My night-time, winter running get-up. Notice, its an “action shot!”
It’s interesting, once my feet start to hit the road, I’m “home.” The problem with this, is that it’s not home yet. I have spent 13 months running rarely, and almost exclusively with my 12 year son at his pace – around 11 to 12 minutes per mile.
I have started running six days a week on January 1st, two weeks ago. While my mind knows I’m a runner, and the muscles know all of the steps, the fact is that endurance and speed do not develop in 14 days. The fact I was able to do 20 miles last week is really quite remarkable when I stop and think about it. Yet, the fact I am restarting doesn’t occur to me, until my legs are lethargically objecting sub 9 minutes miles. I know, this will pass and the mileage and speed will come. In fact, this is the best “starting point” I’ve gotten to work from, in my many years of off again/on again running! See that silver lining?
So tonight, on Day 14 of Janathon, and day 14 as a runner, i headed out side to face the grueling 32 degree (0 degrees for those on the other side of the pond) weather. Now, I woke up yesterday with a sore shoulder and stiff neck. It hurt to turn my head, to sit, to stand, to lay down, etc. – and I thought that taking my weekly rest day yesterday might give it a chance to feel better today. This was only marginally (at best) successful, so I decided another rest day was out. I laced up my shoes (though somehow forgot I had new shoes, so I wore my Altras) and headed out the door.
I had a route in mind that I knew was pretty close to four miles, a nice out and back. I headed out, ready to conquer the world (after all, I just had a rest day, remember?) – but as I tried getting my legs into “Cruising Along” mode, my legs reminded me that while active runners may recover in a day, those that have NOT been terribly active – do not.
Ah well, I guess I would shoot for a 9 minute mile then. My legs felt tired, but they were also willing to play along, so I can’t object to their performance. Each of my miles were under 9 (the 2nd one I got stuck at a traffic light) for the running – So I was even more pleased when I looked at the numbers! No, not the low 8’s or 7’s that I would like, but much better than the 9:30’s or 10’s I thought i might be doing for a while longer.
Stuck waiting at a traffic light for mile 2.
While running on the treadmill the other day, i mentioned that at 1.25 miles (or so), my legs suddenly lost their desire to keep going.. that was at 2.3 today.. So I count that as progress! Just like the other day of course, I ignored them and worked through it. They certainly weren’t giving me the same grief they were at the end of the Marathon, so I figured we were good to go.
Still moving on in our Whole30 diet as well! If I were allowed to weigh myself, and I’m not, but IF I was, I’m near positive the scale would (hypothetically) tell me i was down 6 pounds!
Janathon total Miles: 41
I run, because I am a runner. Having realized that I have always "been a runner" - even when I went years with out running, I am learning how it has integrated itself in all aspects of my life. When I started running in highschool, my perspective on life changed. Funny that I didn't realize how much it had affected it until just recently.
Once and Future Runner 
Great action shot! 🙂