So the idea for today's run was 30 minutes easy. Of course easy is relative when you are dealing with becoming used to how your body responds in a new environment. It has been 9 years since I was in Boulder last or at altitude unless you count the 30 feet needed to travel from the street to the second story in my home in Austin. The run wasn't what I'd call brutal unless 28 degree temperatures and 5000 feet elevation is new to you.
Being from Austin, I'll consider it new.
It was the oddest sensation. My legs felt like they were actually stronger than normal. But my heart and lungs were another story altogether. I couldn't get my breathing in line. I wasn't hyper-ventilating, but I felt off. This was manageable. My heart rate was another story, however. It was just flat out high. It has been high since I got here. About 5 to 8 beats. I'm not sure this is altitude related and I know I wasn't sick when I left. But it could be the fact the heat runs constantly, which isn't the case at home, and sleeping somewhere conditioned air is blowing over you the entire night. I'm going to try this again tomorrow and maybe I'll fair better.
I'm not usually one to dismiss a retailer and perhaps the fault here is mine. My expectations in a city with a community like Boulder's may just be too high. I'm not going to belabor this but I was very disappointed with my experience at the Boulder Running Company store located on Pearl Street. So here's what happened. I walk into the store and find some socks. The socks I brought from Austin were not working too well at keeping my toes warm. I asked the salesperson about the socks I was looking at and he could not tell me anything about them other than what he read to me from the packaging. He did say he didn't think I would need the pair in my hand because he thought they were for people who ran a lot... Ouch! Apparently I don't look like I run a lot. Even though I'm wearing a pair of Nike Free's.
It gets better. So once at the counter I ask the price of the Polar Foot Pod (the device you attach to your shoe to tell you how fast you run - a pretty fancy pedometer that syncs with the Polar watches). He hands me the Polar Foot Pod after scanning it for the price and then proceeds to tell me that while these Suunto monitors are good Garmin's are the next wave in technology. Ok, I'll admit he may have been right about the Garmin but what was that about Suunto? I was asking about Polar Foot Pods, the register that gave him the price was displaying Polar, I'm wearing a Polar wrist watch... You get the picture. Needless to say I left the store vowing never to come back (I wouldn't want that guy trying to sell me shoes) and to find out where the true runners in Boulder get their stuff.
