Slowly getting there ... and I mean slowly

THE MISSION

I am training for a 10K in June and a marathon in November. I’m currently running twice a week ... in that semi-regular sort of way. Eventually, I will  ramp up the training routine until I’m running about 15-18 miles a week in June. From there I’ll launch into marathon training.

Stats for the week : Baseline 5K: 32:13. Baseline 10K: 1:11:00 (roughly). Best time of the week: 31:12 (5K); 1:11:00 (10K). Best overall time: 26:57 (5K, June 7, 2009); 1:11:00 (10K, April 3, 2010). Miles within the last week: 9.3. Total miles for 2010: 46.2.  Total miles since 2008: 342.9

RUNNING MP3 OF THE WEEK (That song that for whatever reason has a cadence that exactly matches the speed I was running this week.): "Tessie" by Dropkick Murphys, in honor of Major League Baseball's opening day this week.

As you can see by my stats for the week, I ran 10 kilometers. In one try. In one day, no less.

I set it in my mind after writing my last post that I was going to run all of 10 kilometers on Saturday. If I couldn't do it, I was going to drop the whole thing right there. Luckily, no such steps were necessary. 

The biggest surprise to me was that it didn't really go that badly. I had visions of crawling back home with the help of a friendly duck from the fishing hole down the street, but it didn't come to that

I was slower than molasses, which was to be expected, but I didn't bring a stopwatch with me, so I wasn't reminded of the fact every 10 seconds or so. I checked the clock when I left and when I came back, and an hour and 11 minutes elapsed in between. 

Also, I had a minor victory in that the next day a friend of mine mentioned having seen me "jogging" — the victory being that they could tell I was attempting to run, and they didn't pull over to the side of the road, set up hazard flares and call 911.

I really had no idea what to expect, so I took the first 5K (my normal 3.1-mile loop) very easy and very slow, like a warm-up jog. I was tired and ready to go home after the first three miles, but kept at it (not really wanting to give up the blog just yet).

Somewhere in the middle of mile 4, tiny little elves with hydraulic wrenches climbed up my legs and started driving twin lug nuts into my outer thighs. 

By the start of mile 5, another elf,  with disproportionately big arms, started repeatedly whacking me in the shins with a 2x4. The physical beating my legs were taking left that fake limp I wrote about in the previous post no longer so fake. Or even really a limp. 

I'd call it more of a hobble. Think: Cross between Gollum and Quasimodo only without the makeup, computer animation and  raw fish.

About the middle a the fifth mile was when my entire lower half went numb. It was a welcome feeling because I'd just caught sight of a fifth elf carrying a buzz saw and a grammar school slate gaining ground quickly and I had no intention of finding out what he was planning to use those for.

Being unable to feel my legs, I quickly discovered that the rest of me actually felt pretty good. So I started running faster and harder (to the casual observer at this point, it probably appeared that I was no longer walking while in the midst of an asthma attack.).

I finished the fifth and sixth miles in relatively good order, running as well as I have this year, which was an encouraging sign for me.

There was soreness later that afternoon, and the next day, but by Monday I felt good to go again. So after two months of basically sitting on the couch thinking about running, I'm right back to it. 

The plan this week is 5K on Wednesday and another 10K on Saturday. Next week I think I'll try for two 10Ks. We'll see what the elves say about that.