Saturday, November 3, 2012

Not My Best

Maybe playing paintball this morning and then running 10 miles this afternoon wasn't the best planned day. The running around this morning really wasn't that bad, although I once again found out if I was ever in an actual war you could count on me to be one of the first casualties. Nevertheless, I think the issue was (once again) the change in footwear. I wore my hiking boots, which always seem to cause me problems. It's not that I feel the difference so much when I'm wearing them but that I have issues later. Like on today's run.

It was weird. That sums it up, but let me explain. I had a slow start, running out of the neighborhood at a very slow pace. My knees felt weak, and it was one of those runs where it seems like I just never got into a rhythm. Right about the one mile mark I stopped running for a few seconds and walked, hoping that would jump-start my run. It didn't. By the time I got to the 1.5 mile point I stopped again. It felt like I was limping and I was afraid I was going to hurt myself. I started up, same thing. I turned around and was really in a mode of indecision. At that point I started a downhill portion and that seemed to help. I took a left onto Flintlock and felt good for about thirty seconds, like everything was going to be fine. It wasn't. After a couple hundred yards on an uphill slope I turned around and headed back to 96th Street. As I turned west I found myself settling into that rhythm I'd been looking for. By the time I made it back to the entrance of our subdivision all thoughts of cutting the run short had disappeared. It was still a tough run and I walked a few more times on some uphill portions, but I gutted it out and made the full 10 miles. As I said, it certainly wasn't my best run ever, but maybe in some ways it was because I didn't give up. Time to taper a bit and remember that next time I wear my hiking boots to not try a long run the same day.

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