It's all about the numbers

Running is really a game of numbers.

How many miles should I run today? What about for the week? How far have I gone this year? What's my pace? Am I running tempo, recovery, or repeat? Speaking of repeat, how many repeats in this workout and how many laps does that mean? Now divide my pace by the number of laps so I'm sure I'm on target. How many laps have I run? How many miles till I'm done? How many miles on my shoes? How long till new shoes? How many races in a year? What should my race pace be? Was this a PR? How many days do I need to recover? What's the temp out and how does that impact my clothing choice? How many liters of water have I consumed and is it enough based on the humidity? How many more days till the next track workout? Is it hot enough for an ozone alert day and a reason to skip track?

I could really keep going with the running related math questions. Until recently I have avoided the heart rate number. I just figure there are enough numbers following along behind me I didn't need to add another, or add another gadget to measure another number. Yet, here I am crunching all there is to learn about heart rates and acceptable numbers and finding myself with yet another number to peserverate over. I would prefer to listen to my body and run like I have learned to run. I really don't want to care about another number. I signed up to run, not to do math.

Miles run today: 4