Running Again

I was cleaning out my journal last week to prepare for next year's planner and came across this entry on March 2, 2011:

One of the better runs in a while. warm up 5-5.4 mph first mile then kept at 5.6 the whole way with spurts of 5.8-6. most importantly, did not stop or slow down at all after the warm up! yay! i ran a 10K!

Reading that brought back a flood of wonderful feeling of excitement and joy.  I was so proud of myself.  For the next 2-3 months after that run, I continued to average about 15-18 miles per week, keeping up with 4-5 miles runs.

Then, as usual, work got hectic for the summer months.  My morning runs slowly got shorter and shorter until I skipped them altogether and went straight to work at 5 am.  My evening runs got replaced by my evening naps (I changed my Everyman Sleep Cycle around the same time; 3 hours core sleep with 3-20 min naps).  I was having more time -- but all those time was spent on work.

When I missed the first few runs, I told myself it was ok.  I'm not going to lose any conditioning with a couple missed runs.  Then I learned that it takes about 2 weeks of not running before you feel any impact on your running.  So I told myself I'll focus on work to get through that tough week then resume running.  Bad idea. The 2 weeks became 3 then 4 weeks.  Then it was harder to get myself back into the routine.  And the image of starting over again was daunting.

I see now that I should not have considered it starting over at that time.  Even if it was a month of no running, I am sure I could have picked it up again and returned to where I was within a week or 2.  I think I was just looking for excuses not to run.  I had too much on my plate at the time and it was just easier to let running fall on the wayside.

Hindsight, I can see how ridiculous that was now.  I was so sure that I would be able to resume running when things slow down. At the time, it did not seem possible that I would let my new found joy in running lapse.  But I did.  I have not logged a real run since May. Almost exactly five. whole. months.

Well, I laced up my shoes and started my back-to-running plan yesterday. 

W1D1, run 0:30 / walk 4:30 (x7)

I did the Couch-to-5K in 2009 and really liked it but this time around, I plan to start with longer runs from the beginning (C25K starts with 20-min runs) and have chosen the plan from The Beginning Runner's Handbook.  This plan starts really slow but have me on my feet longer - about 35 minutes, not counting the warm up and cool down.

The first day calls for a 5 minute warm-up walk then run 30 seconds / walk 4 minute, 30 seconds; repeat 7 times.  I found it a little too easy -- and once I started running, it was hard to stop after 30 seconds!  I did stick with it for 3 intervals but then the last 4 intervals were more run 2 min, 30 sec / walk 2 min, 30 sec.

I am a little sore this morning so I may try to stick with the plan and take it slow for now.  An injury during this early stage may derail my comeback effort.

I felt good after Week 1, Day 1.  I dug out my old Tech 4O watch:

Time: 40:11

Distance: 2.6 miles

Speed (ave): 3.88 mph
Pace: 15:28 per mile

The  plan calls for me to repeat this 0:30/4:30 but for 8 intervals, giving me a 40 minutes session, for 2 more times this week.  Not sure but I may change this up to 1:00/4:00 (x8).  

We'll see how it goes :)