Whatever my excuses over the past couple months—fractured leg, influenzad lungs, long commute—I’m totally done with them. Sure, there will be some cold days between now and summer (would it otherwise be Cleveland?), but I’m done hibernating. Effective: 2.5 hours ago.
Talk about a beautiful day. I don’t know if I believe weather.com that it was 42 degrees outside—it was probably in the mid-30s—but the sun made it almost seem like spring when the wintry breeze wasn’t biting my butt! For a change of scenery and oomph of motivation, I picked up and drove to Hudson today (it’s only seven miles away) to run in a new neighborhood.
Unfortunately, no cupcakes were harmed in the making of this blog post. And this run did not end up at Main Street Cupcakes. Darn it.I parked my car in the town square, started my stopwatch and took off running at a slower-than-Gina pace. Around 10:00/mile for the first mile warm-up.
What I mean by slower-than-Gina: it’s not a slow pace, it’s a wise pace. Flip through any of my early posts—when I was kicking through 10-mile runs in under 8:00/mile and wise people like Salty, Joe, Jim, etc., were kindly warning me, throwing red flags in my path and doing anything to tell me I was training too fast and headed for an injury—to see my well-lighted path toward last fall’s stress fracture. Pure genius.
Because I’m building up from nearly four months off, I thought it was time to take their advice. Even if it took an injury for me to hear what everyone was saying!
My right thigh was sore before I started running today (I spent about an hour warming it up, rubbing it down, stretching and flexing it), but everything appeared to be in working order once I was warm. Even me shoes felt weightless and well formed.
So, I ran around Hudson for 90 minutes around 9:30/mile and feeling way comfortable. There were a few slick spots on the sidewalks and sidewalks that disappeared under several feet of snow, but I managed to high-step through most of the muck without incident. There were a few ankle teaks, slips and whoops! along the way, but none I’d really want to admit.
For anyone who’s in a rut: I strongly recommend the change of scenery. Until we move (this spring), I’m stuck in a small neighborhood that makes for terrific short runs, especially when I’m out to time myself. I know all of my mile markers and can run mostly flat straightaways whenever I need it. But when I want to take a leisurely run or distance run, doing laps around the same one-mile loop or in/out of parking lots just doesn’t cut it.
Taking trips to Hudson or Euclid have really given me a boost. Think about a change next time you groan when it’s time to run—it’s probably not the running that’s getting you down.
Well, it took two months but my longest run for 2008 is finally in the books: 9.5 miles. At least now I now I can finish St. Malachi!
(In case you missed it over the weekend: You can catch required-by-tagging postings of seven odd things about me and then a bonus seven things about Neil.Neither post has anything, really, to do with running. But everything about two people you may know really well, want to know or don't at all.)
2 comments:
We should totally meet at Main Street Cupcakes someday and do a long run and then have a cupcake afterwards! I think at least 8 miles to eat one of those bad boys.
You make me want to get up off my ass and run again instead of just swimming. That day is coming soon. :-)
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