On the road again

A new week begins in my quest to get myself back in running form and I am so sore I can barely walk, so I have chosen today as a day off. I would not have taken it as an off day if I was not in pain. So to review last week included two runs in Phuket, Thailand:

07/02: 3.19 Miles      30:28    9:34 /mi
08/02: 3.40 Miles      31:30    9:16 /mi

Both were tough but enjoyable, and I have discovered that I still have a hitch in  my stride, at least until i warm up a bit.
I also did a run here in Penang when we got back from Thailand. It felt good to run the route that I ran when we first got here.That little 3 mile loop, seemed so boring after a while and new running routes were discovered and found. For now, its the best route I have ever run!

10/02: 3.22 Miles     29:57   9:22 /mi

So I look at these and think, "I am only a minuet or so off of my normal pacing...but then i look back on my distances, and I had not been running a 3mile training run in about two years. So I thought "I need to do a longer run, just to see where I am at." So I got on the horn, found a friend who was going to do a long run Sunday (Thank you Thuan). and he agreed to join me, or rather me join him. The plan was 10k, I had some concerns about the plan...We began the run and I felt ok, got through about a mile and a half and my left hamstring began to cramp badly so i had to stop and stretch it out quick. Back to the run, i think this time i made it through about another two  miles before i had to stop again. We made our loop and headed back, the route back was worse, i think I had to stop 3 times, and once I had to go to the ground to get the cramp to release. following that one, i walked it out a bit. This left one mile till the finish so off we went and no further stops this time. I can tell you, despite the turtles pacing,the multiple stops, and the cramping, i was elated!! I had not run in almost 9 months, and had not done anything longer than 3 miles when I did. For me this was an accomplishment. I did what I intended to do start and finish.

12/02: 6.38 Miles     1:06:02   10:22 /mi

Now to be honest, i am embarrassed at the 10:22 per mile pacing and the overall hour to do a 10K. I have to let that go however and focus again on the fact that I ran the distance and that was the intention, to complete the distance....still tough to take knowing that a normal 10K run when i was in shape would have been done in 50 min at about an 8:30 /mi pace...so I am 2 min off in pacing and 10 min or so off of my usual finish time. It been 13 days though since I was cleared to run, so i guess I should be happy. I am, i mean I am back running, and like a friend from Brooks said, "a slow run is better than sitting on the couch thinking about running. " I just feel like a kid in the middle of summer thinking about Christmas..."I want it to come NOW!" So I start a new week and with a ton to do today, I will take today as a rest/gym day. I am thinking of a weekly schedule that will be, Monday off, Tuesday run, Wednesday run, Thursday off, Friday run, Saturday run, and Sunday as my long day, which for now will be no longer than 6 miles. So there it is on 17 & 18 July, 2011, this was me:

On 8 February 2012, this was me:

a bit fatter than I would have hoped, and out of shape, but the process has begun to rebuild the 2 and a half dollar man...and he is running Happy!