Mar 20

FIT:
Just had to run. Haven't run since Monday's recovery run. Track workouts are probably the best of all the types of workouts. It increases turnover, raises VO2 Max, burns excess fat, and is still a decent distance (5ish for a BM Pyramid). It had been a week and a half since the last one, and even that one was only half. Sad story - the cookies and muffins that I mentioned two days ago have taken their toll. Blaaaah. It's okay. I'll just have to work it off.

As for the run itself, most things have healed up during my three days off of running. Knees generally feel fine, and the top of the foot just has a big knot where the bruise is, which is tolerable compared to me hardly being able to handle the simple act of wearing sneakers. The time off was good, even if the cookies and goldfish weren't. The temps were chilly in shorts and a tee and perfect for running. It seemed more difficult to breathe, maybe b/c of all the dust and dirt I breathed in during my two days tearing down houses in Philly. When the team blew our noses at the end of the day, the result was black stuff. Not a good sign. Worth it, though. God has given me this body to serve others.

And back to the run again, I wanted to quit after the first 200's, if you can imagine that. I just felt out of shape, even with PRing the mile a week ago. I thought it was the cookies. I kept at it, though, eager to finish so that I'd be on time for chapel watch. That gave me incentives to take no water breaks. I didn't even do an 800 warmup, since time would be tight. I pulled through, though, by God's hand, and finished the 5.5 miles in 37:32. Hey... if I added an 1200 in let's say 5.5 minutes, that'd be about a 44 minute 10K.

I was so dreading the run and kept procrastinating. I was tired. During the run, I'd close my eyes as much as I can to mimic sleeping. My arms felt tired from pumping, but my legs didn't feel tired until the end of the last 200. Afterward, though, I felt energetic. Aaah, the power of sports.

// 3/21 update:
I just realized that going at the 5.5-mi pace of 6:49/mi, I could finish a 5K in 21:09!!! And that's with running the extra 2.4 miles. My 5K PR was 20:40, unless I remembered wrong and it was actually 21:40. Either way, I think it means that I could beat that. I didn't think I'd ever be back to HS shape mid-distance-wise. 5eeK Justice run, here I come!

I used to think it was crazy that a 5K was chosen as the HS distance b/c (at least according to one teammate) it's right on the border between what you can sprint and what you can't. Now, I see a 5K as something you more or less sprint. Pain all the way.