Gonna Fly Now

For whatever reason no one slept well last night. Our parrot, as she sometimes does, fell off her perch in the middle of the night. The Steve Dog puked on the stairs (which I didn't know about until I nearly stepped in it this morning). Lissa was too hot. Even the computer decided to wake up around 3:00 AM and reboot. (It's weird that I can sleep through the sound of the dog vomiting, but the flicker of a monitor a room away wakes me up). So, when my alarm went off at 6:00 I rolled over and nearly went back to sleep. But, I know from experience that if I don't get into a regular routine that I'll stop running, so I dragged my lazy butt of out bed and pulled on my running gear.

I ran the Sugar House Park Grass Loop again. It's already starting to feel a little easier -- I pushed the pace a little on the brief downhill sections, as as much as possible on the flats. I think I've forgotten how to breathe because I still had the weird shoulder pain and side cramps around mile 1.5, but they passed quickly enough. Pulling into the final stretch was a bit tough, but I didn't stop and walk yesterday, so I sure as hell wasn't going to walk it today. I finished the loop in 19:15 -- about 15 seconds faster than yesterday.

I'll be traveling this weekend so I don't know if I'll get a long run in on Saturday. For next week my goal to run Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (the ol' Hal Higdon schedule), and to push the distance up to 3.0 miles on Wednesday.

Ran the same route as yesterday, and felt slightly better while doing it. I did, however, get the typical pin prick of pain in my shoulder that always make me think "isn't this a sign of a heart attack?" But since I've had that experienced that pain countless times over the years, and haven't had a heart attack yet I figure it's just how my body responds to pushing beyond my endurance levels.

My time was 19:29, which is almost identical to yesterday (two seconds faster, actually). At this point consistency is A Good Thing, so I'm happy with my time.

This is my first run in a long time. (Well, I did participate in the Ragnar Relay about two months ago, but to call what I did "running" would be generous). Since I'm fairly out-of-shape I decided to do the easy grass loop around Sugar House Park. I started from my front door, ran the loop, and finished back at home. I felt pretty good, but pushing the last little distance between the park and my house (hey! this is uphill!) was tough, but I resolved not to walk it.

My total time was 19:31. I haven't downloaded my GPS tracks yet, so I don't know my splits. Although, I'm not so sure I want to know them yet. I just want to focus on building up my distance and endurance, and don't want to get bogged down in the minutiae of split times.