Food, Fitness, Photography

Food, Fitness, Photography

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Getting back in shape

After 12 days off, I began running again on January 31.  We had a break in the nasty frozen weather, and the temperature rose into the 40s.  There was still a lot of ice on the roads, but they were clear enough to making running not look like a death sentence.  I didn't get home from school until 4, and I had to babysit at 5, so I didn't have a whole lot of time, but I missed running and wanted to enjoy the "warm" weather, even if only for 20 minutes.  So I went for a short & fast run.  2.76 miles in 19:26.  My legs felt pretty good.  My lungs were completely shot.  12 days off seems to have weakened them quite a bit.

Yesterday, I didn't even try to run fast.  I stuck to a jog, wanting to give my legs some exercise without straining my lungs.  Half a mile in, my left knee started hurting.  A mile or two later, my right knee started hurting.  The pain in both knees was persistent, but not progressive, so I didn't stop.  The knee pains I had in high school were progressive; the longer I ran, the worse they got.  Since this pain was mostly just annoying, I figured I'd ignore it.  I did 4.7 miles.  The knee pain was wearing off by the end of the run.

Today, I did 5.2 miles.  My right knee hurt a bit worse than yesterday, but still wasn't a progressive pain.  I suspect that the culprit (besides too much time off) is that I worked out a few times during my time off from running.  Not to say that working out is a bad thing, but I think the working out while not running caused my muscles to strengthen differently, so they are now pulling on my knees.  Just a theory.  But it makes sense.

So after 12 days with 0 miles, I just got 12.66 miles for this week.  Not a bad start.  My next race is in 13 days.  It will be my first 10 mile race.  I'm curious to see if I can run much faster than I do for a half marathon.  I am imagining that my pace for the majority of the race will be about the same, but I get to kick sooner, so perhaps my final overall pace will be a bit faster.  Of course, that all depends on my lungs getting back into shape in the next two weeks...so we shall see.

In other news, I'm doing a photo-a-day for 2014.  On Friday, I couldn't choose just one, so I made a collage. I love the over-all goofiness of these pictures...


And here is me loving the 50 degree weather on Saturday.

If you want to check out my other photos-of-the-day, head over to my website!

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