Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A Five-Mile Long Run

I ran five miles today with Shelly and our co-worker, Justin. It's only the second time since the marathon that I've run five miles, and it's the longest I've run since the marathon.

It didn't feel good today, but it made me happy. I had some weird tightness in my hamstring and soreness in my shoulder, which means I was running tense. Towards the end of the run, I got a stitch in my side. But I ran five miles at an average 10:26 pace. Not too shabby! It's a run that I'm proud of. I'm relieved to know I can still run more than two or three miles at a time.

It's really weird to switch gears and get into triathlon training. It's totally foreign to only be running two or three times a week. The only reason we ran five today was to avoid thunderstorms tomorrow, so we turned today's four-miler into five and we're skipping the run tomorrow. I think it was worth it.

I'm worried about Shelly. She hasn't had a good run since the marathon. She's been having calf issues that cause her to have to stop and walk it out on nearly every run. I haven't been stopping to walk with her. I feel guilty about leaving my partner behind, but we run so infrequently now that I can't make myself stop to walk. Justin and I just keep on running, and he challenges me to run slightly faster than is comfortable after several months of slow-paced marathon training. I miss running with Shelly though. I hope she starts to feel better soon.

Swimming and yoga tomorrow. Hooray!

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