Playing Catchup

My catchup plan failed miserably because I failed to take into account one tiny detail: life.

Mondays are horrible days for me to run! I work as a high school teacher and theatre director, so I'm in rehearsals now for our spring production. In addition to that, I'm running an improv group that meets AFTER rehearsals. I generally don't get home until well after dark and don't much feel like driving somewhere to run on a treadmill.

So I've got a new plan. Rather than just being a few days behind, I'm going to fold the two miles I was SUPPOSED to do today into my runs today and (hopefully) Thursday. Which means that my long run day that was scheduled for Sunday...and then Monday...ended up scheduled for today with another mile tacked on the end besides. I was quite nervous setting out for my five mile run. It's been about seven months since I've run that distance.

All in all, it was a very successful run! My legs took a while to warm up. After about 500 yards I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish from pain in both my knees and wobbliness in my legs. But that all subsided. I'm still experiencing a few worrisome aches and pains, though. My left foot went numb again for about a mile and a half around the two mile mark, but my first hill of this training plan actually brought the feeling back in and it stayed there until I was done. However, my left knee began hurting again in a rather ominous pattern: pain on the outside of the knee. Nooooo!!! It can't be too soon to at least talk to some running shoe salespeople to see if they think my current pair are done for. I think it's also time to dust off the knee brace.

The run was beautiful. It really was my first serious run while enjoying spring weather, although because I finished after dark, it was still a little winter-like by the end. I was hatted and gloved throughout.

There were several tortures along the run. First, I started after rehearsal and was hungry before I even began because I didn't have any food at school. Naturally, I thought it'd be a good idea to run through town during dinner time. Judging by odors, there was a family having hotdogs on the grill, lasagna, casserole, and a wood fire. Well, maybe they weren't eating that, but there's something about the smell of a wood fire that just screams food. Then there were once again zombie animals -- frogs, mice, and unfortunately one bird. Yikes. And finally, the nursing home must have been airing out because there was a definite smell of nursing home wafting through the air at the end of the run.

Now for the dirty details. The final run ended up being 4.93 miles and I finished in 64:24, which gives me a per mile time of around 13:20. This is a little depressing because it's actually slower than my training pace, and I felt like I was actually going pretty quickly throughout the whole thing. Still, given my current level of fitness, I should really just be happy to have finished nearly five miles without walking. Next run: Thursday (or Friday....), 3...er...4 miles.