Getting Back into It

I mentioned in the first post that I am a sporadic runner.  For example, in September I ran a ten mile race, the Bottle & Cork.  My plan was to increase a few more miles and complete  my first half marathon.  For some reason, shortly after the 10 mile race, I just stopped running.  I think life had gotten busier and I lost the motivation to juggle schedules and running.  Plus, I think I was so darn sick of the heat.

So anyway, I ran 2 miles a week ago this past Sunday and my quads were really sore the next day.  I was surprised at how quickly my body fell out of shape.  I decided to work through it and went out and did a mile and a half the next day.  We'll say the first half mile was intervals because my 4 year old wanted to run with me.  That means we go around the block alternating speeds but mostly him running as fast as he can for a bit and then walking for a longer bit.  Anyway, after I dropped him off, I decided to see if I could do a fast mile.  Fast for me was trying to get close to a 10:00 pace.  I walked the last tenth of the mile.  Thursday and Friday, I kept the mileage to 2.5 miles or lower.  Saturday I was able to complete 5 miles and felt great.  My legs weren't sore at all the next day.

So, even though I felt like I was back at square one when I started, it didn't take my body too long to get back in the swing of things.  I'm keeping my mileage low again this week and have signed up for a 10k on Saturday.  My goal is to increase mileage every other week  and start working on my long runs on Saturdays to work towards a half marathon in the late winter/early spring.

The point of my rambling for today is that if you have taken a break, it's never too late to get back into it!  And if you've been thinking about giving running a try, it's never too late to start!  In both cases, start slow and easy and be nice to your body.  And don't forget to have fun!

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