Focus!

A bit of administrative monkeying today, I have a cleaner shinier new look and a nifty Daily Mile widget there on the right side. 

I don't know why my mileage is wrong, apparently I am not allowed to have a fitness-based social network work for me the right way. This is the fourth one where I have had to open some sort of help ticket. I have an email in to support so hopefully they'll find my other 25 or so miles somewhere along the line.

I am listed under Jogging Jawa on DailyMile so feel free to find me there!

September Blog Challenge Day 25 What is something that you do well?

This one actually got me thinking for a bit. I am a collector of hobbies and tend to get to a pretty decent point at most things I do so there's a number of things I could mention. I think I will take a wider view however and say that something that I do well is focus.

When I set my sights on something it pretty much happens.  
I research it, I practice it, I do it, it gets done. 
End of story.

The problem is that I don't seem to get to choose what it is that catches my attention. As much as I would like to turn my Eye Of Sauron-like focus to things like making more money, going back to school, or having amazing yogini shoulders; more often than not I get caught up in the minutia of 16th century embroidery or finding the best tools for foam decorator pumpkin carving.

I am REALLY happy that my current focus is running and that I am doing so well with it, but I must admit I am somewhat fearful of what happens when the bubble bursts. I hope that it is established as enough of a habit that is is simply a regular part of my life when the next shiny thing comes along.

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On a bizarrely related note: I knew that a healthier fitter lifestyle would change my life for the better and give me the ability to do things stronger, faster, and better overall, but I did not expect that to extend to my liquid chugging abilities.

I'm not the biggest fan of water or drinking liquids in general.  It will take me HOURS to down one cup of coffee, and I LIKE coffee. In order to actually get water into me in something resembling a reasonable time frame I have started downing it in one shot like cough medication. 

Usually my limit is 8 oz at a time but I appear to have leveled up recently. I got up super late Sunday and had a lazy breakfast (to put it lightly) so to make sure I was set up to run later in the day I ended up chugging all of the water I would normally have had over the course of the morning. Below is my 24 oz water bottle with 8 oz and time markings.

Where the "magic" happens

I drank all of the missing water in one shot! I'm not sure what my new-found abilities will bring, but I like to think it's a result of my body getting better at using oxygen so I can hold my breath for longer. 

Seems legit, right?

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My run today: entirely self directed!
3.13 miles at an average of 11:43 per mile
Today was my fastest 5k at 35:27

I did not count warm up and cool down in my stats at all (about a mile between the two) and hit my goal of running straight through for a full 5k for the first time! A slight side stitch throughout made breathing a bit hard and my second mile was mentally the hardest but I'm not sure why. This was about five minutes more running than I have done in one stretch before so I expect to feel this tomorrow.

Once again I thank whatever is responsible for my continuing ankle strength as by all rights I should have twisted my left ankle rather badly on a large flat rock about 1.5 miles in.