A Promising New Year

Distance:  2 miles
Time:  23:11
Location:  Sitting Bull and back

2013 was by far my least active year since starting this blog in 2010.  For obvious reasons.  It was a year ago that my wife and I brought our newborn son home from the hospital, and the rest of 2013 was a happy blur.  I managed a few runs during the spring, and one run this last autumn, but that was about it.  I was simply too busy enjoying my son's first year of life.  But now, I feel the time has come to get back into the swing of things.  Sitting back and enjoying life is great, but when you let your health go, you ensure that that enjoyment will be short-lived.  I've been watching what I eat and I've managed to drop over 10 pounds since October, so that's been a positive thing lately.  But I'm overdue to re-introduce running into my schedule.  I decided, in my never-ending quest to find a lasting motivation, to find another 5K to sign up for.  I hadn't run one since June of 2012 when I ran the Mojave Narrows 5K with my friend Scott.  It was such a great experience and I've long wanted to do another one.  I sort of randomly found a 5K in Irvine that's scheduled for February 15th, and it seemed perfect.  It's not too far from now that there'd be no sense of urgency to train, yet it's far enough away to allow me to train adequately.  It seemed like a low-key 5K, which is exactly what I was looking for.  So I looked up an easy 30-day training plan, and tonight was my official first day of preparations.

Tonight's run was actually a run-walk, something I don't often do, but I was pretty thankful for it tonight.  It's been nearly 2 months since I've run, plus it was quite cold (low 40s), so the situation/conditions weren't ideal.  I had my full winter regalia on... leg warmers, sweatshirt, gloves even.  I started out with a 5-minute walk, then I ran for a half mile, walked a quarter mile, ran a half, walked a quarter, and ran one more half.  A total of 2 miles (more if I include the first walk).  The cold wasn't much of a factor... once I started running.  My second running leg was my best.  It was from Sitting Bull to Ottawa along Apple Valley Road, and I felt springy and full of energy.  But after walking along Ottawa, my last half mile was slow and sloppy.  But I made it the whole way and I felt pretty good about it when all was said and done.  My regimen calls for three runs per week, but I can spread them out however I'd like within that week.  We'll see what my soreness is like tomorrow.  Something tells me run #2 may not be till Wednesday.

If I can stick to my training plan, I should be ready (at a bare minimum) for the Irvine 5K in a month.  This is the perfect way to start 2014.  Since starting this blog in 2010, I've never once gone on a January run (that I can recall).  So this year already has tons of promise.  Plus, if I get a 5K in this early in the year, it sets a really good precedent for how my running ought to go this year.  I'll still be working on getting my weight down.  And as soon as February's 5K is over I'll be searching for another.