I’ve been doing a very slow ramp up to running, doing some 20 minute runs with my new Nike+ setup (which I love, and strapping an iPod Nano to the arm is lightweight). But oh, am I out of running shape! I’m lucky if I can go 1.5 miles without starting some walk breaks.

I’m also doing some bike riding to toss in the mix, part of a challenge for tracking miles some friends are doing at DailyMile. There certainly are more exercise tracking sites than the last time I was in training, and I am using the Daily Mile widget to be my overall training tracker (left side) in addition to the Nike+ widget too (juts running).

Another new tool I am really liking is RunKeeper for the iPhone which uses its GPS to track activity on a map, record lap speeds (every mile) and even generate a topography profile. I used it for a bike excursion today from the RimTop trail Head (30 miles east of Payson just as you crest the Rim, first pull off on the Rim Road). What a wacky loop I did today:

First of all I took the narrow track on the Rim’s edge, which was really rocky and called for more walking, but I did get some great view off the Rim of Thunderstorms rolling in the distance. A whole group of kids and adults in a group kept warning me of the hard trail ahead… and they were right, so I doubled back to the main road, and went out to the Miitary Sinkhole viewpoint. From here, I decided to follow the trail signs north and pick up the General Gook Trail back towards my start point. I was following trail blazes, and kept criss crossing a gravel road/path, and at one point, it felt like I was going way off to the north, so I started back the opposite way, and darned if I did not recognize that I had already come out the road, and I was going way back to where I had already been!

I decided to bush whack towards the pave RIm Road using my internal compass, which I might have been doubting) but I could hear the traffic on the road. So I ended up crusing back on the paved road.

And what a laugh I got when I saw my tracked run! I was literally 1/4 mile from my start point when I turned away and went in the opposite direction!

Oh well, got a good 90 minutes of heart pumping going. And the forest was lovely on the back roads.

Did you know... "Tommy Lee, of heavy metal band Motley Crue is diabetic.... rock on!" (from Diabetes Health Magazine)
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