I ran today

I ran for 15 minutes today. There is not another time during the season that 15 minutes would even count as a run, but today it does because it is the first time I have run in 7-and-a-half weeks. I decided that I would go run on a trail. I don't often run on trails, but I felt like doing it today, first, so that nobody would see me when they drove by and how slow and awkward I looked. Second, so that maybe the impact would be a little softer on my weakened joints and soft tissue. Third, for the nice scenery and so that I could follow it up with some light hiking to make it seem a bit more like a real workout. And fourth, so I would be clueless about my pace and could just focus on being happy that I was out running rather than panicking about how slow it was.

I dug some run clothes out of the very neglected run clothes drawer and drove off to the trail entrance. I'm not normally a fan of driving somewhere just to run, but I was ok with it in this case. There really isn't a whole lot to say about it since it was so short. 15 minutes goes by awfully fast, and given the fact that I was trail running and had to be careful with the footing, I didn't really get a chance to go fast enough that I tired myself out. I felt like I could've gone on for much longer, which is a good sign. An even better sign is the complete absence of pain of any kind coming from the site of my stress fracture. That's really the only important thing that can come of this. I can't wait to do it again. The only problem is that now I feel like I'm starting from scratch again. I wanted to be starting from a much better spot this year than I did last year, but I keep on sliding backwards. I'll just try to keep the progress in the forward direction from here on out.

I also had my first early morning swim workout today in, I don't know, 6 weeks maybe? Remember, pre-Kona my last few swims were open water to avoid wall pushes on the broken foot. It was far too cold in the early mornings to be getting in open water around here! I had to drop my friend Trent off at the airport for his trip to North Carolina to race B2B half this weekend (good luck, Trent!) and the airport is way too close to my pool for me to not swing by. So after a 5:15am drop-off I was in the water by 5:30, done by 6 and home again by 6:30. I forgot how nice it can be to get workouts in nice and early. Swimming doesn't feel as hard as I thought it would (with the exception of doing the first 100 at race pace and then realizing that was not the way to complete my easy, aerobic 30 minutes) but I sure am slow! Ugh, again, it feels so strange to actually get out of shape on purpose. I just hope I can get it back quick.

The other strange thing after the break is that there was no ease into this cold weather. I started tapering just when it started to cool off, then spent 11 days in Hawaii, then came home and didn't train for nearly 3 weeks, then had to step back outside into noticeably cooler weather. My fingers don't work well and I need very hot showers afterward to warm me up. Again, I'm not quite ready for this yet, especially knowing that this kind of weather will be with me literally until I race IM Utah in May. It's going to be a long winter.