Division - An Instagram Movie

Hey, blog friends!  I don't know how many people stop by here anymore, but if you do, I'd love you to spread the word around for a friend of mine.

My best friend, Cat, who has been at my side for many fitness adventures as evidenced in this blog, is making a movie called Division!  It's a cool suspense story set in the woods around an abandoned asylum in Traverse City, MI.  But what makes it truly unique is that they are filtering the whole thing through Instagram.  This will be a first.  Awesome.

Cat just launched a Kickstarter to fund the effort, and she has some beautiful sample content on the page to check out.  If you think this is cool, please consider backing the project.  Even if you don't help with funding, consider telling your friends about it, if it's something you would support.


From the Kickstarter page

Thanks so much!

Mile Repeats

When I'm not following a training plan for an actual race or event, my workouts are usually driven by whatever sounds fun/interesting/good at the time.  After a long day at a job site in Maryland last night, I decided I had enough daylight left to get a run in if I just stayed near my hotel to do it.  Staying near my hotel meant running around a half-mile loop of road lined with hotels and industrial businesses.  *sarcastic cheer*

As I started running, I had no particular plan in mind.  But I ran a decent 9:00 first mile which made me pretty happy in my out-of-shape state.  I walked for about a minute and did a second mile in 9:15.  Not an even split, but not bad.  So I decided to take a longer recovery walk and then try to get a negative split for a third and final mile.

The loop I ran, even with its far-from-exciting scenery, had one thing going for it.  It had a long uphill and a fast downhill, which at least made the distance varied and interesting.

I started my third mile on the downhill stretch, letting my legs fly and accepting as much speed as I could milk out of it before hitting the climb.  I knew the uphill would hurt, but I had to run the loop twice for a mile, so I focused on how awesome flying down that decline would be the second time around.

I'm fairly proud of my last mile split...8:00!  I pushed it pretty hard, but I know I could have sprinted a few more seconds off of that.  Just to know that I can still run a 7-something mile makes me feel good about myself!  

Just think what I could do if I trained for short distance speed.  It's almost tempting to this endurance junkie.  I like to think I can defy the slowdown of age and still hit my high school best mile time.  But I have little interest in trying for that record and am more than satisfied coming within a minute of it.

Good times!