Leaves are falling

After a month off from running, I got out there yesterday. The day began full of sun and decent temps, but by the time I started running, the sky had clouded up. About halfway through my run, I felt a few raindrops that fortunately did not turn into an all-out rain. Not so bad when it is almost 50 degrees nearing the end of February. Worth noting is that a leaf hit me in the face during my run, which struck me as odd since it is February. Shouldn't all the leaves have fallen off by December at the latest?!

As I began the run, I felt pain somewhere, and I tried to make note of it for this post, but I forget where exactly, so that is probably a good thing. What is not so good is that my left knee has been bothering me since the run; it feels as if I twisted it. Weird, because it is usually my right knee that bothers me. My thighs also are a bit sore, but I blame that as much on swimming some laps at the pool an hour later as I do the run and subsequent five trips up and down the outside gym steps. Yeah, I definitely got in a good workout yesterday.

When I started running, since I had just gotten over my cold, I told myself to take it easy and not be worried about time. This is hard for (competitive) me, and when I looked at my stopwatch on my cell phone as I was nearing the top of the hill at the end of the first mile, I did try to push myself so I would not be too far over 10 minutes.

Mile one: 10:25
Mile two: 8:54

Even though that time is worse than what I did last month, which was against the wind (there was some wind yesterday), I am satisfied. I was sick last week and did almost no exercise. Plus I have to think my nearly gone cough had to affect my running. I know I was breathing hard during most of the run. But the important thing is I went out there and did it. And swam some laps after that. Oh, and I did Zumba yesterday and plan to do it again today.

Hopefully in another month or two, I can work on getting my time back down. But until then, I will try to focus on just getting exercise.

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.

Hill avoidance

A couple of days I go, I was beset by a cough, only a day after I made the comment that I had been healthy for such a long time. Figures. This cough presented a dilemma, thanks to the beautiful weather yesterday. But sunshine and wanting to keep alive my two-days-per-week runs won out.

Not wanting my lungs to give out at the beginning of the run, I decided to walk up the killer hill. Turns out, that was a good plan. I still had to contend with a (less daunting) hill at the end of mile one, but I made it through the entire run with nary a cough and lungs still intact. And it was nice, for once, not to be huffing and puffing so soon into my run. For the record, that hill is a challenge even when you briskly walk it.

This afternoon, I plan to take a leisurely walk, including my favorite hill and knowing I got in my runs for the week. Go me.