Running In Place

Yesterday was my longest run in many a month - 5 miles.  I’ve mostly been plugging along with 3 and 4 miles over the past few weeks but since I’m now In Training and all, I guess I’ve gotta step it up.  Today my knee has just a slight twinge to it which reminds me that this may be a slow and conservative process, but I am armed with some exercises from the PT to try to keep things at bay.  In any case, the run was a good one.  It was 85F and humid and I definately flagged in mile 4, but I was able to perk up in the last mile and felt like I finished strong.  So, you know, that’s encouraging.  I’m running pretty slow, like 12:30 and 13:00 miles and I am here to tell you that I don’t mind one bit.  Any running is better than no running - I can’t qualify runs in terms of “good” or “bad” anymore.  Any run - the slowest, ugliest, shittiest feeling run is as awesome as the I-just-flew-like-an-eagle run.  It’s very existence is perfection.  (Ok, so I can’t NOT wax poetic, sue me).

No run scheduled for today but I have been trying to swim on Mondays.  The pool at the YWCA is a cute little 20 yard affair with 4 lanes.  Most generally, lap swimming involves alot of dodging water joggers and aquacizers.  The other difficulty is that the majority of members are senior citizens who mistake swimming pool with sauna and are constantly complaining that the water is too cold - the result: last week’s laps were done in 93F water.  It was like swimming in molasses…..or pee.  Today, with the temp and humidity high, I could not even contemplate going to swim in that bathtub.  The old Lara would have shitcanned the whole endeavor, but this new Marathon-Grrl-To-Be Lara decided to be a little more creative.  So I drove up to my sissee’s, broke into her pool, and swam to my heart’s content.  And, as luck would have it, when said sister came home she had pizza in hand.  I took that to be a nod from the Universe that my fortitude was being rewarded.