Morning Run

This morning I went running with four of the running group. I usually run on my own, so it was a pleasant change to run with other people. We met up at the gym and then headed off to run around the middle basin of the lake.

Floriade is about to start, so parts of the park were blocked off. I don't know which way the girls would have run, but Floriade meant that we followed the path that I used to run with Leanne. It was a little over a year ago that I started running outside. Today's run was a good measure of how much I've improved over the past twelve months. Back then I know I struggled to get as far as the Commonwealth Avenue bridge. Today I was feeling really comfortable as I ran across it.

Physically the run was fine but I had a huge mental battle going on today. There were so many times that I wanted to stop running. I'm glad that I was with the others, as I'm sure I wouldn't have managed to run as much as I did without them. I did eventually drop back to a walk when we were heading over towards the Kings Avenue bridge. One of the girls checked to see if I was okay. I waved her on but I think she slowed the others down and that they waited for me to catch up, without looking like they were waiting. I thought it was kind of them not to make a fuss.

I got myself back running fairly quickly. I think I walked for less than a minute all up. I was determined to run across to the far side of the bridge. In my head I was stopping when I got to the other side, but when I got there I managed to keep on going. The pace picked up as we were running downhill but one of the other girls slowed the group down again when she realised I was struggling. It wouldn't have occurred to me to ask them to slow down, but I'll know it's an option another time.

We ran back to town via the underpass and Constitution Avenue instead of running back around Floriade. I was quite relieved when we came to a set of traffic lights at a busy intersection and had to stop. It gave me a chance to have a mini-break. From there I thought about going straight home instead of running back to the gym, but I realised I'd probably end up walking if I headed off on my own. Instead I stayed with the group, knowing that I'd try harder with them than I would on my own.

The route we travelled from the gym was somewhere between 6.5 and 7 km. I've mapped the course from my apartment and it's about 8 km. I was glad we were doing that type of distance as I've only been running for about half an hour at a time lately. Today was the longest run I've done in months.

I didn't think much about it this morning, but I was really sore and stiff today. I finally put two and two together and realised that I'd run on two consecutive days. That's a first for me. I guess I didn't really think of yesterday's running at GOFC as 'real' running. Still, it helps me reach my goal of running three times in a week, so I'm happy.

I'm not sure how much of today's stiffness is Yoga and how much is running. It took a real effort of will to take the stairs at work today instead of wimping out and using the lifts. I was climbing those stairs like a woman twice my age.

I have the GOFC tomorrow morning, so I'm going to head to bed earlier than usual tonight. I feel like I need my sleep.