Running is a primal activity. As such, you'd think that there wouldn't be much gear and a lot of the time, there isn't. If the weather is nice, you just need some shoes and some workout gear and you're on the road. Of course, "some shoes" means my Brooks Trance 8's that I got at a specialty running store after they analyzed my stride (I'm a larger runner and pronate a bit so they're "stability" shoes). "Workout gear" in the summer means technical shirts and shorts that wick away moisture. In the winter there are compression shirts, tights, jackets, gloves/mittens, caps, and socks. My socks of choice are SmartWool. They're natural, keep the friction down (no blisters!), and offer pretty good moisture control. So yes, there's more gear than you'd expect. I've so far resistend the urge to buy a GPS watch.

We had a pretty good snow the other day so my regular running routes are a little slushy. This morning I drove to the lake and parked on the street off of Montrose ran south almost to Belmont, then north all the way to Hollywood, then back to Monstrose for a total of 7 miles at 9:10 pace. It was a nice run, though cold and more crowded on the lakefront than I would have expected (by this, I mean that I saw maybe a dozen other people, but it was 17-degrees and windy so I expected fewer).

Today: 7 miles, 1:04:12
This week: 20.7 miles
2009: 193.47 miles