How Faith got her run back

I last ran with any sense of regularity in 2006, and even then, it was only for about six weeks, to train for a 5k. Then I pretty much stopped. I always knew I would go back to running someday; I just did not know when and for how long.

At the beginning of September, pretty much on a whim, I decided to get back in the game. I had about 20 to 30 minutes to kill while waiting to pick up my kid from school, so I figured I might as well start walking around the neighborhood. I bought nice purple running shoes about two and half years ago, so I thought it might be nice to actually take them out of the box and put them to use. After about a week of that boredom and the feeling of accomplishing so little, I thought I would see if I still had it in me to run.

The first time out, I ran about eight minutes without stopping (and by run, I really mean jog). I felt great. I did not die. I did not even collapse. The next time out, I did it again, though it was a little more difficult, for some reason. A day or two later, I added a few more minutes to the run (though I did walk a few minutes in between). Within a couple of weeks of running two to three times per week, I managed to run two miles, at about 10-minute miles. And within a month, I could run an under 10-minute mile, still keeping with two miles at a time.

Yesterday, after about 9.5 weeks of running, I decided that it was time to get beyond 2 miles, if I ever wanted to run in a 5k race again. I ended up just shy of three miles, but I did it in around 30 minutes, so I was pretty happy. After that, since I had some time to kill, I decided to do some sprints for a few minutes. I am guessing I was racing about 50km at a time, and I did that about a half dozen times. That was exhilarating.

Unfortunately, my thighs have been hurting since last evening. On top of the almost three miles and the sprints, I also walked 10 minutes in the morning and another 20 in the afternoon. I sometimes forget I am not in my 20s anymore.

I am definitely taking the day off. But hopefully tomorrow or the next day I can get back out there and hit close to three miles again.

Legs/knees, don't fail me!