I ran today! (5 miles)

I have not run in a month. I have been staying up too late and not getting up early enough for a run. The weather has been good. I have missed some great days for running. I have been working on my website and brainstorming ideas with little to show for it. I was hoping it would be up and running over a month ago, but my web guy has not had time to work on it and I am hoping to take over the work myself very soon. I did have a friend work on a logo and finalized a domain name and here it is (yes that is me in the logo)!
When I take time off from running, even a month off, I start to think about "the good times" meaning when I was running well and really fit. It wasn't too long ago, only a little over a year ago, that I PR'd at the marathon distance and 10 mile distance, and ran my first ultra. The key to these PRs was the training that was happening a year before that. It was maybe the best year of running that I have ever had. It started with the training and build up for my 30 mile run on my 30th birthday. I started really training for that in May 2009 after the OC half marathon (1:27:22). I slowly built up my mileage and ran 30 miles in just over 4 hours for my 30th birthday. I continued to consistently build on that base with my wife as we ran the Twin Cities Marathon in October 2009, and even more intense after that for California International Marathon where I PR'd (2:57:11). I took it easy for a month after that and started really putting in some long miles on the trail for LD50. Two weeks before that race I PR'd at the Charlottesville 10 miler (62:01). I went on to meet my goal of a sub 9 hour race at Leona Divide 50 mile in April 2010.

The keys to this level of fitness I attained were consistent Long runs (30 mile birthday run, a spontaneous AV marathon and Twin Cities Marathon became LONG training runs), and long tempo runs. I was at the point where I was running a 10 mile tempo run at 65 minutes.

I am far from that level of fitness right now. Like I said before, I have not run in a month and minimal running this year. I finally got out for a run today. I left the house at 6:45am and ran 5 miles (down to Lane Park, two laps, and back). It was so much harder than it should have been. I hate that first run back, but I was glad to be back. One good thing about time off is that those little nagging injuries have more time to heal. My right calf felt really good today. I rewarded myself by wearing a brand new pair of ASICS 2150s that have been waiting for me in my closet.

We spent the early afternoon at the beach (pictures to come soon).

Shout out to my friend and colleague Ron Gallagher, who was quoted in an article in the most recent Triathlete Magazine in an article on compression garments.