Diary of a Relapsed Runner Part Deux

On Monday I left Tucson around noon. I landed in Oakland around 5 pm. My mom picked me up and drove me back to Fremont, where my car was. I went out to dinner with my parents before driving home, and didn't end up back in Salinas until around 9:30 pm.

Tuesday I had an afterschool program. Wednesday was Open House. Thursday was a staff meeting. and Friday I held my normal Thursday After School Tutorial. While a couple of days I did get home before dark, it was fairly chilly and very windy this week as well. However, The Weather Channel said it would be perfect beach weather by this weekend, so all week I told myself "I'll run this weekend. I will run this week. I will run this weekend."



So today I woke up and told myself I'd go running. I'm actually pretty excited that the race I signed myself up for isn't a morning race. I don't run in the morning. It's just not normal. Cross Country and Track practice was always after school, late afternoon and evening. That's when I feel like running. In Tucson, that sucked, because it was the hottest part of the day. It is here, too, but with the weather so chilly, it's ideal.

So around 3pm I realized it was sunny outside, and I could hear children at the pool, so I knew it was fairly warm, too. I went out on my porch to catch some sun and read for a while. Then I decided it was time to run. I got dressed and stretched, then postponed by doing crunches.

I also gave up on running in favor of doing yoga on my Wii Fit. But I persevered. "It's such beautiful weather," I told myself. "Don't waste it!" So I went.

I decided not to listen to music this time. I never used to. I wanted to hear the sounds of outside. It was nice.  

The first part of my two-mile course I created is uphill. It's only about 300 meters, but still. As I ran up that hill, my breathing out was wheezy enough to worry me. I walked for a bit. Then I got into a good pace. I was running about my old jogging pace. I was breathing fairly well with the pace, and without thinking about it.

About a mile in I got a stitch, and not in a normal place for a stitch. Instead of at the hips, like is common, it was up at the ribs, near the diaphragm. I think this was a combination of doing crunches right before running (after not doing them for a week!), and actually breathing through my diaphragm correctly for the first time in years.

I started to walk again, trying to breathe and stretch out my side. After a bit I realized that it hurt weather I was talking or jogging, so I'd better just keep running through it. It sort of worked. 

I did manage to run my entire last half mile, at a good pace, and breathing correctly! I even managed to make myself stay on pace instead of sprinting down the hill at the end (I love down hills).

Even though my time didn't improve, my breathing and pacing did, so I call that a win!