A long overdue (and mostly painful) run

I finally got off my lazy butt and ran yesterday afternoon. In my defense, other than a few nice days, the weather has been pretty lousy the last month-plus. On top of that, I got the flu second full week in April, which also included an awful cough for over a week after that. In fact, almost four weeks later, I still cough at least a half dozen times a day.

If my blog is correct (and if I have been keeping it up to date), the last time I really ran was on March 18. Yikes. I did run steps just over a month ago, which is certainly good exercise, but not the same as running a few miles. But yesterday I decided I had to stop being so lazy. The sun was finally shining for hours on end (which it may have done one day last week), I felt pretty good, and I have been eating chocolate practically non-stop since Easter, so no more excuses!

I ran the same, boring two miles I typically do. This run was marred by a side stitch that lasted almost the entire time. My head also hurt for most of the run. On top of that, my feet were also in pain. Man, I have had my shoes about nine months, but I don't think I have put more than a hundred running miles on them. I use the shoes some days to run errands. But even so, there is no way I have more than 300 miles logged on those babies.[Stop the presses! I just looked back at some old blog posts. My shoes are actually over a year old. Oops. Looks as if I may need to buy some new shoes.]

Not surprisingly, I ended up with a lousy time: 20:15. I cannot tell you the last time it took me that long to complete the two miles. But considering I had not run in over a month and I had been swimming only once in the past three weeks, I should not be surprised.

Mile one: 10:45
Mile two: 9:30

I actually considered walking the second mile, that is how lousy I felt. But that is admitting defeat, so I soldiered on, deciding that running slowly was better than giving up. Hopefully now that I am pretty healthy, I will get back to swimming a few times a week. I also hope to run at least once a week. We will see.