up and leaving. Since it was getting darker, the place was a little eerie. I set my watch to do 5/1s and realized that I made it almost back to the area where I entered the park before hitting the first walk break. Ummm, I guess the dark made me a little nervous, because I was doing my own form of speedwork and didn't even realize it! I decided to leave the park and run on the streets instead. There wasn't much lighting in this part of the park and the streets are pretty well lit (well, in the areas where the streetlights are actually working...I noticed many of them were not working last night).

I ran up and down the streets closest to my own. For some reason, I feel safer when I stay closer to home at night. I was amazed at how many of my neighbors were outdoors at that time. That also made me feel a little safer for some reason. Of course, seeing them got me to thinking about how I don't know many of my neighbors. These folks could be robbers or murders for all I know, which made me chuckle to myself...I highly doubt that, but I guess you never know.

I thought I was getting pretty close to my 35 minutes, but when I looked down at my stopwatch, I realized that at some point I had accidentally turned it off! Ugh, my watch read 7:52. So, I tried to remember how many walk breaks I had taken to calculate how long I had been running. I decided to run for another 10 minutes just in case.

All day, I have been stressing about work, about my GMAT scores, about my upcoming PHR exam. There's something about running outside and running alone that is very therapeutic...and, I'm assuming, much cheaper than a therapist. When I arrived back home, I felt less stressed and I ended with some stretching. I was happy when I realized my lower legs felt pretty good...some little aches, but not too bad!

Here are my stats (sort of):

Temp - I forgot to check
Distance - I have no idea
Run Time - 35-40 minutes I think
Pace - no clue

Here are my WW stats:

Points eaten - 27
Activity points earned - 4
Total points used - 27-4 = 23
Flex points used - 3
Flex points remaining for the week - 21

(I am still trying to figure out how to post the WW info, so bear with me!)

Take care,
Run long and Livestrong!