It's All About that Base

Here is the post I wrote in my head while on the yellow trail at Ridley Creek State Park this morning.

Here we go again! Restart number 6352. Ok maybe a slight exaggeration. It's only 6349. But really whose counting besides me, right? Over the span of my August vacation time I decided that when Labor Day got here I'd try to get back to running.....again!

But this time I would go slow. Build a nice solid base. Hence the title in case you are not paying attention. I would start, I thought, by getting back to "just a mile" runs during the week and a little longer on one of the weekend days. So, on Tues, Wed and Thurs this week I ran just 1 mile around my neighborhood. So far so good. I read several somewheres that a weekly long run should be 35% of your total weekly mileage. So factoring in a "just a mile for tomorrow" I backwards mathed myself into a 2.1 mile run for today.

Today, I went to the yellow trail at RCSP for a change of scenery and because my fitness bucket list includes a trail race. Today I ran by feel but starting next week I will go back to using my heart rate monitor to keep me in a base building zone. I like the concept of heart rate training because it's more or less the same as keep smiling keep moving. If one must walk to stay in the zone so be it. One is still moving. The smiling part is hard though when the walking happens two feet into the run. And given my low level of aerobic fitness I'm sure that is exactly what will happen. :(

Hiking, boot camp and sporadic strength training on my own keep my body ready to go but my heart needs way more work. It let me know this when it went flip-pity flop less than a half mile in. :( :( Flip-pity flop is for the Amtrak Board not for running.

I wasn't going to make this effort public because I have failed so many times in the last three years it's embarrassing. But accountability is important so by sharing I'm hoping one of these times it will stick.

I need new running shoes. I've been alternating between two pair of older ones which are ok for biking or boot camp but not for running. There is a blister trying to form on my right foot. I generally get the blisters and hip flexor pain when my shoes are done. The hot spot made it difficult to do some movements at boot camp this week because I ran before class. The hot spot also caused me to change up my footfall during my trail adventure this morning trying to avoid the sensation and this happened.....

*sigh* I'm an idiot. It's not horrible. I can put weight on it but it's not happy flexing to the right. I'm investing some time in RICE therapy to hopefully speed up the healing process.

Maybe the running gods are telling me to give it up? (Sticks fingers in her ears) I'm just not ready to listen yet.