Today's map:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_route.php?r=291ed47d1e06f6e94cffe9abb89bad59

I tried to push myself a bit, and so ran nonstop from Cornelia to Irving Park (about five full blocks) and then again from just below Buena to just above Addison (another five full blocks or so). That equals about 1.25 miles of running with only a small break between them (a quarter-mile walk). Of course, by the time I neared Addison my legs were absolute jelly, though I still made my goal of reaching the ped tunnel (at which point I flopped down onto the stairs there and had to sit for almost five minutes). All told I did about a third of a mile more than the previous two outings and felt comparatively fine when I got home, so the stamina seems to be building. The legs are still getting there, but the lungs and heart seem to be handling things pretty well. I sat down briefly to get my heart rate at Irving Park and clocked it at 180 over the first 10-15 seconds but receding to 150 over the course of a full minute. Obviously that's not great based on my supposed "target heart rate" (180 is pretty high), but then I am significantly out of shape and overweight. We're working on that, I think.

Today's run map:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_route.php?r=2357c95cc40d89dcbb7a92c6de659197

I was out from 10:40 to 11:10, probably the only time in history where my entire run took place before noon (and quite possibly any of it). This time I headed north instead of south, and pushed myself to run uninterrupted from Cornelia to Irving Park. I crossed Lake Shore at Addison and ran along Recreation Drive to Irving Park, where I had to stop, but it was 5:30 of uninterrupted running, so that was pretty good (edging past my high from Wednesday, which was about 5:20). I did a couple more short bursts of running, from Grace to Patterson along Pine Grove and then from Pine Grove back to the apartment along Cornelia, but after that first stretch my legs were pretty tired. All told it was about 2 miles, and this time I didn't rest at all (always walking if I wasn't running), so the time calculations are about right. I burned around 275 calories - not a ton, of course, but not bad for the distance and early stages we're at here.

I'm not going to bother to puff this one up as my latest attempt. It is, but making a big deal out of it only seems to set myself up for failure. Is late September the best time to start running? Maybe not. Is there a better time for me right now? No. I can only look at myself disgustedly in the mirror so many times before I have to suck it up. But actions speak louder than words, so I offer you this instead of a bunch more bluster:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/view_route.php?r=dc4519dc83210e1693ef627e447a0168

Finally, someone has combined my need to run with my love of maps! Not all of the two miles was running, as I explain on that page; the portions between the start and stop signs were, so from Cornelia to Belmont on Lake Shore, and from roughly Aldine to Addison on the lake shore path. That's somewhere between 3/4 of a mile and a mile, depending. I spent ten minutes actually running. Two miles of a walking/running combo isn't bad for a start, anyway, especially since after stopping at Addison my legs were so weak it took me 20 more minutes just to get back to the apartment.

I'll keep updating with run maps as they happen, but I don't think I'll say too much besides that for right now. I've gotta walk the walk (or in this case, run the run) before I can talk the talk.