Today is unusually sunny and warm for February in London. It is glorious! After an ~10 week hiatus from running, I am pleased by how good I felt getting back out! I opted to leave the dogs at home (no running partners until I get my running equilibrium/legs back) and considering how tough the run turned out to be, it was a good decision. I decided to head out for a cross-your-fingers 4K run (secretly hoping I could do 5K), and the first 1K went very very well. However, the running path I decided to take was not in very good shape; I was surprised to see how much slushy snow covered the path and I now know not to take it again until we have another serious melt (the temp is dropping back down below 0 degrees Celsius again tonight for the next week so that path will become sheer ice!). I had 2K worth of jogging slowly through slushy snow, as my soggy shoes will attest to! However, it did not alter my good mood and joy at being out again. I just knew then not to take my pace time seriously.
My achilles was fine; I felt some aches and tightening muscles in other parts of my feet, but I think they were just readjusting to running as they all but disappeared by the end of the run. I was very happy to see that once I got off the running path and back onto paved sidewalks that my pace picked up a little, and that my cardio was better than expected. I knew then that I could run 5K, which is a HUGE relief because I have a 5K race at the end of the month! :)
So after uploading my results to runningahead.com and dailymile.com, and before taking a shower, here are my results:
5K @ 40:46
Pace 8:08 min/km
At this time last year, I only ran ONE day in February. I also indicated on my record that it was a walk/run. I feel very good knowing that my fitness level while running today was superior to what it was like a year ago when I ran this on dry pavement:
Feb. 21, 2010
5K walk/run @ 41:34
Pace 8:18 min/km
There is no training plan at the moment. I have the short term goals of getting out for some 4/5/6 K runs in the next week so that I can run the 5K race on Feb. 27. By this point, I will have a much better idea as to where I am at with my running and then devise a training plan from there ... good thing I kept all my training plans from last year! :)
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