On the Road Again...

No, I'm not going anywhere. This is just to signify that I ran on the street, instead of the treadmill, for the first time in over two months this morning. The verdict? Not bad. Not great, but definitely not bad.

The specifics:
I just ran around my neighborhood, but I was feeling pretty tight this morning, so I walked for five minutes to get me a good warmup. After that, I ran two minutes and walked one minute until I had done about two miles (i.e., two loops around my neighborhood), and then another five minute cooldown as I walked back to the house. All told, including warmup and cooldown, took 31 minutes for 2.5 miles. The running/walking portion took 21 minutes for roughly two miles. Sorry I can't be much more exact than that... I don't have Nike+. Yet.

The narrative:
It was raining in the River City as I left the house, but the sun was still blinding... one of those oddities of Florida living. At 7AM, the heat was already starting to make itself known. As I turned the corner, I realized that my achilles area on my right leg was pretty tight... gotta watch out for that. And a short five minutes later... I was running!

It felt good... the first trip around the neighborhood (including the warmup) took about 13 minutes... not very fast, but that wasn't really what I was going for. My lungs were aching, and the sweat was dripping, and I felt great! The next loop around was faster... about 11 minutes, give or take. About a quarter mile more, and I stopped, turned around, and started my cooldown. By this point, my lungs were no longer on fire (which seems to be typical for me... after the first mile, they settle down), but my legs were dragging. It took some effort to keep moving them forward... but I kept with it.

Now, you'll note that looking back over the last week or two since I started going back to the gym, I've only run a couple times... 3 minutes, 12 minutes, 1.2 miles... Today I ran 2 miles in 21 minutes. Granted, this was with walking breaks, but it still just feels great to have gotten that far!

And thanks to Leana and The Muse for their words of wisdom on morning workouts. I definitely like them, and I'm going to try very hard to keep them up.

Finally... there is one other special item of note about today. In exactly one month (30 days), the Galloway Training Program for the National Marathon to Fight Breast Cancer starts.

... and I'm only a little scared by that.