I'm a runner... again

After 2 weeks and 6 days of rest (laziness) I finally started running again. Actually it was my plan all along to take a significant amount of time off after my race on Thanksgiving. There were things (the entire right side of my body) that needed to heal and stopping for a few days or even 1 week had not really helped so I needed longer. I was going to start back a little sooner, but the possibility of breaking my neck on a patch of ice kept me from doing that.

So tonight after work I FINALLY got back out there. I started in Centennial Park and ran part of the loop before cutting over to West End, passing a guy being pulled from his car, frisked and arrested in the middle of the road, down 21st, up the "bitch hill", past the children's hospital, back up West End and finished in front of Cumberland Transit. I kept it slow (or tried to) and stopped myself well short of the 5-7 miles I would have loved to have run. Tonight was an easy 5k in 28:50 (fairly consistent with 9:14, 9:19, 9:25) which was about as slow as I could make myself go. So far all my previous injuries are not bothering me which is a good sign. Even if they do pop back up on future runs (please please no) at least I had 1 good run pain free! And for some reason I seem to always end right in front of Cumberland Transit everytime I run 3.1 miles even though it's always a different route.. maybe that's a sign.

Speaking of 5k, there are 2 people (we'll call them L and N) who better be ready for the training that starts Monday and the 5k they will run FAR sooner than they think they will (yes, you can do it before 2012). N definitely has no excuses since she has run a half marathon before, something I haven't done yet. L has no excuses because I refuse to let her have any :)

New 5k PR

Ok so it's not official because it wasn't a race, but I set a new PR for 5k tonight. The best part was I didn't even realize it until just before the 3 mile mark. My previous PR was 26:51 in the Soles4Souls 5k, but tonight I ran 3.13 miles in 25:55.

Unofficial 5k

As planned I went for a 3 mile run after work today. My buddy started off at around an 8 minute pace, but I do that half the time anyways until I've settled into a slower pace. Well he didn't slow down much and kept it between 8 and 8:30 until we hit the llllllooooonnnnnngggg steady hill up Hillsboro Pike (even then we kept it under 9:00). But since we were only running 3 miles I figured what the hell, let's see what kind of 5k time I can get. So I kept running until I hit 3.1 miles and ended up with a time of 26:59.. 9 seconds away from beating my 5k PR!

Now anyone who has a Garmin knows that it usually takes a few seconds for it to auto-pause the time if you stop to wait for a light. So technically I think I really did beat my previous time if you take into account the 2 or 3 times we had to stop for a light/traffic, but regardless I'm happy with that time given the number of hills we ran up. My knee has been feeling better the past several days (since I took the insoles out) and it feels better post-run, but it actually hurt just a tad more than normal during the first .5 mile.

I'm planning on a 5 mile run on Wednesday, then my 5 mile race on Saturday followed by a celebratory beer :)

Soles 4 Souls 5K - Registered

Well hopefully I'll be ready by next Saturday because I just dropped off my registration for the Soles 4 Souls 5k. Oh yeah.. and hopefully my knee works then too!

Speaking of that, my knee is definitely feeling better after rest and ice. I would love to go run today, but I don't want to rush anything so it'll be at least tomorrow before I get back out there.

5k Practice #2

Today was practice #2 of going exactly 3.1 miles to get an accurate time. Unlike yesterday I did not start off too slow and as a result I ended up taking 1:21 off yesterday's time! My 2nd practice 5k comes in at 25:44. I think I'm going to do an easy run tomorrow not paying attention to time at all, rest on Friday, then try a longer run on Saturday so 5k practice #3 won't be until next week.

5k Practice #1

Today was practice 1 of going exactly 3.1 miles to get an accurate time. My first mistake was starting off too slow. My second mistake was trying to make up for that in the 2nd and 3rd miles. The last mile kicked my ass and my calf is cramping, but I made it. My first practice 5k comes in at 27:05. Not as good as I was hoping for, but I still have over a week to get that time down.