Once again, I was on the trail as the sun rose this morning, this time for a 5-mile “run” on my original run loop to gauge progress.
The temps were in the high 40s, and I debated on whether to wear long sleeves or not, but then I looked at my hulking body in the mirror and remembered how much sweat I put out. I stuck with the short sleeves.
Once on the trail and running, I noticed some slight pain in my left Achilles again, but not enough to make me stop. I was feeling pretty good, and as I looped onto Nature’s Way Loop, I once again saw my friend the owl. I only had my little Canon s95 point-and-shoot, so I just waved good morning and kept going.
Then, just after Mile 1, I was running down a slight decline on the same trail when I saw young deer up ahead. As I ran, I got closer and closer and kept waiting for it to run. Oddly, it never did, and I passed roughly 3 feet from it, said good morning, and kept on going. It must have been in shock from the large, sweaty, human gasping for air, hurling himself down the trail.
Mile times were OK, but nothing to write home about. Not to be discouraged, I tried to keep things consistent and readied for the slow hike up the steep sandy uphill and the relief of two downhills to come in the next half mile.
Downhill with some sand.
Soon, I was closing in on Mile 4, and I wasn’t feeling confident about a sub-hour time, but again, I plodded on.
After a small little uphill, it was all a flat trail to the bridge over the river and a limestone trail to the parking lot; that’s when I said, “fuck it.” and picked up the pace.
Sweat, phlegm, and whatever else makes up my innards were pouring out of me, and as I neared the parking lot, two moms and their small children were coming down the main trail, I must have horrified them all. I was just glad they didn’t offer to call 911! That would have been a real kick in the junk.
Can’t bring myself to call it a run.
I still had about .20 miles to go, so I ran straight through the parking lot, and out the other side to another small section of trail to get my full loop in, finishing with 5.01 miles in 59:32. Not my best time, but damn close. And I had my fastest mile time ever during that last mile, completing it in 10:37; besting my old time by 22 seconds.
While I would like to see more drastic time improvements, I am happy to at least be consistent, and after every run like this, I need to remind myself that I am less than two months into learning to run consistently for the first time in my life.
I know that if could force myself to do what real runners call “speed work,” I could make more progress, but I haven’t got to the point where I’m that committed. Yet.
As mentioned earlier, I was in a hurry and only had my small point-and-shoot with me, so aside from the photo of my watch, everything was taken while moving in the dark woods and the suck shows.
Later.