Better Than I'd Hoped For

I had my second run of the week today, and it was good.  Really good.  Much-better-than-expected good. 

When I left the house I told Hans that I'd be gone for about 30 minutes.  My plan was simple.  I'd do a brief 5 minute warm up, jog for about 15 minutes, turn around, jog back home.  Total time should have been 30-40 minutes.  All started as planned.  I finished my warm up and started my jog.  About twelve blocks later (15 minutes) later I reached my turn around point.

I didn't really want to turn around, though.  I wanted to head back home, but I didn't want to bore myself with the exact same route that I just ran.  So, I decided to turn right and run back home going through a different neighborhood.  It would have added about one more block to my total route.

When I reached the point for me to turn into the neighborhood, though, I just wanted to keep going.  Same with the next turn and the next.  It was at this point that I had a decision to make.  I could turn around and head home, or I could set my sights on the stop light up ahead and run to there.  I felt good, so I kept on going.

When I reached the stop light, it wouldn't have made much sense for me to turn around, so I kept on going.  I figured if I got really tired, I could stop running and start my cool down early.  Oh, but I really wanted to keep going. 

Once I hit the 4 km mark, I figured I might as well just run a full 5k.  Then I would stop.  When I reached the 5k mark, though I only had a few more blocks until I'd come full circle, so I decided to keep going.  Finally, 5.76 km later (3.58 mi), it was officially time for my cool down, and I was ready for it, so I slowed to a walk until I got home.

Here's the thing, considering the fact I've never been much of an athlete, and running was never my strong suit (I had to take a course just to reach a 5k distance), I thought it would take a few weeks for me to be able to run a 5k again.  I figured I would have to really build back my endurance.  I was shocked that I was only a kilometer short of where I had been.  Of course, my pace was slower (about 30 seconds slower per kilometer) than it had been, and that will take some time to come back, but I'm not as worried about that.  I'm just happy that I haven't lost it entirely. 

It just goes to show you can do whatever you put your mind to.  I've always wanted to be a runner, so I started to run.  When the doctor said I should hold off on running for a while, I decided to swim.  Now I'm doing both, and I'm loving it.

Oh, and the biggest benefit of running over swimming?  Cody can come along, and he's very, very tired.  Hurray!!!