run harder, better, faster, stronger

Sometimes it’s not the lack of fitness or the loss of my running mojo, sometimes it’s as simple as growing utterly bored of my mp3 selection without noticing. Today I put on a new audiobook on my mp3 player and went running. Thirty minutes went by in a breeze.

I’m so fscking jealous of people running right now. And tired of cold and ice and snow.

(That’s me, laughing smugly.)

I’ve just come from my run. I ran for almost 1 hour (not counting warmup and cooldown), which is in itself enough for me to be very happy and smug and proud of myself. I also ran the same route that messed up my knee last year – I went too far too fast and my not 100% healthy knee staged a passionate protest (ie. I couldn’t walk properly for days and it hurt for weeks).

This time, I took the route on in a leisurely 8:12 pace (7.3 km/h) and I did it after months of regular running. I was aiming for 60 minutes of running and certainly wasn’t planning to run the whole route. But as it happened, my 60 minutes coincided nicely with the route. In contrast to the last year’s experience, I came home like after any normal run: a bit tired, a bit sweaty, my heart beating a bit faster and my knee hurting just a bit. Certainly not in pain and ready to die, like last year.

The point of all this… I’m not only trying to run harder, better, faster (_{“stronger” is here only because of the song and doesn’t really apply ;)}), but also smarter. So far, so good. :)

The.Best.Running.T-shirts.EVER!

I used to really hate running if there were other people around (like strollers and dog-walkers). As getting up at 5 am to go for a run is no longer feasible (I’m dead tired as it is), I’m happy to report that I’ve overcome some of my anxiety. Screw the walkers, I’m gonna run right past them and they can eat my dust. :P

I’m also happy to report that I’ve reached some kind of compromise with my non-running boyfriend. What used to be “running is stupid, I’m not going to change my schedule to accommodate your running” turned into “ok, I’ll watch TV and wait for you while you do your running thing” and then (a major breakthrough) into “I’ll go running with you but only if it’s fun – hills and fitness trails are fun, roads and flat paths are not”. I hate hills and I’m indifferent to fitness trails, but hey, if he’s willing to go running with me, I’ll gladly run up a hill.

My fitness is finally back to the point where I can run for 30 min non-stop. Sheesh, if I had known it’d be so hard to build it up again, I would’ve thought twice before giving up running for the winter. :P

I need to rearrange my current routine/schedule. Running in the afternoon, in broad daylight, mingling with all the people strolling around and coming home from work, is obviously not going to happen, no matter many times I write it in my day planner.