back in Tucson... back on track

Monday, July 11, 2011

3 miles

i didn't time myself

I am back in Tucson. I have not written in a while, but I have been running. I went on a trip to Colorado and New Mexico at the end of June and beginning of July, which hindered my ability to run because I spent so much time in my car. Nevertheless, I am back in Tucson now and I am getting back into the swing of things by continuing my training. I'll write a couple of entries later this week about my trip, which was fantastic, by the way, but today I think I will focus on my workout.

What can I say? On the surface, today's workout was not too eventful. I ran around Reid Park as always. I came home and showered and got ready for bed. But below that superficial description, I had a mini-breakthrough with my pace. Today was the first day since I came home from my vacation that I was able to run that route without needing to stop and jog or walk. In fact, I ran through without any real fatigue problems at all.

Ever since I came home from my trip, I have been really struggling on my runs. For my first few workouts I felt exhausted after just 1 or 2 miles. It was extremely discouraging. On top of that, since I began refocusing on running a couple of months ago, a pretty severe pain began to manifest in my knees. I have been working on toning my quads for the last month because of that pain. I also invested in a more supportive shoe in hopes of absorbing some of that impact on my knees, and have tried to improve my form as well. With all of this work, the pain in my knees slightly lessened and I was drained of the energy needed to finish a 3 miler. Needless to say, things have not been looking too optimistic for my body lately.

So tonight's run was pretty remarkable in its own way. I really felt myself syncing into a stride and feeling the feeling I had glimpsed for a second just a few entries ago ("i feel like a runner ").

I hope that I can keep up with tonight's momentum and continue to become a healthier person, physically and mentally, through the course of this journey.