Five and a Half at Half Past Five!

It was so wonderful to run this morning.  By the time I walked out the door at 5:30am the sun was shining, but it wasn't too hot - 63 degrees - although the humidity was still on the high side, so it was still a sweaty run.

I decided not to do speedwork...I'm still not 100% with my hamstring so I don't want to push it.  However, I did run longer today than I did earlier this week:  5 1/2 miles.  10:32/mile pace with average HR of 152 - nice and easy.

Unfortunately, my hammy did start to get uncomfortable somewhere in the 3-4 mile range.  Pain of 3 or 4 on a scale from 1 to 10.  Not enough to stop me from completing the run, but definitely enough to not cancel my sports doctor appointment on Monday.

This morning I listened to a bootleg of a Billy Joel concert from May 1977.  A shout out to my friend Norm for lending it to me!  I was a HUGE Billy Joel fan in High School - I played piano and sang, and I have fond memories of banging out many of these tunes in my teenage years.  What was great about this recording is that it was very early in Billy Joel's career - his voice is still very pure and he still has a very distinguishable New York accent when he speaks.  Many of the songs he played were "deep tracks" from Streetlife Serenade and Turnstiles albums that he would not play in concerts nowadays...this show was before his breakthrough album The Stranger was released.  I got a kick out of him introducing one of the songs - "This is a new song....A Premier!....It's called 'Scenes From An Italian Restaurant'"  If you went to a Billy Joel concert today everyone would be singing along - but at this show, it was the first time anyone had heard the song!