Finally Back After Two Weeks Off

Last run was the one where I achieved my New Year's Resolution of 32 minutes in a 5K. It was also almost two weeks ago. Back on September 22.

I spent the rest of that week neck deep in preparations for the Heels and Hills and Him Half Marathon. And it was a ton of fun to put on this inaugural race on Sept. 27, but a lot of work. I came home from that race completely drained, which is probably why I couldn't tell I was getting sick until it hit me like a freight train the day after the race. Probably also a big reason why the recovery for a bad cold was so long.

Tonight was my first run back. I'm not one of those that itches and tweaks out if I don't run every single day - I don't know if I think my body could take that anyway. I've been doing well to try to do 3 days a week the past 4 months or so. But mid-Saturday, I did finally start to have that itch to want to run. Probably because I had a planned half marathon on October 25.

But I waited until tonight and I'm so glad I did. No sniffles during the run, lungs felt good, a little bit of a cough afterward for a couple minutes, but that was it. 2 miles at a good pace (average 10:53) - mile 1 in 10:47, mile 2 in 10:59.

The main point though - I'm VERY glad I waited to go on this first run back. I see too many Type A runners that get back to it too soon and end up with their sickness limping along for another couple weeks.

Next up - figure out what I'm going to do between now and October 25 and decide if I will indeed do the half marathon race on October 25. I still would like to see if I can PR my half marathon time (2:42) and break 2 1/2 by the end of the year. So how best do I spend my running time to get there? Add to that the extra work of the next 3 weeks of timing 3 races, one each weekend. And then cheering stations for Heels and Hills being planned at events the two following weekends.