Week 3: Day 4 - When Nature Calls

I would have finished my run for the day a couple of hours ago, but when nature calls there's nothing you can do about it. Thanks to a suggestion by my friend Matt this morning, I ran at Highview Park. It has a basketball court, tennis court, playground, and a path that goes around 1/3 of a mile. That's what I ran on this morning. I got there early because I left our pastor's men's book study (on Crazy Love by Francis Chan) at around 7:10am. I pulled into the parking lot and it was still dark. I took my time, changed my shoes and decided to take a walk around the path just to see what it was like. I got ready to run, and I went slowly around once. By the time I got around I knew I couldn't hold it for 30 minutes (too much info?? :)). So I left and stopped at Walgreens. By the time I left I had bought some bandages (for my blister on my heel), and two hot & cold packs. I got back to the park and finally began my run.

It was a nice park to run in - not too big, but bigger than the little path at my apartment. There were big trees, green grass, birds singing and squirrels playing. It helped that the path was longer since I'm runner farther now then I used to. Going around a small circle over and over makes the time creep by. It wasn't crowded either, just one person walking toward the end of my run. I think I'll start going there more often (thanks Matt!).

Like I said yesterday, I'm up to a 6:1 4x's (that's 6 min. run and 1 min. walk) with a 2 min. run to finish up the 30 minutes. It wasn't too bad, although my right leg, between my calf and my heel started to hurt about mid-way through. It has been hurting since at least Tuesday. I iced it when I got home and inclined my legs for about 10 minutes. They (runnersworld.com) say that after a run you should always stretch, ice, and incline, so I'll see if that works. You are also supposed to put heat on your muscles after you ice, I think, but I didn't have time for that today. I have to leave for work in 3 minutes.

So anyways, today's run was good. I think I'll be ready for my 5K in May. Every so often I would time myself for 1 time around the path and it was usually between 02:35 and 02:20. Not great, but I'm not really running for speed right now, just trying to keep on running when I'm supposed to. Next time I won't drink any coffee before my run, that way I won't have to hit up the little boy's room at Walgreens. Until next time...

"Running is a big question mark that's there each and every day. It asks you, 'Are you going to be a wimp or are you going to be strong today?'" -Peter Maher, Canadian marathon runner