Sunday, November 1, 2015

Back To Running?

I haven't posted about running in a really long time and there's a good reason for that: I really haven't been running!  After accomplishing my goal of a 5K a few years ago, I added variety back into my workouts and only run when I feel like it.  I still really like running but I have been much more casual about it.  For example, last week I ran/walked twice.  Once for one mile and once for a mile and half.
But then one of our friends posted online about a 4 mile run/2 mile walk on November 28th.  This caught my eye because Kayleigh will be home for Thanksgiving.  I sent it to her and Bill to see if they would be interested.  I was thinking of the walk,  A 4 mile run would have been out of my league 3 years ago, let alone now!  But Bill sent me a text immediately saying we should do the run.  When I pointed out to him I actually had to train several months to just do 3 miles, he said, "You have a month. You can do it."  Really?!?

I wrote him off as being insane but the idea set in my head for a couple days.  This morning I decided to get on the treadmill and just see what 4 miles feels like.  I did a combination of running and walking (much more walking than running) and kept my speeds as high as I could.  My best run ever was at the 5K where I ran the whole thing and my time was 33:40 (I think).  Today with plenty of walking, I did 4 miles in 54:20.  That's about 14 miles per hour which actually isn't too bad for me.  When I was running all the time, I would go between 11 and 12 miles an hour with my best being 10.

Am I actually considering doing this?  We'll see.  I'd also like to point out that I don't run in bad weather and the Chicago area
at the end of November isn't really ideal!  But if I survived the humidity of August a few years ago, maybe (I said maybe!) I can handle November's cold.