Rich on Running: Pedometer can be step in right direction

The day before the Nor’easter hit, I got a pedometer as a holiday gift from my girlfriend. I couldn’t use it then and there. There’s something about snowstorms that seems to make running outside seem ? well ? unwise. The last few days, however, have been another story.On New Year’s Day I went running for the first time with a pedometer, and followed it up with a shorter run yesterday. From these two runs, I learned that a pedometer can help enhance the experience of running ? you just have to get familiar with it.It all seems pretty basic. The cherry-red GNC pedometer – which “counts walking steps according to your waist movement,” according to the instruction sheet – is small enough to fit inside the palm of my hand. All I had to do was strap it to my sweatpants, press a button and start moving.That said, there was an adjustment period. On my New Year’s Day run of three miles on the bike path from Cambridge to Arlington and back, I kept feeling the temptation to look down at the little red machine on my waistband and see how far I’d run. And as Oscar Wilde once said, “I can resist everything except temptation.” On the return trip, I’m afraid to say, I looked down so often that I could’ve passed for a golfer instead of a runner. The positive result that came from this, however, was that I could track my distance and see how much farther I needed to go to reach my goal of three miles.For yesterday’s run – about half the distance of Saturday’s – I put the device back on, but decided to look less at the stats and more at the scenery. I was rewarded with a beautiful view of the Alewife Brook frozen on a winter morning. Wrapping up the run, I put my hand against a helpful tree and checked my progress: more or less at my goal of a mile and a half.One more suggestion to those who get a pedometer: Store it in a safe place, and remember where you store it. You don’t want to think you misplaced it and go rummaging through a pile of stuff like I did.Things seem to be looking up for the Lynn Classical girls indoor track team this season.The Rams are 1-2, but have started off 1-0 in their division for what coach Lauren Phelps calls “the first time ever.”Classical meets Salem on Wednesday at Tech (7) and several team members have a chance to qualify for states. Hulerie McGuffie is .2 seconds shy of a state-qualifying time in the 300-meters (she is 3-0 in the event), and Mackenzie Coppinger is only a few inches away from the states in the shot put.McGuffie went to the outdoor Nationals in the 400-meters last year, and Phelps said that the 300 is “a lot different, different training ? It’s a straight sprint. I think she’s going to get it (qualify for states).”Meanwhile, Allison Kurpiel has placed in every meet in the 2-mile and freshman Rebecca Potter has been placing in the high jump and coming in second or third in the 300, “right after Hulerie,” the coach said.Phelps played basketball in her student days at Classical and is now in her sixth year as coach.”The first year, we had about 10 girls,” she said. (She now has about 60.) “The program’s being developed. Coach Judy Miller, who coaches in the spring, and I coach the winter together. There’s a lot of great kids and they’re all working hard. They’re more dedicated to track than in years past.”Rich Tenorio writes a weekly column on running for The Item. You can email him at [email protected].