bookofjoe goes to the races

And not just to watch: sure, I'm as much a Chauncey Gardiner as anyone else; as Chauncey uttered with his blissful, idiot grin, "I like to watch," but I like to take part as well.

Hey, wait a minute, where's this going, anyhow?

Oh, yeah, the races.

Last night was the first in a series of three summer "all–comers" track meets put on by the Charlottesville Track Club at Lannigan Field, the University of Virginia's track.

The grand finale event of each is a long distance run; last night was a 5K.

Yours truly, in yet another giant step for himself, even it was rather infinitesimal as regards all mankind, blew through the event in a — for me so far this year — scorching time of 26:49.

That's 8:38/mile for 3.1 miles, significantly faster than the year's previous fastest 5K, which was 28:05 ((9:03/mile) on May 14.

My splits last night: mile 1 in 8:31, mile 2 in 8:51, the final 1.1 miles in 8:35/mile.

I'm lovin' it.

I felt good, not at all destroyed, throughout the race.

I came through the first 400 meters in 1:55, way too fast since I was planning on 9-minute miles which = 2:15 quarters.

I slowed it down but when I came through the first mile comfortably at 8:31 I said hey, maybe I can sustain this for the duration.

And I did.

Next goal: break 26 minutes.

Monday, July 4 is the Forest Lakes 5K and then on July 9 we go to the Fairview Country Club for the Fairview 5K so I've got two upcoming cracks at it.

A sub–26–minute 5K = 8:23/mile, in case you were/are interested.

To what do I attribute this newfound smokin' pace?

Well, I think it's ridiculous to say the new treadmill, which arrived on Thursday, June 23 and has been in use while I read and walk at Dr. James Levine's prescribed pace of 0.7 mph, has made this dramatic a difference this soon.

Full disclosure: I emailed Dr. Levine soon after his work was featured in the New York Times; he emailed me back and advised that the ideal "work–walk" speed is 0.7 mph.

I will tell you this: I feel much better overall throughout the day and have been sleeping wonderfully since I've been up on the treadmill for, on average, three hours a day.

My legs are tired in the evening since I began my morning indoor newspaper–reading constitutionals but that's alright.

I'm restricting treadmill time for the time being to reading; no movement yet toward building a computer workstation a la Dr. Levine.

The reason: I'm still getting used to being on the treadmill for hours at a time.

Another reason: I'm still figuring out the best way to build my work area.

Should I use an additional piece (or pieces) of freestanding equipment, as Dr. Levine has done, or clamp devices onto the treadmill frame itself, with the ability to swivel and swing them in or out of my work field as needed?

Stay tuned for more on that.

The pictures in this post are of my treadmill as currently configured.

I've placed it in my living room, toward the northeast corner of the house.

It features a Levenger reading stand from back in the day when the company was still tiny and up in the northeast.

The curly ribbons were placed there by a cool girl at my birthday party a year ago and I liked them so much I decided to leave 'em there until I crump.