What? No more running stories?! Lest you might think this has something to do with NCAA basketball, sorry to disappoint you. This blog should be retitled “Thoughts About Life and Occasional Running” since running has been few and far between lately. However today, this post is about running.
After hiding from the cold outdoors for several months by mostly doing stationary cycling and hill walking on the treadmill because I’ve become a wimp, an opportunity presented itself in an early spring heat wave on Thursday in Southern California. Believe me, it would have been hotter working out indoors on this day so I decided an outdoor activity was in the offing. Maybe my ankles would be able to withstand a run/walk workout after all those uphill treadmill walks in recent weeks. At least there was a slight westerly breeze when I started at about 2:30 P.M. so it didn’t feel uncomfortably hot. Jogging for four minutes then walking for one minute, I went around one of my previous Bixby Knolls routes with the aim of finishing an hour. Boy, was it rough going for the most part no doubt due to not having done the activity in quite a while! Even slight uphills made me feel winded. However on this day, I couldn’t help but smile to myself for being able to do a semblance of a run. When my legs started feeling wobbly after fifty minutes, it was tempting to stop, but my mantra for the last 10 minutes became “keep it tight”, meaning keep my stride in control so my ankles don’t go from side to side too much.
Jeepers! When all was said and done, I had lost 4 ½ pounds of fluids in an hour. Good thing I drank a lot of water before going to bed that morning (I had worked the night before). My post run weight hasn’t been that low since I did that solo half marathon about a year ago (My Own Private Half Marathon). Because of the very slowness of my pace and the slight breeze, it didn’t feel like I was sweating that much. People who saw me were probably thinking why a short, thin man was so slow and lumbering. Believe me, it wasn’t the heat. On this day, I didn’t care about the aesthetics of the run, only that I managed to finish one. Running or a slight semblance thereof at the hottest time of the year so far, was pure March madness. So there – a post about an occasional run J. I can feel the soreness in my legs coming already.
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